Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

It happened for the same reason the nitrites went down.. More time for water to be processed and more time for the aeration to offgas CO2. CO2 is creating carbonic acid which makes pH go down. Once you aerate and off gas CO2 into the atmosphere your pH will rise..

Coach, I am almost certain that you will be better off without that shade cloth.. Worst case scenario is that you add it back if water is getting nasty.. Then again I don't know much about how sensitive the fish is that you have now.. Tilapia shouldn't be a problem and from what you said earlier Ryan kept those KOI in water that wasn't perfectly clear?

BTW, didn't you go to a mbbr because you started seeing elevated levels of nitrites with your old biomedia?

In regards to Ryan's upflow filter.. How often does he clean that out?
And is his upflow filter in a separate RAS or part of an Aquaponics system?
Is his upflow filter positioned before or after the biofilter?
Retention time for his upflow filter?

I am not trying to pick your brain about his filter by any means.. Just trying to make sure that there is no parameter of his filter that may not apply to how yours is functioning..

82-85F
I calibrated it just a few weeks ago. As per the mfg. It's a Milwaukee. it's about $200.00 . Pretty cheap for an O2 meter, but had good reviews. I don't have anything to compare it to like another test kit. I know when I test "dead" water, it registers very low D.O.
Going to go measure again.

He(Ryan) has it before his MT and after his RFF. He doesn't have an RAS, just the AP system.
I have to look at my notes re: retention time.

Ok, thanks..

Hi Swede/Chris
My upflow filter (after the RFF) is a recent addition. Chatting to, Dr Wilson Lennard at the conference in August he suggested that if I reduced the cleaning frequency this would enable manipulation of the Nitrate levels.
So no brainer I did as I was told.
Today after one month I did clean it. Open the tap and drain.
I was amazed how little detritus was vented.

Makes sense... How did it affect your Nitrates?
And what is your retention time in the static upflow filter?

Thanks!

Yeah, I thought it was weird that when I wasn't cleaning the shadecloth/netting filter, and had the home made bio balls, my nitrites were easier to control then with the expensive K1, and weekly cleaning of the netting filter. Unfortunately, I don't think I could do a "proper" upwelling K1 due to the 4 inlet pipes I have in the IBC. Maybe, I could join them all together into a 6" and have them all flowing up?? I don't think there's enough room in the IBC to allow for that much plumbing. I would also most likely interfere with the mechanics of the filter??Fed once yesterday after higher reading in AM. Dropped down to around .5 around 11PM. Haven't checked this AM yet.

Increased flow a bit through shade cloth/mbbr filters. Trying to just do one thing at a time and see what happens. Also trying to duplicate prior success with bio balls in mbbr.

Nitrites were down this AM. fed about 20 oz and will check again in a few hours.

Checked water on AP for the first time in a long time. I usually add a few oz. of iron, some potash, and some calcium every few weeks and watch growth/fish.
Findings: PH- 6.6, ammonia-0, nitrites-0, nitrates- .5, fish are eating 2 handfuls 3-4x per day. It would seem like I would have higher nitrates. Growth is good, so no worries.

I have about 25-27 large tilapia in my 200 gallon FT. They are all closer to 2 lbs then 1. Over stocked for my beds, but still low nitrites/nitrates. Comparing the AP to RAS, I have appx 60 lbs of fish in appx 500 gallon water to appx 1200-1300 lb in 6500 gallon. I guess the media and the raft beds really help with denitrification. Ryan's idea of building a raft bed and not even putting plants in it may not be a bad idea in terms of adding BSA.

Some pea shoots ready for harvest- just planted in a tray with perlite and watered with fish water. Simple.

the fish in your RAS aren't growing like you hoped, because of the reduced feed rate, sure, but I keep thinking of the positive fact that they are all still alive because of all you are doing

that's what Ryan said. Basically...that's why you test. I guess in retrospect, it's much better then dead fish. Fish that are healthy and happy...just a little hungry.

2 days and no update.. Things must be going well

Hey coachchris, just caught up on reading your thread
Wow, your having a interesting time with your systems. I learn't alot by reading it so thanks and God bless,
froggo.

Swede. everything went well for a few days. I was up to almost 3 pounds per day...then...yesterday nitrites up to over 1.
No feed till late yesterday, and it dropped back down again. Not sure if I need to start cleaning shade cloth 2x a week or what?

I have to replace an intake gasket and a heater core in a Blazer I bought for my daughter yesterday. The guy bought factory caps to cover the capped off heater hoses so you couldn't tell. Then changed the coolant and put straight water in so the leak wasn't noticeable. It was leaking on the passenger side and draining down the side of the block to the same place as the AC drain was. I hate dishonest people. 10 years ago, I would have driven it back to him and told him either you give me my money back, or we're going to have a problem. Since he's probably 66, I would go to jail for assaulting an elderly person. Best just to repair the vehicle and let karma catch up with him.

Going to check this am again. Hopefully, I can resume feeding.

Oh, boy, heater core on a Blazer, fun fun fun