Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

adds magnesium (ES = MgSO4). There was a thread about epsom salts being good for peppers etc
(capsicum and chillis) here a while ago. And I followed it up on some dirt gardening web sites.

my chillis started out a bit small and low in numbers so I gave it a hit to see what happened.
Sizes increased and so did number. Problem is I also added Seasol etc.
I am playing with some capsicums at present to see if I can get bigger fruit.

** these are in large dirt tubs not AP. Excessive sulphates may not be great for systems (Mr D raised that).

[edit] here is the thread viewtopic.php?f=3&t=27741&p=542713&hilit=epsom+salts#p542713

sorry to jack your thread mel... maybe go to the other thread to follow up further Tonzz.

No worries Darren!

I think I've worked out what happened with the fish I lost today... I haven't been keeping a close enough eye on my water levels, and about an hour ago heard the pump to the fish tank sucking air. It took quite a lot of water to top things up to the point where the pump will be safely submerged no matter what the water level in the growbeds is (tested by taking all the bells out of the siphons), which means it's probably been intermittently sucking air whenever two or three of the growbeds synchronised over the last several days... which means the flow rate through the FT has been going up and down like a freaking yo-yo. Hello, stressed fish!

(Note to self: don't just go "hey we had rain I got a free topup," actually check the levels!)

Install a float valve Mel, I got two of these from Bunnings for about $25 ea. Problem solved.

Pete.

That would require a pipe/hose permanently lying across the lawn or actually (horrors!) dug in, Pete... it ain't happening. There are limits to what my husband will accept for my hobby. He's already nixed one possible location for my topup-water storage IBC...

Now, something hooked up to an alarm of some sort, that's an idea.

Yes an alarm. I saw one on Fishlore.com had one on a 260 gallon aquarium, I'll go find it. http://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads/dots-260g-build.240929/page-28#post-2659767
I think Dot said it was $25

That one's a leak alarm, Boss, goes outside the tank and goes off if it gets wet - I want something that I can put in the sump under the normal water line, that will alert me if the water level drops enough to expose it. No screeching alarms, we have a decent relationship with the neighbours and I want to keep it that way! Just something that turns on a light or similar and then stays on until I see it. I know I've seen something like that on this forum and at my local hydro shop, I'll find something useful!

Whitworths Marine (online store) has bildge pump float switches, lights and alarms that can be assembled in 12v to do what you want.
Pete.


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Other option is to go the float switch off of a blue drum or something of sufficient volume. So you are just topping that up. And helps as a place to gas off. Hooking stock troughs to tanks is pretty common using a float switch.

You want an alarm that fits under your hubbys pillow then when it goes off at 2AM you could quietly and gently (at a later time ) suggest another tank and tap buried would be a good idea.

jeez Iam a smart bugga.

Here here. He,ll dig the trench for you.

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Put a piece of slotted PVC pipe in the corner of your sump (or wherever best shows the need to top up)

Put a piece of PVC inside it that has a cap glued on the bottom, and pressed on the top

Mark it to show if it's OK or too low

If it floats too high, add some sand to the inside to weigh it down a bit

*evil snickering*

SeanD, that'll just tell me what the water level is right when I'm looking at it - it won't tell me "hey, the water level looks fine now but that's because three of your growbeds just drained, in thirty minutes when they're all nearly full the pump will be sucking again"

Darren, that'd be awesome if I just had somewhere in or next to my system to fit a drum...

For now I'm just keeping a much closer eye on my water levels, and we've got a guy coming out to quote on plumbing my topup IBC into the guttering later this week.

Update time!

First of all, update on the State of the Mel: much, much better. Soooo much better. Still dealing with the usual suite of aches and pains, but the hip is not being a total wonk about existence any more.

Second, the fish! They're much happier now that I'm paying closer attention to the water level in the sump and they're not getting intermittent interruptions to their water flow. The hot weather's brought the water temperatures up to the mid-to-high 20s; it hit 30 degrees C briefly yesterday and today, but I'm not seeing any signs of discomfort or heat stress. They're definitely not off their food:



The plan to plumb an IBC into our guttering as a small topup tank has changed; my husband decided that he didn't want something that industrial-looking sitting in either of the two most convenient locations for it, so we're getting a custom-built corrugated steel tank instead. In other words, I'm getting what I wanted to eventually get as an upgrade from the IBC much sooner than originally planned, because ~*aesthetics*~. I'm still going to be using the IBC as a holding container to offgas tap water for topups until the tank arrives, and then I'll either cut it up to use for assorted purposes or sell it.

Next, plant updates!

The mousemelons are going gangbusters, and they're flowering! Ohmigosh the female flowers are so teeny and cute!



Most of the plants in the aquaponics are puttering along happily. The tomatoes, on the other hand, are trying to take over the world. Lots more cherry tomatoes are ripening:


...and the big ones are starting to get really big.


I should have put my hand around that one for reference, it's the size of my palm or a bit larger. My husband is happy that he can pick more than one cherry tomato at a time now, and even I have to admit that they taste darn good. (The texture and the *pop* when you bite into one still get me a bit!)

And finally, here's something kinda creepy and fascinating! I've been trying to encourage natural predators to keep the numbers of caterpillars and aphids etc down, lacewings and ladybugs and so on, and it's definitely working because I have parasitic wasps!!! This is so cool!!!!! I was checking the broccoli for caterpillars and found one that had gotten pretty big - but all those little things under and around it are tiny wasp larvae, making cocoons! And, er, wow, that female wasp laid a lot of eggs in that caterpillar.

Tiny next-day update! The weather this afternoon is predicted to be both windy and painfully hot, but at the moment it's just overcast and actually a fairly comfortable temperature, so I've been getting as much done as possible before things change.

The jalapenos are continuing to be awesome! They're branching at almost every node, giving me multiple plants that are still tiny but already have three or four fruit and lots of buds on them:


My watermelon seedlings must have put down good roots, because they're having an above-ground growth spurt! I knew that Moon and Stars watermelon get little yellow speckles and the occasional big spot on the fruit itself, but I didn't know that the speckling would show up on the leaves:


And... I think we need more wasps.


(The fish disagree with me. They think I need to raise more big fat caterpillars for them to eat.)

Hey Mel, you guys OK just seen Canberra got smashed by good ole summer storm