Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi everyone, I'm just starting to get into this, so far it has been really fun.

I have a 30 gallon tank, and I had 5 gold fish but now it's down to 3 The first two died within a day of getting them and now it's been about 5 days and the other ones are still truckin.

I just spent today installing a new pump, a swirl filter, and a second grow bed. The grow beds are connected at the bottom and there's a solenoid valve that drains them. The pump and the valve are on a timer controlled by a raspberry pi which sites behind the tank. The pi also monitors the pH level and the temperature, and I'm working on getting a water level sensor working and an eC sensor. Ideally I'd have an ammonia sensor, but I can't find any that have been done before, so I'll just do it the old fashion way.

The pi logs all the data and reports it on a web page, which you can look at http://50.67.77.11:5000/ <--- there.

So a few questions...
1) The hydro corn stuff makes the water really murky. I'm worried about the fish...are they going to be OK or should I cycle the water?
2) When pH spikes, do you guys use water hardeners to get it back down slowly? I got some water hardener at an aquarium store that is safe for plants, or should I just wait it out until the tank cycles?
3) Should the beds fill, sit, and then drain, or just fill and drain? I'm thinking about the bell siphons which just fill and drain, but would having the plants sit in the water for a bit before it starts to drain be beneficial?
4) Is there anything that you see I'm doing terribly wrong?

Welcome Rozap!

Your pictures sizes are too big, size them down to 800x600 and upload them here using the "Full Editor" button below.

EDIT: I deleted the large picture links with OK from rozap.

Wow. That looks interesting. What software are you running on the RPi?

I have a few RPi not in use. Can you discuss the details of the sensors, connections, and software?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

You're right...those images are huge. I forgot phpBB won't resize them . Is there no way to edit my original post? I can't find the button....maybe I'm just being dumb...

The software is stuff that I wrote. You can check it out here. https://github.com/rozap/rpi_garden. If anyone is interested I can write a comprehensive readme that helps you implement your own.

I'm using this pH sensor:
https://www.sparkyswidgets.com/product/miniph/
with an $8 probe I got on ebay. I may opt for a nicer probe when this one wears out, but it seems to be working well and giving reasonable readings.

The temperature sensor is here: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11050

And the water level sensor is actually an ultrasonic sensor that I had lying around.

The software is all written in python, and I tried to keep it extensible for the future and for other people to easily add their own features. It's pretty straight forward...one thread takes sensor readings, another cycles the pump/valve, and the master thread runs a flask web service that serves up the readings to a web page.

I'm eventually going to get the eC sensor from sparky's widgets going, but it's not a priority because from what I've read eC isn't super useful in AP systems...it's more for hydroponics. However, it's just sitting there not being used right now...

Just replace the images with smaller versions on your photo host.

I hosted them on imgur, which won't let me do that...if a moderator deletes the images I will re-upload them woops

I've run into a few issues and plant growth has really stagnated. The system has been running for a few months. After it cycled after about 3 weeks the plants went nuts and started growing really quickly and they looked great. The basil leaves were huge. Now, however, the basil leaves are much smaller and the tamatoes are actually wilting? I have no idea what's going on since ph has been the same (though it is higher than I'd like, about 7.4). The fish are super happy though, and they keep getting bigger and hungrier.

Any ideas? My aquarium test kit has been on backorder for about 2 months now . I just find it really weird that the fish can be doing so well but the plants are really struggling.

Anything in the setup seem weird? Here are some figures...
* Lights: 18 hours on, 6 hours off
* Pump fills up the grow beds in ~30 seconds, then it sits for 5 minutes, then it drains for 8.5 minutes and then it repeats.
* Tank is sitting at 72 degrees F
* There is also an air pump
* There's a pump circulating water
* 4 fat and happy goldfish
* some sad tomatoes, kale, basil, and a very sad strawberry


Any thoughts?

it's nice to hear from you after 2 months. Sorry i cant be of more help but i I find it hard to get a grasp of your problem,the margins of the thread are broken and your pictures are too big,

Yea it's not letting me edit my original post, so I can't change them. I guess I could make a new thread..

Too much light could be a problem. Plants need to "sleep" and 6 hours might not be long enough at this stage of growth.

Hey rozap!

I for one would really like to see or get a copy of that read me.

So here are some pictures of the death and destruction. Anyone have any ideas?

Dead strawberry

Dead kale (brand new plant, too)

Dead tomato

Dying tomato


The fish seem happy though. They are hungry and are quite lively.


The basil seems to be surviving, but the leaves aren't as big and green as they used to be. The yellow leaves are telling, but I don't understand how this nutrient problem could show up now when the fish are bigger and eating more than before.





I'll do a write up of it once the system settles down and plants get healthy. Components (like the pumps, UGH) keep failing.

lower your flood level to below the surface of the media by an inch or two.. you want the top layer to be dry..

Done, we'll see how that changes things. Thanks for the tip!

Small update:

Turns out it was the lack of light. I finally got a bigger light and everything looking so much better now. You get what you pay for with lighting (surprise surprise).

Album: http://imgur.com/a/QKO6N