Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

After some issues with drainage and leaks, I'm happy to say that the system is cycling!

It's been up and running for about a week, but was losing a lot of water each day and so the conditions weren't very stable for bacteria growth.

Since my last post, I have added some fence capping to provide a guttering system under the GBs, a forth row of GB planter boxes, transplanted over to hydroton and planted some new seedlings.

After a busy weekend, I finished putting the last of the planters on the wall late last night.
Excuse the poor photo quality (and the mess!)


Despite the photo, the system is coming along quite nicely!

That said I have a few concerns with:

Drainage being too fast from GBs, low water level
Constant flow onto plants - chance of rot?
Noise from GB gutter drain and the neighbours

Should I be worried about plant rot and a low water level/too much drainage?

I managed to get home early yesterday and take a picture while there was still a bit of sunlight!

The plants definitely need some love.


...and while I don't want to get too excited, last night's water test appeared to show the first signs of nitrite!




Fingers crossed the results continue to improve!

Since my last post, I've fixed several leaks, planted some more capsicums and added a dash of Seasol to the FT for good measure.

...and on Saturday night while conducted a routine water test, I discovered my first nitrates!



Very please to "see" these bad boys after what seems like a fairly short period of time (approx. 2 weeks).

The plan once the Nitrobacter are more established, is to slowly lower the pH somewhere closer to 7, so that the future fish are happy and my beans can recover from iron deficiencies due to the high pH.

Any further comments/suggestions appreciated!

More photos to come!

If you want to borrow some goldfish, I can lend you 5 or 6 or 7. They are happy in higher pH than most fish, and being the poop factories that they are, will lower your pH in no time. My Silver Perch is giving them a really hard time in this warmer weather now that he's awake again, and some have nipped fins etc, so you would be doing them a favour. I will eventually separate them all once my other system is online, but I can do without them, and won't be offended if they don't all make it back. You can have them for as long or short a time as you need My koi and the SP will keep things going just fine for now.

Wow, thanks for your kind offer Katmac!

However, after some more research I've decided to pick up some chelated iron for the plants and allow the pH to come down naturally over time.

Up until recently, I have had some major leaks (rookie mistake) and so have been topping up the FT everyday.
As it turns out, the Water Corp's - Drinking Water Quality Annual Report states that my local tap water is of pH 8.0, pretty much where I'm at currently.

Hoping now that I don't need to top up anywhere near as often, the nitrification process will be able to control the pH more naturally from now.

If not, I might give it a little nudge with some HCl

So again, thanks for the offer Katmac!
Very much appreciated!

Hope you find some refuge for your poor goldfish!

After some chelated iron (and time), the plants are starting to look more comfortable in the new system!



Nitrites are still very high at approx. 20ppm and Nitrates at around 40ppm.

Have added a back up air pump and two air stones from BYAP yesterday and so I'm hoping this aids in faster Nitrobacter growth.

Hopefully by the weekend the system will be fully cycled and ready for some SP!

In an quest to try and increase bio-filtration, I'm trying to find some 15-16mm retic pipe (or similar) to plug the holes and make mini drains in the bottom of each pot... but I can't find any of that size at the moment.

"Many nitrate test kits first convert the nitrate to nitrite, then report total nitrite. Works fine if there's no nitrite in the tank water to begin with, but you can see why it would give a false reading if there were already nitrite present. It will actually give the total of nitrite + nitrate. Don't worry about nitrate testing until nitrite drops to 0. "

This is what i was told recently and I (along with a friend of mine) have experienced it firsthand. Don't be too concerned with high nitrate levels until your nitrite is 0.



Hopefully I won't get my hand slapped by the more experienced folks in the forum......

Is that right Chris?
I've read a lot of the forums and I'm yet to read that, but you could be on to something...

Can anyone confirm?

That said I'm really not too concerned about the nitrates at this stage anyway, just praying nitrites drop from approx. 10 ppm to zero by the weekend.

....FISH!

Very neat looking system!

I bet that IBC was fun getting under there.

I don't like your chances of being fully cycled by the weekend, but without fish, there are a few things you can do to help them survive if you're overly impatient.

Lower the PH with hydrochloric acid (pool acid can get from bunnings, really cheap), put it to 6, this will help the fish survive any ammonia spikes, salt it to 1ppt, this will help the fish survive higher nitrite levels. Then keep an eye on the ammonia, and if it's getting too high, stop feeding until it lowers.

However, being patient is probably easier, and less stressful.

Thanks Colum!

Ha! It was a nightmare getting that IBC in place!

You might be right about being cycled in time, seems like the nitrite and nitrate levels have been stuck for about 10 days.... definitely a real test of patience!

The HCl is there ready to go, the plan is to bring the pH down before the fish arrive, whether that turns out to be this weekend or next.
FT is already slightly salted in preparation, will likely top it up prior to the SP.

Tonight's nitrite test will be a pivotal one.

Very tempting to dump some water to lower those nitrites, but I'm begin to reside myself to the fact I'll probably be waiting another week.

How would the fish go in a big esky for a day or two with some airstones I wonder....?

So as of Friday, my nitrites finally dropped to zero!

Unfortunately though... in my haste to top up the water before going out that night, I left the hose on in the FT!!
What a rookie mistake!

So after that mishap, I tidied up added some conduit saddles to help keep the irrigation pipe in place.
No more squashed plants and water shooting between GB's!

My SP supplier has been up North this week, so while cycled I couldn't get any fish action!
A friend of mine owns some pet stores and had said he stocks Tandanus Catfish, so off we went.

After an excited drive, it turns out they do not stock any, so we settled for a Brittle Nose Catfish instead.

The GB's have been rearranged and the veggies are (mostly) continuing to do well.



...and I think I've found a solution to create more wet media by causing the normally free draining GB's to flood.



While not the cheapest method, it will eliminate any modification to the pots as well as the need for silicones, glues etc.

Can anyone see any issue with this technique? Will the plant roots be okay?
The theory is more wet media = more biofiltration = more fish!

Not really sure what you have done here

If you have the water level too high, you'll get algae issues and have a lot of evaporation issues, and plants rotting off.

And it'll be fine for summer with Mrs whiskers, but if the temps drop too much, she won't survive it. I discovered that the hard way. Just keep an eye on her.

With the GB's, Dillon?

The "original" GB's/pots drain freely and so I'm trying to make them hold water, without major modification or harsh adhesives.

So I've experimented by using 16mm clear tube squashed it into the 12 holes in the bottom of the GB.
That size tube allows minimal flow from the bottom of the GB, but restricts it enough to enable flooding.
Once the water reaches the top on the tubes, it drains freely again.

Colum, I have allowed about 80mm between top of drain tube and top of media to hopefully prevent plant rot. As it is a prototype, I can easily just cut the tubes to a different length if required.
What would you recommend? Pretty sure I've read 80mm is sufficient.