Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Over time the discolouration will clear.... over time...

pH... typically 6.0 - 6.5.....

Thanks Rupert. The question on the PH was in relation to the color of the water i.e. will the color in the water affect the color when I test. Not just for PH, but for everything. Can I trust the test results?

I think coco has a lot of potential, it's light, porous, holds moisture yet still drains well and is the most enviro friendly of all medium, it's just the color that drives me mad!

I have just set up a little cocopeat system.

The peat is very fine Richgrow compressed rehydratable blocks.

Water feeds from the FT tub to an elevated bucket (with overflow) and is then distributed by gravity to currently 8 buckets containing flowerpots. The buckets have a top hat fitted at the bottom which is attached to black retic pipe which feeds into the main drain pipe, (Flowerpots are easily removed from the buckets when necessary.) The water then drains back to the pond via a white drainpipe that has lots of holes drilled along its length. Watering is by timer - 4 times per day.

I think for tomatoes blossom end rot may be a problem so I have placed a bag of shell grit in the header bucket. (It may be that a little gypsum could be better for calcium). Fish are goldies and koi. Photos attached.


I have also attached pics of a cocopeat double bucket wicking system. I am using dishcloths as the wicks. I will water these by hand from the fish tub for now.

Regards

Johnnie

wicking system.

Hey Johnnie... nice to see you're still pottering about.... I reckon coir should go alright in a wicking system...

Let us know how the water is on the recirculating system. Biggest Issue I see is that most people don't like it when the water turns too dark to see the fish and keep an eye on the moisture levels in the pots to let us know if watering 4 times a day keeps them too wet.

Hopefully you have some additional air and perhaps filtration for the fish since you are only pumping to the plants 4 times a day.

As to the testing with tinted water. I expect that could be a difficult one. I think if anyone were to go large scale using a media that tints the water too much, they might need to get meters to test certain things though I don't know if there are meters for checking ammonia and nitrite which are the important ones through cycling. A good pH meter and the related buffering/calibration solutions would be a must with heavily tinted water I think.
Come to think of it though, water only slightly tinted brown probably will still be somewhat readable on the ammonia scale since it shades into green. When I've tried to test the nitrite with brown tinted water, the readings get a bit more strange.

The cocopeat AP system worked beautifly last year despite the bad positioning .. (poor light!)

Only a little prob regards blossom end rot on the tomatoes. Fixable this year . add gypsum..

Fish .. (Goldies and Koi !) no probs ... despite too many fish in the tub and too few times that the pump switched on ... they survive...

somehow they seemed to have managed well and got very big ..

Update

I have planted various tomato sedlings (a little too early) in the cocopeat AP system. They are doing well.

The water is a little brown in shade but clear as crystal. (Similar to the colour of water running though some trout streams I have seen in Wales and Ireland.)

I do have a small air pump running continuously into the fish tub.

The Koi and goldies are very healthy.

I am only watering 15 mins once per day at the moment - (but that is a good soak).

I think that in summer maybe 2 or even 3 times would be good.

There is currently enough capacity regards overflow to double or maybe even triple the number of buckets (if only I had room!)

I have no problems so far with the small delivery tubes fouling - but would suggest that next time I use a small tap at the bottom of the vertical manifold bucket so that clearing is easily carried out.

I also use a coarse sponge filter at the inlet of the pump (to protect the pump) - and I wring it out into a watering can on a fortnightly basis - I mix the solids collected with pond water and water the pots from the top fortnightly.


Johnnie

Sorry -

I meant ...

I suugest that I use a small tap at the bottom of the vertical black pipe distribution manifold on the header bucket to clear things easily.

Thought I would resurrect this thread as I now have a system running with coco-coir. I am using untreated coir in large pieces, that I buy in bales of about 50kg each.


I'm also using the hard, inner part of the shell.


I've set up three GBs with the soft coir (2 on flood and drain, 1 on constant flow) and one with the hard inner shells. This will allow for a bit of experimentation.

SO FAR...
The plants seem to be growing well, they've only been in for 6 weeks, there was a little iron deficiency, so I added. The water turned very brown, but has cleared a little, but still way too much color. Although it doesn't seem to effect the readings. PH is 6 - 6.6, Amm 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 40-80.



The coir does not heat up like clay or gravel, an advantage in the tropics. I stays moist and holds plenty of water, with still enough gaps for air.


The hard inner shells don't hold water, the tomatoes seem to prefer this, but most other plants like the regular coir. I think this media would work better broken into much smaller pieces.

Overall I think the coir has good potential, it's light, absorbent, cheap and easily renewable. It's sometimes chipped into cubes, which may work better, but this is only available in small bags.

The large pieces would also be great for wicking beds.

wow. i'm currently building a greenhouse for my new AP system.
i'm from indonesia, tropics and currently im using gravel for the flood and drain.
yes coco coir is also abundant in here.
may i ask, which type of coir do you use for the flood and drain grow bed?
do the coir floats when water is filled up?
how big is your grow bed? what kind is your grow bed?
also. since you've been using coir for >6 months now.. do they decompose? since its organic.
with water and everything...

i'm sorry i got excited thinking about this new idea.

thank you.

The coir has worked well for me. The main problems are the discolor in the water and fibers through the system (netting around the media guard helps).

It's cheap and plentiful, when it's clogged with solids it can be reused in wicking beds or gardens. I've switched to a chipped style, it has plenty of small pieces, but doesn't seems to get water logged as the plants are happy.


I think gravel is too heavy and clay balls too expensive, plus coir is much more sustainable. The hard inner part of the shell is interesting, next time I will break it into much smaller peices. After almost twelve months in my beds it shows no signs of breaking up. Not sure how much it would discolor the water if used exclusively.

Coir is nice and you never have to replace it as it brakes down to humus. cover your drains with smart pot material, (also used to cover speaker boxes) all you have to do is to know that while the roots are building you have to treat it like soil but once you have roots you can treat it like a hydroponic media.