Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Today after cleaning out my filters for the first time and transferring out the solids into an offline MT setup, I noticed the ph of MT after just a few hours was 6.3. I'm guessing the magic is beginning. I curious, what ph levels have you seen at the different stages of the MT process?

thanks

Ok…just to clear things up… The pipe inputing the FT water has to be a least 0.3 times the depth of the RFF container. So I'll will probably just enter front the bottom or close to it. I need to order and the "baffle" as to be AT LEAST 0.3 the diameter of the RFF container. Bigger is ok? or smaller? and university articles on the details of RFF you can share. lots of you tube videos but none are too specific.

thanks

Ok very quick update.. so I finally pulled out moss in my small system and filled with gravel.. well my FT way went from clear to cloudy in a matter of mins.
o well hopefully it will clear up soon..well in this system only MT water alone will be added to system.. nothing else except iron to see if itz possible to grow plants without supplements.. at this point I highly believe its possible. I'll update u all on the progress..



well coming to tomatoes... everything is flowering atm and a few fruits are setting.. other than that the system is working out great... Swed I think I found y you my have the rotting fruits problems... What is your EC readings.. mines is 1 mS/cm3 and I think when u start to add MT water.. whatever is inside the water is encouraging the plants to put on massive root growth and it seems that the high EC is actually hindering proper plant development... its just my thoughts.. I dont know how correct it is..










Happy Growing..

no this what im pointing too.. has to be that dimensions.





the baffle thing..

Cookie, are you worried about the rust on that steel in your RFF? Maybe stainless or aluminum would be better? Growth look great BTW.

Cookie,

So basically if you doubled your retention time at the moment. Since you are already starting to drop out even fine particles. Do you think you could save yourself the task of cleaning your shade cloth in the following drum. For instance if you put two identical RFFs side by side to be able to split the flow between them. As it would seem better to turn 2 ball valves to clean out the solids. Than to have to lift out and spray off netting and shade cloths. While getting dirty.

Cookie,

So that baffle that your pointing to has to be AT LEAST 0.3 times the depth AND diameter of the RFF….




On a side note, your MT only fed system….does it use the same big fish pond in front of your house as your current tomato setup? Or do you have a different fish tank for it?



Also…finally received my replacement meter. my EC is 450ppm. seems low and expected it so since my stocked VERY LOW. whats your system running at now?

thanks

the excess rust.?? nahh just extra iron for plants.

we doubling retention time will allow for more solids to settle out and that will lead to less maintenance of media filter.. so I do agree with you.

When you say "pipe", are you still referring to the baffle?

Well Lmannyr everything excluding the single tray is on my pond in from.. that includes both CF beds with tomatoes and lettuce in them.. as wel as my F&D bed with more tomatoes in those... my system EC is 1mS/cm3 but I don't know what that equate to in ppm.. I'll look it up and see..

and yes the dimensions of the baffle is what I point out to you depth and diameter

yep the baffle sry to confuse..

the center pipe within baffle can be 1/2" or 3/4" is what I tested so far.

Hopefully a 2" inlet pipe will work. I'll my flow pipes are 2". Searching the web for RFF details. I'm assuming the bigger the main container of the RFF the better cause it will increase the retention time. I'll probably use a 55 gal drum.

Hi Cookie, the reason for my fruit death came from adding molasses to the MT. The wrong kind of microbiology was added back to my system. Killing those plants And creating the fruit rot. That's my thought on it.
On th RFF I would still suggest a fines filter after the RFF. You won't be able to settle out all of the fines despite long retention times. 2" pipe entering the RFF will be fine too.

My next build will most likely have a dual drain system on my fish tank. 5-20% of the flow will be from SLO and the rest will be through a side outlet pipe with 80-95% of flow.
The 5-20% flow will remove most solids and lead to a settling tank That can be much smaller based on the lower flow rate. The rest of the flow which is relatively clean will be routed to a netting tank or similar fines type filter. This way my solids tank is small and easy to clean [WINKING FACE]