Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've put the GBs in place, hooked everything up and started cycling.


Three of the beds have coir.


One has shells from the inside of the coconut. These are much harder than the coir.


I am having a lot of trouble with the bell syphons not stopping, even when I turn the taps right down to limit the flow, the syphons still won't shut off. Any suggestions?

Readings this morning were:
PH 7.6
Ammonia 2ppm
Nitrite .25ppm
Nitrate 5ppm

The coco has turned the water a nice tea color. Not sure if this is affecting my readings? I have around 100 Tilapia fingerlings (the min they would sell, cost $3 for the lot).


Filter seems to be working well.



I dug up some herbs and planted them last night. Despite being ripped out of the ground and all the soil washed off their roots, they don't seem to be stressed. The coco has settled, I need to add some more.


I have a leak in my FT. This isn't coming from the black threaded fitting, so I will have to drain the tank to fix it. Is aquarium silicone safe?


Readings:
PH 7
Amm: 1ppm
Nitrite 2ppm
Nitrate 40ppm

Water temp:
Afternoon: 28.5
This morning: 27

Can anyone interpret those readings? Prior to set up, I soaked the coco in my pond for a few hrs, this may have helped with the bacteria.

Any feedback much appreciated.

You're not done cycling yet or you're trying to support too many fish for the filtration your system has. You do have the bacteria in your system, just not enough at this point to convert all the waste. So either the bio-filter is still getting up it's numbers or it's maxed out.

Your ammonia at that pH and temp should be OK http://ibcofaquaponics.com/information/tables-and-charts/

I'd salt for the nitrites to 1 ppt if you haven't already.

I started the system with a little ammonia and have only fed the fish tiny amounts, so the bio filter must still be getting up. Hopefully it will be done soon. When I saw the readings last night I rushed to add some plants.

The plants I dug out of our soil garden last week are developing nice roots.


Some are looking a bit yellow, could be time for iron?


The DWC trough is set up.

Sorry for the pics posting twice, can't seem to change that, have edited a couple of times.

During the day, when the air is warmer than the water, I put a thick cover over the sump.


Then when the air is cooler I remove the cover and use the openings to help cool the water.


Same idea with the FT lid

Are you adding aeration in some other way? Seems to me that covering all the tanks might be a problem somewhere down the road.

So far I haven't added aeration, I don't think the covers will create problems, they are not airtight.

Levels this morning:
PH 7
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5ppm

Plants are growing also, just need to add the iron.

To cool the water down I placed a fan on top of the sump. It's on a timer and draws air from the other side of the sump, it passes through a shower of water, hopefully cooling it through exchange. The shower also adds aeration.

The Air Inlet (normally with lid)


Looking down into the sump at the wall of water/shower that the air passes through before exiting.


The 22w Fan (normally with lid)


It looks a bit rough, but I'm just experimenting using things I already have. I have it running about 15hrs a day, it seems to drop water temp by .5 to 1 degree Celcius overnight. This is compared to temps prior to installing, but without a side by side test it's impossible to tell.

I also installed a shower above the FT, which I also turn on when the air is cooler than the water.

All was going well, so I got a bit slack checking levels, then I was a away for a few days. When I returned, the levels were:
PH 6
Amm 6ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 160ppm

I stopped feeding, but after 10 days hardly anything had changed. My DWC was doing poorly, so I added aeration. When I opened it up I was shocked at the amount of solids.

The aeration agitated the roots and moved all the solids back into the system. After 24hrs the Kangkong had new roots and color. I started feeding the fish again. I wonder if the solids in the DWC had become anearobic, releasing ammonia into the system?


Last night the levels were.
Ph 6.4
Amm .25ppm
Nitrite .25ppm
Nitrate 80ppm


I figure it's going OK, just need some more plants/growth to eat up those nitrates. Any thoughts on this?

Plants are growing well, especially mint, kangkong and cucumbers. So far I've only added Iron and seaweed extract.









Please feel free to criticize, it's the best way for me to learn.