Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Finally the time has come to build my system. Right now construction is finish and I have to seal few leaks.

My system has 2 containers 600L each. 4 growing beds 90L each and 4 levels of PVC pipes. More pictures are available on FB

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aquaponi ... 3563624909

Due to some circumstances I had to get fish right now. I have 7 koi kind fish for now. I am going t replace it with tilapia or trout when I will find good source. I still need to get gravel and I am working on it. When gravel will be placed I will start cycling my system with fish. Advices and comments always welcome!

PIC

I filled up my growing beds with gravel, the height is 30cm. The problem is that gravel is moving when water raise and goes down. Water doesn't go higher than the gravel. At first i thought it will soak some water but it has been this way for a week and there is no improvement. Is this normal? Should i worry? Make any changes?

i had the same problem when i first started you need to lower the height of your stanpipe somwhere between 25-50mm should do hope that helps


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Exactly this ^

There should be a layers a few pebbles thick of DRY media

Also make sure your gravel guard is held in place or you will get hydroton slipping under and into your standpipe and possibly clogging the pipe. Tip, put a rock or brick on top of the gravel guard to hold it down. Heja Sverige

Thx for the advices! I will have to adjust the syphone then.

Swedeaquaponics i already experienced that my pipe got clogg and syphone was not starting. now i have a rock on top of gravel guard.

What is a maximum level of amonia in the water to keep fish safe? Fish are still small and i need to add amonia manually to support cycling.


Everyday something new to learn:)

Your un-ionized ammonia levels become more toxic at higher pH and higher temps. See page 11 of this document. I would recommend reading this whole thing. It has a lot of very good information from people that are in the know

http://ag.arizona.edu/azaqua/ista/ISTA7 ... erview.pdf

Oh yes! This looks very good:) i will go over the stuff! very interesting

Ok, So what I did. I left siphons the way they were and I removed some light media from the top and I used some heavy gravel on top. Right now everything is stable and works properly. The best news is that cycling start kicking and nitrite and nitrate start increasing. It was so exciting to see first changes. PH is 8,2 but I am still waiting for nitrate to build up and see what happens.

Looks good.

What are you using for lighting?

I am using Elecrox lamp 250W 2700K/6500K. This lamp is for growing and flowering. I feel like this lamp is not strong enough so I am planning to add one more. Here is an example link.


http://www.head-nature.com/article/0721 ... DUAL.xhtml

Good. You seem to know a bit about it and aren't trying to put a few LED's above it and hope it'll grow.

And I've got to say, that picture of you is the most Swedish looking picture I've ever seen!

You may want to use fluorescent tubes 4 feet long and get them pretty close to your plants, you will get better coverage with those I believe. That's what I used before getting LED grow lights which are much better :-)

Here is something very similar to what I used http://m.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia-Light ... 202968125/