Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Pictures, continued again.

Big plans in the near future for a large AP system. After fencing in our entire lot, we easily have 15x the backyard as before. I want to build beds from the same materials and basic design as what I currently have, except one height- no cascade.. And maybe tubular steel framework. And many many more beds.

I am honestly thinking I will line the interior fence line(s) with waist height beds, 3'x1'x XXX'. I have 580' of fence, and would love 2 of the long fence lines to have these beds - 120' and 140' long, respectively. While I want them to appear they're each one long bed, the beds will be divided into smaller sections and plumbed accordingly. My fish tank goal is over 6k, probably more like 8k gal- something in the neighborhood of 20'x10'x5'.

I want the koi pond and aquaponic system to compliment a natural swimming pool. The pool and koi pond are one project, as it will be easier to excavate at once. It'll be a huge project, but I plan for it to happen in 2017.

Well your plants look awesome, if they actually get better once you get the pH down you'll be dealing with triffids!

Your media's expanded shale, right? Decent surface area and reasonably light weight but not actually porous? I really doubt it'll hold enough deposited carbonates to be a problem. If you have a water hardness test or can get one it'd be interesting to see what your supply/topup water and system water test out as, though! I think treating and returning system water will shift things a lot faster than just treating the topup water or even doing small water changes would, because you're not just preventing more carbonates from being added, you're neutralising the current load that's in your system. Test carefully as you go and I look forward to seeing how well it works!

Yes Mel, expanded shale. A small percentage of it is very porous like scoria. But, for the most part, it's not very porous.

Thanks - I've had a few good rounds of plants so far. I just know at 8.2pH, they're not as they could be. I haven't had any luck with anything that likes a lower pH. My girlfriend really wants a mess of strawberries growing in this system. I have a nft or dwc bed plumbing in place and ready to add. I've just been waiting and waiting for this system to "mature" before expanding grow space.

I just ordered one from amazon. API KH and GH. Super cheap, $5. It'll be here in a couple days and I'll post results.

Ok- just received my KH test kit. I thought that it included both KH and GH tests, but its only KH with a conversion table for GH.

City water out of the tap tested at 6°dkh (107.4 ppm GH/KH)
System water tested at 4°dkh (71.6 ppm GH/KH)
Top off water treated with HCL test at 1° (17.9 ppm GH/KH) - or less, I'm thinking it looked like a lot less.

City water of 6°dkh was a little lower than I was expecting, because of what I've seen it do with HCL.

Still continuing with my water change routine. I'll finish up adding my second batch of pH adjusted 100 gallons today. System is still holding rock steady at a little above 8.0ph.

Thoughts?

Sounds like it's already working? I'm not sure how well that conversion table to general hardness is going to work though, because KH and GH aren't in any sort of fixed ratio that I know of. Other threads I've seen where people have measured both report GH values often way higher than the KH numbers... and this is where we hit the limits of my knowledge, because my system pH is slightly high but not high enough to need messing with, so I haven't gotten into measuring and tweaking these things.

Not knowing what my system water was at before I started "tweaking" (about as gentle as a bull in a China shop) makes it hard to tell if it's working.

My treated system water is certainly way below current system water. So, it should be moving in the right direction. I just hope that I don't end up with having pH swing issues because of this process.

The truth is, I'm just really ready to be able to grow whatever I'd like- most (if not all) common plants won't do their best in 8.0-8.2ph water. Bring on the triffids I've got sharp shears.

I'm going to keep moving forward with this process until it starts to drop, then I'll back off.

In the mean time, I'm going to build a little 55g aeroponic setup separate from AP system, feeding hydro nutes, to get some strawberries growing. "Happy wife, happy life", right? Once I can get my ph consistently lower, I'll flush them and move them into AP system, into a newly built vertical NFT.

Thoughts on ever bearing vs June bearing long term in outdoor backyardAPs?

If you want lots of berries all at once for preserves and things go with the June bearing otherwise go with the everbearing/day neutral types which is what I grow. I don't grow them in AP though since they are very sensitive to salt.

Thanks for the input, Scotty. That coincides with what I've read.

This week I'm going to build a couple aeroponic setups (55g each) and start them (from bare roots) in aeroponics with general hydroponic nutes. Strawberries have been a goal of ours from the beginning - so I have always been extremely conservative in dosing salt. I've only (intentionally) added .25ppm salt- I may have inadvertently added salt through liquid seaweed.

I've decided on 50 Seascape strawberries. I'll add pics of new projects as I get going on them. The ultimate goal is to have 50' of NFT attached to AP system this summer. I have been looking at all sorts of channel materials, and just haven't decided on anything yet. I want 4"x4" square material. I'm not in a hurry to add anything to my AP system until I get the pH down.

It seems to be slowly working.

Those are some great looking koi!

System looks awesome!

Thanks Colum. 4 or 5 of them were hand selected- the rest were "grab bag" babies from nextdaykoi. Koi weren't a great choice for this size tank- but it's all part of the bigger AP plan. I want a very large system with koi, but didn't want to buy adult koi.

Once the big system is built and running, I'll go back to hybrid striped bass in this system. They are much better suited to the tank.

Your systems are looking great, as well!

I have added a few composting worms from my yard a few times, but probably only a total of 75. Its something that I put off and never got around to doing.

Is there a ratio or equation or some way to ballpark how many red wigglers to add to my beds? Each of the three beds is 4'x6'x1'.

Nice system and beautiful koi there.

What's with the lightsaber under the bok choi? :-)

Red wrigglers will multiply anyway. They will control their numbers according to food available. I cut the lettuce heads and leave the roots to rot for them.

Thanks Gurkan. I really enjoy these fish. Completely different than the bass. Much more social.

A size reference that's usually within reach :-/

I just ordered 2,000 red wigglers from Uncle Jims. 700 per bed oughtta give a colony? a good start.

Never thought I'd be excited about getting worms.

Would be more than enough. I think I threw 10 or so each GB last year and they are everywhere now. Whenever I pull a rotten root, there is more than 5 on it. My beds are constant flood with high oxygen levels

I am thinking 700 would may be too much. If they don't have much to eat and die, wouldn't they bump up the ammonia levels?