Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Watching with interest cookie

Hmmm.. You are getting into swede nitrate levels now.. Lol

Any idea why your Nitrates shot up like that? Mine did the same thing- went from 20- 100plus, and then back to 5 in a week. Yesterday, they were back at 50??

I already see a difference Cookie!! Your plants are on steroids man!!

Are you using the API Nitrate tester? I find it REALLY HARD to tell exactly the my nitrates using the API color chart. I can only tell if it's orange, or red, or no nitrates. No in between.

So this is the system running on only mt water right?

Yea only MT water.. for some reason my MT seems to be producing nitrates now with the lil air pump I got too... test the PO4 in this system last night and got like 21ppm phosphate.. but with the amount of moss growing in the exposed areas I wasn't surprised.. the pH also is starting to decline slowly as well.. but I blame my MT for nitrates.. seems like that bacteria is getting a bit more established and is inoculating my GB.. I'm a bit concerned about the high nitrates but I'll leave it to see what true effects it has on the plants.. EC is slowly climbing as well .. it moved from 490 uS/cm to 540 uS/cm without any minerals additions.. I'm a bit stunned of the growth because I'm watching it every day but only when I compared photos did I seectge difference.. its a bit fascinating actually but I'll see how far it will go.. I'm hoping for the best.. this is tiring work with the research and testing.. I'm getting a bit fatigue at times.. o well on with tge experiments.

yea Api im using.. dilute it by a factor of 4 and still get a blood red color.. so I didn't even bother testing anymore after that.

I've read all the new threads each morning, very inspiring what you all are doing in some different ways to attain the same things. I'm nearing the plumbing stage for my tanks, been jumping back to the glossary a lot. So much to learn. specifically I want to learn more about the RFF, but keep being distracted with wonderful systems like Cookies'. Thank you all Thank goodness I still have time before I go Plumb and Plumber

RFF information you say.. best you check Swede.. Im still in awe of the amount of solids he can trap with a 5 gal bucket... if my FT was above ground I'll definitely try his invention..

I've got the same problem Cookie; My fish pond is in the bottom of an earth-sheltered greenhouse I am able to get the filters and possibly a sump a meter below the top of the FT. I am still trying to imagine how the flows will go.
Brian

Thanks cookie!

Nice beard you got going there boss!

there is something about recuperation and a beard that don't quite fit

Boss,

Just a question. Were you thinking of starting a build thread on here. My apologies if I missed it. Maybe with a sketch up or other diagram that shows the current heights of the items in your system. So we can all jump in and help you decide. What is the most efficient way to run your plumbing.

Hey cookie, I just got done reading your entire thread. Thank you for sharing all of the findings you have made and the literature you and swede have posted.

Q: when you reintroduce the decomposed waste from your offline MT are you feeding it directly into your GB?