Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I live in Wanneroo. I used water straight from the tap. I had my system running for 2 days then I used Ag-Grow and after 3 more days I used Power Feed.

Maybe it's all the sources from Copper, Molybdenum , Zinc, Iron and and found in Ag-Grow that is keeping the pH high ?


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not really. Maybe someone else from NOR can confirm. Doubt any added nutrients will boost that much.
Almost need to add limestone or calcium etc to get alkalinity.

Deep groundwater used for scheme water is slightly alkaline but managed for pH and hardness.
Mostly shallow GW is acidic, even NOR except in the local limestone.

Just that mostly with heavy rainfall the pH should drop off - which would suit you really well.
Get you down around 7.8 which I would suspect is not bad place to be and pretty typical.

You dont have any seas shells or limestone rocks in FT at all ?
Should not be media as pea gravel (as above) is iron / laterite.

Have you seen the ammonia toxicity charts ?
eg. viewtopic.php?f=29&t=25301&hilit=ammonia+toxicity
These start to show some of the problems with high temperatures and higher pH.

Maybe collect some rainwater ? Storm coming your way ATM

After lots of days of more and more rain the pH still remains the same. I finally got a reading on Nitrites, what does this now mean?

My Nitrates also have climbed to between 20-40ppm.

Guess it comes down to how much rain went in, did the water level change much ? Funny that your pH sits so exactly at 8.2 - guess will see over time. Rain is acidic so if it had any affect your pH would lower a little bit.

I can see changes in my system after recent weeks of rain but and a noticable freshening of the water and I get a bit of algae which the fish take care of (my pH 6.8-7.0 which is typical of SOR).

Nitrates - if tests etc are done correctly then suggests you have nitrates and presumably (unless you are still adding something) they will drop as the veg takes hold. Note that you wont see big nitrate use until plants become established (ie. it wont disappear overnight).

From your previous posts you have not added fish yet ?

And given nitrate I would not be adding powerfeed anymore
(or at least moving now to a more long term, less frequent dosing).

After day 5 when I added Power feed I have not added anything. Only the rain is added. My water is up by almost 150 liters over the last 2 weeks. I am still surprised that there is ammonia and now nitrites in the system after only adding 2.5 caps of power feed.

Could it be the Ag-Grow that keeps the system stable from day 3 when I added that.

For the fish - the suggestions said that they wont eat, its cold, wait for the ammonia to drop and so on. So i decided to not add them now.

Hiya Jacko. All is going well, the powerfeed is providing the ammonia and the bacteria (nitrosomas) are building a colony oxidising the ammonia to make nitrites. Stage two complete.
I don't think the ag grow stabilised anything, perhaps added some nitrates and minimal amounts of the heavy metals which, with the small amount you added, shouldn't really matter.
Keep in mind the minerals are added in the fish feed however currently, running fishless, you are using the powerfeed to provide the minerals for the plants so perhaps add some more of it. Provided you are keeping the ammonia under 3pp,m you are feeding your plants. How are the plants going?
As your system matures the pH will drop and you will be fighting to keep it up, all part of the nitrogen cycle.
Once cycled perhaps bring the ph down with a bit of hydrochloric acid if you feel so inclined, a higher pH assists cycling.


Disclaimer, if I've rambled on,Ive just finished Dry July and I've had a few whiskys...........
Proudly bringing awareness to the subject of adult's cancer.

Hi guys, I was evicted from my home due to the owners selling the place.

Had to move my QP system.

I started over again at the new home in last week. I got Charlie Carp the organic one with the green cap 2 x 1l for my 700l FT.

Yesturday I noticed that it's smelling and today it smells like a dead fish.

I have no plants in yet. I would like to know what your advice would be to get the smell gone.


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Hi guys, I was evicted from my home due to the owners selling the place.
I started over again at the new home in last week.

Hope it works out well, advantage is your media will/should still have some bacteria,
so things should happen quicker. Did you keep some water from the AP when you moved ?

I got Charlie Carp the organic one with the green cap 2 x 1l for my 700l FT.
Yesturday I noticed that it's smelling and today it smells like a dead fish.
I have no plants in yet. I would like to know what your advice would be to get the smell gone.

from the beds or from the FT ?
if beds give them a flush with a watering can, just use water from FT.
if FT then you can try and aerate to make it go away quicker, also try giving the FT a big stir up with lots of turbulence at surface (I am presuming there is nothing in it).
If it is simply trapped in the gap between GB and the FT then try moving the GB off to the side so FT can air better.

get some plants in as soon as you can. Does not have to be a lot initially.

Probably need to move to a different source of urea/ammonia.
Keep the Charlie Carp for your dirt garden or for when the system is better established.

I have been evicted from our home due to owners selling the home.

I have moved the QP system and then last week managed to finally get it going again.

I filled the FT with 700l of water and poured in 2l of Charlie Carp (the green lid , premium organic fertiliser)

But now the system have really been smelling bad and the flys have been having a ball on the grow media.

I have no plants in the system or fish yet.

Any advice please guys?


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guess you did not like the previous suggestion...

long and short of it is that basically your Charlie Carp is going no where as you have nothing using it.
there is no magic bullet.

so without plants or an algae bloom you are basically circulating Charlie Carp until such time as it
(a) gasses off (the odour causing gasses diminish)
(b) it is converted to nitrites/nitrates
(c) something uses it

The only other option is to dump a significant part of your water, flush your bed media and start over.

as it is warm today, if your bed is wet then you probably have evaporation active as well which will serve to concentrate the issue for the flies. You could cover the bed.

Sorry, I never saw the initial reply, my Tapatalk app did not show the reply you gave me and my post. I also did not receive any notifications of the reply. [FLUSHED FACE]

Hence I posted again and now there are double posts and double replies. Don't know what happened there??

Well I never thought it would be so massivly difficult just to get started.

The previous attempt I got algae so badly and my readings remained the same since day 7. When I was evicted I could not save some of the water. Had to drain and move everything myself. Was a huge job to move the grow media. But that aside...

I followed the advice as people said Power feed is not going to help... Then they said use Charlie Carp instead ... Haha now that I used that it's wrong again...

They said don't get fish as they won't produce ammonia due to not feeding of the weather.

When I planted the seedlings they has nice growth for 5 days then they just slowed waaaay down.

The 3 Broccoli plants I had in the dirt had grown 3 times it initial size and the plants in the AQ system has looked dwarfed by those in the ground.



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yep its hard to wade through all the advice, work out which is best for you and then apply it to your own situation.

Hopefully either the CC wont stay pungent for too long or else [easiest] you can use perhaps half a tank water on some lawn/pot plants, and then give the bed a bit of a flush (I gather that the GB is an attractant from your second post).

Yesterday was pretty warm as well - which is always a thing for odours/flies.
Cooler now and maybe some rain might help.

Do I have to use vegetables or can they be any plants?

I can then introduce plants and see that they start using the nutrients that is in the water.


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