Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I received and installed my new Aquagarden Mako 4000 pump yesterday, it's the same as the Sy1 pump.

I reset the timer to 15min on / 60 min off and I'm in the process of re-tuning the GB taps as this pump can easily fill all the GB's. The actual on/off times on the timers are offset so the inverter doesn't have to use it's own cooling fan when in use.
When I first turned it on it quickly drew the remaining water in the ST's down until the float opened saving the system from running dry then an hour and a quarter later the ST's were full to the brim again. Tuning of the hole at the bottom of the stand pipes was also required. I moved the tape covering the 5 mm hole so 50% is open.

The temp in FT2 was 19 C at 12.00 midday as opposed to 16 C in FT1 so I've got to do some work on insulating although the dogs and chickens love to get beneath them to keep cool.

I am in the process of planting the seedlings which I grew from seeds into the GB's as they're getting 2-3" tall. The other day I mixed & sprinkled another 50 ml of Power Feed over GB's 4,5 & 6 (totaling 100 ml )and 15 grams of Iron chalate over the existing water melon and tomato's roots.

Pete.

My 2 bobs worth,.....get some shade cloth over those plants man, Urgently. Your in for some doozy weather over next few days and possibly fry your green leaves.

System 2 is coming along nicely, I've got 156 seedlings in there now all but 2 are from seeds grown in the seed starter boxes.
I'm considering changing the water delivery piping to the GBs. The present method doesn't always fill all the GBs.
The taps do not have fine enough control which leaves some 3/4 full while others are overflowing.

Soooo I think I've come up with an solution that will even out the levels prior to any one stand tube over flowing and also eliminating the restrictive and potentially clogging taps.
I found some 20 mm T's with the bottom having a thread instead of a barb. If I drill a hole in the side of each IBC so the thread top is level in height with the top of the stand tube over flow, seal and fasten it there then join them all together and cap the last one. The water should flow from the slightly higher 40 mm Pvc outlet down into the poly then into each T. As one or more of the GBs fill to full the water will effectively close off the flow to that bed and force it to go to the next one and so on until they're all full.
As the delivery Pvc will be a couple of inches higher the water should flood higher than the threads until it goes over the over flows.
Apart from the fact that the full bore of the tube and fittings will will be available I like the idea that the solids that make it that far are more likely to be spread out over all the beds more evenly as they will land in the horizontal tube first not the first GB as I have it now.

Pete.

Nice setup. I have toyed with the idea of growing my system but I would have to build another GH so probably won't be doing it.

It's nice to come home from holidays to find something has been busy growing automatically while we were away.

System 2 was barely tuned when we left to go on our sailing holiday and with a very hot week around the corner I had to leave my hard work in the hands of my son. He followed my instructions with keeping an eye on Sy2 cycles and looking after Sy1. As can be seen everything is working nicely. Whoohoo.

Pete.

System 2 has been going along very well all seedling except for the Brocholli are growing as per expectations. I haven't pulled the Brocholli out yet as I've found they can recover. I am going to grow another batch from seeds and put them in the Ap system at a larger size.
The cuc's and golden zuc's are flowering.
The new plumbing works well and chemistry seems fine.

I've planted potatoes in the experimental wicking bed, watched as the SBeet has grown back to 75% of its first harvest. Letting the carrots grow longer.

I'm wondering if I should run Sy1 water though the Sy2 GB's to help prepare them for the fishies?

Pete.

you are certainly proof that you can live with a pH 8 system Pete......

If you are going to put a few fish in then running it on fish water will help make sure the bacteria is in place in the media.
you have very low ammonia at the moment. Else just hit it with a dose of PF and watch how long it takes to go through.

After the last post I mixed in 30 ml of power feed into the tank, so the test shows it's gone through. I put another 30 ml in today and we'll see how it looks next week.I'm wondering if I should be adding progressively more until the nitrates get just off yellow? Doing so sends the tank a bronzy brown for a few days then it clears up.

I got up on the roof of the shed to clean and adjust the solar panels angle and found a new view of system 2. You can see I've progressed with the construction of the rest of the new wicking beds.

I always wanted one of those snazzy hip/jacket flasks so I got this one for myself for Chrisy.

Pete.

Just thought I show you my first tomato off system 2 grown and processed into a toasted ham, cheese,tomato and garlic salt sandwich. It smelt and tasted wonderful and even though I couldn't shared it with you you weren't far from my mind.
In the background I've harvested a couple of handfuls of beans.

Pete

Coming along nicely. Got to love those roof pictures too. We're right there with ya on the pH 8.

tagging in to this thread too... should have told us on the other thread that you started a new thread with the Sy2 upgrades then I wouldn't have gave you a hard time on that thread =)

No worries Rininger good to see you've caught on. I thought it was the thing to do when one starts a new system.

I did a weekly sy2 water test to see that the 30 ml of power feed had gone through which it had so I put another 50.21 grams in then tested it every 24 hrs. By today it looks almost back to usual.

I put the shade cloth on the south side to pretty things up a bit and keep the morning sun off the back of the beds.

Pete.

I've installed the foundation and bed components of the wicking bed part of system 2.

The system has easily chewed through the 76 grams of PF over the week so I've added another 102 grams.

I've harvested beans every day and a couple of Gold Rush Zucc's this week.

Pete.

My research on wicking beds led me away from using rocks in the base, so having dug them out, cleaned them , loaded them I took them out again and put them back into storage - well at least they're clean!

I went for a twin stand pipe with a cross tube wrapped in weed mat design. The vertical pipe at the northern end of each GB has a 1/2" poly bulkhead fitting in the base which delivers water to each bed and makes all beds equal in water level. The caps now have holes in for ventilation and anti-compression.
The four beds are joined beneath with poly tube and T fittings until the last one which has adjustable drain limit. I've yet to make the float tank and connect it up to the AP system. After a three days it's water level has stabalised at a half inch below the top of the cross pipe and if I dig down from the top it starts to get moist at seven inches.
I purchased a five way veggie mix and added a wheel barrow of our own compost and sprinkled in some blood and bone powder into each bed.

The water test showed an increase in PH but I figure it'll be another couple of weeks before sy3 is ready so I added another 152 gm of PF as the previous 125 gm was all gobbled up.

Pete.

Just a pic of some veggies I harvested last night. The Black Russian Tomatoes were of Sy1.

Pete.