Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

looking good Titus!

Hi Titus,
I've tried overlapping, I doesn't take long to see the once placid and dis-concerning species you already have in the FT get a new look of domination when a new species is introduced into their patch..
Add another FT with a slower growing species so you can cover the full 12mths..... you can then add as many plants as you need to.......

I see there was a mention of adding an aerator from Keith but :
I noticed your pump time is running 15/45 during the day and 30/30 during nights.. I am assuming that is 15mins on and 45minutes off.? and 30minutes on and 30minutes off........ if so, what fish have you in the FT.? the reason I ask is that over a 24hr period your pump is off for 15hrs.. If that's all correct, Can I ask what the oxygen levels are in your tank.??
cheers.

Sorry Titus,
didn't realise your post has 4 pages, my comments may have already been mentioned.
nice system you have there.

These photos are of a part of my system I call the shelves. They face north and sit in the entrance to the shed. One hour direct morning sunlight on a good day. In the winter I can roll down a plastic curtain to keep the frost off.
I knew this would not be the most productive area. However it did allow me to increase the media in the system and play with winter crops.
Last November I planted small brassicas and they survived. I then transplanted to the main GB and we are eating them now.
I knew that additional light would be required.
I fixed a 20 W LED fixture above the bottom GB. To be honest no major improvement. When the filters above overflowed I removed it on safety grounds. I then saw some very cheap waterproof fittings on E bay. £7 each, 10 w per unit. At the same time as I installed these I added a RCD safety device. Now this was 10 W per shelf.
These shelves are part of my,’salty’ system so the choice of Samphire to plant in them was easy. This is a perennial so I was prepared to be patient. Growth to date has been disappointing. I stuck in a few watercress plants and a few sacrificial lettuce seeds to help combat the slug/snail problem I was having.
No surprise all plants faced the light at the front.
With the RCD now in place about a week ago I moved the two 10 W units onto one shelf and brought out the 20W unit for the bottom shelf. These run on a timer 9-21.
As you can see from the photo some of the watercress is now sitting vertical.
It has responded to the increased light source.
Now these shelves are not in the best position but in a south facing window with a small LED boost it could be promising.

Another photo

About four weeks ago I took delivery of 15 carp fingerlings. Temperature equalized and fish introduced to their new quarantine tank.
Within 24 hours it was obvious something was wrong. The tell tale ‘cotton wool’ appearance suggested Saprolegnia. I increased the salinity from 1ppt to 3ppt.
After three weeks 7 survivors. One still with a small white beard. (Mr Sleepy Yes! I know)I am feeding them sparingly once per day. Average water temp is 17*c. Am-0 n2-0 N3 50+
I have allowed the Ph to gradually rise from 7.3 to 7.8
This is a 250 liter tank. In quarantine mode it runs from a 3500 lt pump in ft 15/24 to a pre-filter - bio-filter (home made rawl plug/bottle top media) then 80 ltrs of GB media. Apart from the Samphire all other plants are suffering from the high salinity.

What worries me is that the high salinity may cause the bio-filter to crash.

My initial research suggested waiting one week after symptoms had disappeared.
Once Mr Sleepy calls in the barber I plan on, moving them to the main Ft.
A re-jig of the system is in the diary so draining the quarantine tank is no problem.
Option 1 is using brush and fresh water scrub FT ,pre and bio filter flush GB.
Option 2 as above but with potassium permanganate.
I am loath to do this as the GB have samphire in them which is a perennial and I will lose one year.

Titus, can you temporarily remove the samphire while you treat your quarantine system, and maybe treat it in a higher salinity bath before returning it to the GB? I have no idea whether this will actually kill off the disease, but the samphire should survive a seawater strength bath.

http://ag.arizona.edu/azaqua/ista/ISTA7 ... erview.pdf


Hi JOC
Thank you. Like all brilliant answers simplicity itself. Once the fish are out I will reduce the water volume and increase the salinity.
I have done some more research on the effects of salinity on bio filters and came across a paper by; James M Ebeling PhD The link is above.
But to précis, ‘bacteria can acclimate to almost any salinity’
He does however recommend slow changes below <5g/L
One other anecdotal observation. The acutely affected fish were shunned by the healthy shoal. Mr Sleepy is no longer an outcast.

