Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Oh, that sounds yum! Thanks for the recipe, Prospector!



*blushing here* Thank you! Heh, the toe shot was deliberate.

LET THE WASHING BEGIN.

Have fun!

I'm regretting the lack of nearby teenage relatives that could be bribed with a little cash and some pizza. All my nieces and nephews live in New Zealand, darnit!

My two young boys rinsed all mine they did a great job with it.
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=24884

What does a bag of clay pebbles go for down under?

"Grow It" is the substitue I have found from the hydroponics shop. The owner says the makers of Hydroton lost their mining rights and is no longer in production????

Adam

$30 for a 45lt bag of clay balls.

Adds up if you have a large area. Scoria if you can find it locally is much cheaper

Or $45 for a 45litre bag, if you live in a city with only one retailer carrying it. Like here. Which is why I'm going with scoria on the bottom 20cm or so of my growbeds, and clay just on the top. I'm still going to need about 100litres per growbed, and I'm putting in seven...

...they're giving me a bulk discount but this is still gonna sting in the wallet.

Ouch $45... I guess there is an advantage in living in the hydro state, lots of competition here

Yeeeeep!

1.5 cubic meters of scoria cost me $222.25 delivered. Much cheaper!

Pay 32/bag US and only get 40 ltrs (and that does not include the 2.5 hour round trip in diesel truck north). No Scoria (volcanic rock?) in the area.

The media that I am able to find locally has some sort of limestone component mixed in with the granite base and is playing havoc with PH when attempts made to adjust/buffer to a lower PH. Still have not found the happy medium, but system running over 2 mos now and running stable.

Adam

Ouch! Yeah, scoria is volcanic rock; it comes in red and black (red was cheaper for some reason) and is pretty neutral. My test system pH was high for the first couple of months, then dropped abruptly to 7 and stayed there.

The supply piping for this side is finished, taps and all (eee! I have taps!):


I made the media guards yesterday; it's much easier to do slots with an angle grinder than drill a zillion holes!:


Messier, too:


And then I washed a wheelbarrow load of gravel:


First I use a compost sieve to get as much dust and fines out of the scoria as possible (at the bottom of the pic, you can see some of what gets sifted out underneath it). Two or three sieve-loads get dumped into the shadecloth in the first tub of water, and I use the shadecloth to shake it all around and wash more red dust off. Then it goes into the second (theoretically cleaner, ha, you can see how red the water is!) tub of water for a rinse, then into the wheelbarrow. I do that until the wheelbarrow is full, then go have a hot bath and get my husband to rub ice gel on my back.

You can buy slotted PVC if you don't feel like doing it yourself :-)

Those media guards look pretty good. I was going to drill a zillion holes for mine, but the thought of it made me put it off till another day. I think I'll try the angle grinder instead.