Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

love this concept especially the bioslime part

I encourage thread hijacking subject changing and any other exchange of ideas especially in this crowd! You people inspire me.

I found a slug in the system last night. Its like they know already the plants are coming.

The leak was finally fixed with the Butyl tape. Its still not perfect but, I'm hopeful the bioslime will finish the job.


PH 7.8
Ammonia .5 ppm
Nitrite .25 ppm
Nitrate 5 ppm

Consideration: this test was performed after a partial water replacement 1,000 LT system / 1,500 tap water = 2,500 LT total. (related to plumbing repair) I believe this affected the PH up and all other levels down. So I will do another baseline test before adding bottled ammonia.

I know we want to see that ammonia level up around 4 ppm to get things started off, so I purchased some ammonia and I expect this wont take very long to achieve since some chemistry is already going on in the 1,000 LT sump during all our 4 month testing and setup.

Here is a little video update of everything working. The only thing I didn't show very well in this video is the inside of the filter barrels.



I will start cycling with bottled ammonia maybe 1/2 cup (118 ml) every 24 hours with another API test each time until I reach close to 4 ppm ammonia. I think most people can add and test faster to bring it up to 4-5 ppm, but in my case the additional media beds may require time to move it all around. So I plan on raising it slowly and stopping before 4 ppm expecting it to catch up hours later after the last dose moves around all the media beds dwc sump and FT.

Next posts here will be images of API results. And we are going to go ahead and start seeding because its warm in Florida and this winter was pretty weak for us anyway. And we have some nitrates for the plants to eat.

Yeah! You're cycling. Time for seeds...and fish...soon.

That is awesome. Keep us updated on what your impression of your indexing valve is.

So far it, the additional pump, and the crazy timer are all doing exactly what they should be doing. Dun Dun Duuun.... suspenseful music. I should probably order an impeller for that pump early though, since even the pros claim that is the weakest point.

With my timer 40 minute cycles with 40 on/off switches, it can handle between 1-4 beds in my system per 40 minutes. So I water between 1-4 beds per timer cycle. With 6 beds this means they get water either every 1,2,3 or 4 hours to complete the loop.

The affect of this "dry" time I believed was overlooked (or single pump, dependent on that water flow) by most people who previously used indexing valves. Where most people seem to move right along to the next bed, I intend to allow my timer to spend 3/4ths of that 40 minutes doing nothing (OFF) at all, meanwhile the main pump-ft-rff-dwc-sump is still moving right along.

I do reserve the right to change my mind entirely about this, but I know the media is retaining a ton of water and it should work like aeration in the GBs.

The result means each bed is watered only once every 4 hours. And in the fastest case it would be once every hour.

The pump can fill a bed every 6-7 minutes depending on which bed its working on.

Due to the variation in bed height I keep it filling at the overflow valve height for 3 minutes beyond the point when most systems using siphons would kick in, although I should probably adjust this down by 2 switches once I trust it more.

It takes the beds about 6-8 minutes to drain which is controlled by in most cases by (4) 1/4" holes in the bottom of the overflow drain pipe. **This aspect seems like a weak point to me, but I have good access to remove and adjust that pipe if or WHEN it eventually happens. I can also see it really well because the media guards are pretty big. During the build I tested lots of hole sizes and numbers of holes. The more you add the slower the bed fills as well, so there is a sweet spot to it that would depend on the setup.

The only problem I'm seeing now is 1 of the 6 GBs, the IBC is bowing slightly and I think I need to add another piece of wood to brace it in the middle.

Ammonia level of 4ppm was pretty quick and easy the city water already had 2ppm in the first place! I ended up adding 1.5 cups / 350 ml over about 24 hours to get there. I tested about 12 hours later and I can almost see a slight decrease. I haven't added anything else yet. So I have simulated free burritos day at the local Dont Drink the Water Taco Shop, inside my fish tank.

We also seeded the GBs and just sewed them directly with a wide variety to see what takes. The DWC I just put a single iceburg lettuce seed in each basket to see how they germinate.

PH is high and that will be my next focus so I will be doing that media test we talked about last month to determine the source as well as researching how to bring it down. I understand I have more options during fishless cycling since I can't shock fish by adjusting it quickly, however I'm too new to want to work that way its worth mentioning.

you're awesome

We're mildly cool, it was just that night rider music in the background that made us seem as awesome as "The Hoff"

Every morning when I wake up the first thing I do is walk outside to check that leak. So far so good!

Some notes here pretty boring but its an update.

Cycling - I'm adding 118ml (1/2 cup) of ammonia roughly every 48 hours now attempting to maintain 4ppm ammonia for a little longer, one week so far. Still simulating free taco night in the FT. We're farming bacteria!

Water loss - I also have better notes on my overall water loss after some time to let it all run. It loses about 300lt per week measured from the sump when the indexing pump is off. This is about 50LT/day. I'm not sure if this is a lot, I managed to fix all my visual leaks already. My overall volume is about 2500lt before 6 media beds and 2 filter barrels. So that is about 2% per day sounds good to me I suppose??

Germination - I tried direct seeding sparsely and made detailed notes of what and where I planted. After 1 week I can tell that about half of my seeds have signs of germination and half are having issues reaching water at the surface, I literally placed the seed directly on the surface. The result is more obvious in the DWC which has 24 baskets each with a single iceburg lettuce seed. Only 1 germinated and it happened to have fallen between the cracks of the top most layer of media. As for the GBs (which aren't floating on 2" foam) the results look more promising where the saturation seems to be working better. Peas have an obvious advantage because they soak up water so well in the germination stages especially. Where basil, tomato, egg plant, and cress would probably like a squirt from the water bottle.

Algae - I'm seeing early signs of algae forming especially on the air hose in the FT. Nature is starting to move in.

What is next - We are attempting to find a local source for earth worms, planning to place them directly into the GBs once the PH settles down. I am also starting to finally research the fish, ordering their food, where to get them locally. I have to say I'm pretty good with a cast net and very tempted to go grab my first test fish from a local fresh water source. I know a pirate that did that once, I think that makes it relatively safe. Now if I come back with sun perch and green talapia, bream, or other florida native/invasive fish. I may still give it a try but at least for my first effort I do want to switch over to natural ammonia asap. But I'm still a few weeks away from that trip.

Pond I ordered mine from uncle Jim http://unclejimswormfarm.com/

Uncle Jim's is a good bet. Red wigglers are the best.

I did not use a cast net. I used a trout landing net. I have no idea what the legalities of cast nets are in Florida, but since they are illegal here in california, they are probably perfectly legal there .

No cast nets in fresh water here either Ron...except for bait fish. No game fish can be taken. Tilapia aren't considered game fish...so not sure if you could target them.

I'm going need to use words like allegedly hypothetically and refer to "some people".



I can understand why there need to be rules with cast nets. I was targeting mullet for salt water bait, and had a manatee pop up just feet from where I threw my net. In most cases though if you catch something you did not intend to catch they can be released unharmed. If I had netted the manatee it wouldn't have been pretty those guys are so slow I would have had to get in the water to free it.

Amazing progress, I'm envious. I like the idea of netting, still wondering about what else we'd be bringing into the FT. I've watched Aquarium Kings on streaming Netflix and their marine biologist often goes in the waters around Florida to net fish. That is so cool. How in the heck did you make that Gif and keep it such a small file? Can I put it in my morning newsletter? Can't stop staring...

Pond,

Manatee's are not slow at all. They are usually lazy and stupid, but are capable of swimming quite fast. You would not be able to keep up with one if it did not let you. And yes personal experience.