I have been doing some tinkering with my system. The whole system occupies a foot print of approximately 3 square meters.
A 5.5k L/h pump runs 30/30.
One IBC cut BYAP style FT1
Two 225L olive barrels ( 1 vertical 1 horizontal) sumps
One 250 L (UK loft cold water tank) FT2
One 200 L GB (cut from IBC
Two 40 L GB
One 90 L GB
One 60 L GB
One water cooler RFF
One up flow static filter (K1)
One 10 L submerged horizontal bio filter(K1)
One DIY pre filter 10 L
One DIY bio filter 20L (bio balls, Rawl plugs and bottle tops.

The oblong GB 2*40 1*90 are stacked vertically above the horizontal olive barrel sump. These will be covered with a plastic greenhouse. Readily available here in the UK as Tomato houses 100 wide 50 deep 150 high.
Site conditions prevent me from sinking sumps into the ground This will be above the horizontal sump. A maximum height of 2.44 M Yes, step ladder. Yes, warning light for low flying aircraft.

With the use of an additional pump FT2 can be isolated as a quarantine tank.
IMHO an essential in any system.
Filtered by the two DIY filters.
Fish are being introduced in batch of 15. As such the maximum at any one time will be 45. With a mean of 30.
The RFF (25L) is small. It only serves the IBC FT1
I can immediately see debris build up. I place another 25 L bottle on the outlet and drain it in less than 20 seconds. Allow to settle. Pour back 95% of the water into the GB and use the remainder on the soil garden.
In practice about once per week.
The up flow static is new so limited experience yet.

When the two parts of my system are connected I want to maximize flow through FT2.
However I do want to maintain the bacteria in the ( quarantine) pre and bio filter.
Currently I have set the flow at around 60 L/H.
Is that enough?
Should I give it a blast now and then?

I posted recently on Coachchris thread about how varying the cleaning cycle on my up flow filter affected the nitrate levels.
I wanted to expand on that original post and did not want to monopolize his thread. So I am continuing it here.
To recap. Dr Wilson Lennard said to me that I could manipulate the Nitrate levels by delaying cleaning the filter. As I understand it. Reducing the cleaning cycle would reduce nitrates and help fruit production. As opposed to leaf production. I have late tomatoes in one Gb and want to encourage fruit growth. So no brainer.However after one month I opened the tap to drain the up flow filter. I was surprised how little detritus came out.
Swede asked me, “What is the retention time?” Erm! ah! Don’t know.
So I read up on it.
Volume of filter divided by flow rate per hour.. Now this is water volume. So if your filter is filled with gravel there is obviously less space for the water than if it is filled with K1.
My filter is small. Seven liters. I have a 4K L/hour pump in the sump. Running 15/45 This lifts the water to about one meter there are then three outlets. I do not know the individual flow rates. However for the sake of argument let’s say they are equal. 1.3 L/hour So an hourly flow rate 330 liters (15/45)
7/333 = 0.02 A retention time of 1.2 minutes The up flow filter is after an RFF and filters a cut IBC FT say 750 L. So ideally I need to at least double the flow rate/ hour. This would give me a retention time of 0.6 minute.
I get the feeling that my filter is seriously undersized.
I thought my learning curve was beginning to level out.
Then one small question reveals whole mountains yet to conquer.

I am making pickled onions. 10Kg maybe I should have bought the 5Kg bag.
Peel. Soak in brine for 48 hours. Add pickling spice and non brewed condiment.
Easy.
It’s the protective suit goggles and gloves I find a little awkward.
About half way!

How do you eat the pickled onions?

Hi Chris,
Erm. Generally I use a multi-pronged metal tool. We call it a fork. Aim at the lower region of my face. Open mouth and insert.
Seriously though. With cheese, cold meats, chips any thing you like!

Any of these go well !