Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Looking good Liney.
Looking through the last couple of pages I thought I'd give my thoughts.
Adding a filter and mbbr is adding long term work. Fun short term tedious after a few years and a problem if someone else needs to babysit. Why do you need a mbbr anyway?
The water level in the filters can be at the same height as your ft water but you must ensure the water can flow out of the filters as fast as the water can flow from the ft. Having the filters higher makes for easier cleaning..
I had a filter here but decommissioned it due to having to clean it regularly, now the gbs process it. I have noticed more sludge in them though and am planning to reinstate after some modifications to reduce the cleaning factor.....
After years of mass planting the gbs I am now spacing more widely. I hate throwing out seedlings from the punnets.

I agree that the MBBR and rff are fun to tinker with. I think my RFF is useful for extracting solids prior to getting into the GBs. Also great fertilizer for the garden. I pump out the bottom of my RFF every couple of weeks, only takes 20-30 mins. I cleaned out my MBBR the other week thinking it would have heaps of solids, but wasn't too bad, so I guess the RFF is doing it's thing. Certainly help having a better design rff (like a conical bottom) to make it easier to tap off the waste. The MBBR is no doubt overkill considering my GB volume. Nice to have the ability in my system to completely separate the GB if I need to work on them, but unless you have really high stocking density it's probably not needed.

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cheers Skeggley and DoctorFish - I'm wanting to increase my fish capacity for next trout season to 30 plus and have 1200L of grow beds but that will be it as I'm space limited. The wife has been coerced on the learning journey with me as she has fed them a lot during the day and re supplied the food etc and is enjoying the results and now this summer I'm trying to grow a lot of the food she and the kids like to keep them interested in this lol. I'll probably get a 1500L rainwater tank before the trout season so I can have the tank space for a few more trout as this year I only have 15 as its my first time-( I love the aggressiveness of the trout). I've pulled quite a few clumps of veggies out and there is significant amounts of gunk in the beds which the worms are trying to process but I would have liked to have had the filters built before but thought she'll be right and now I see.

Interested in your thoughts and opinions on the colour of a 2500L rainwater tank that I'm going to buy as my fish tank to give them a little more room and round to create a flow/current for them also. I have the woodland grey fencing which would look nice but someone mentioned it'd be hard to see the fish inside. I'll probably only put 2000L of water in it which leaves some room for the trout to jump up for food without having a net to keep them in.

I would go the colour of the fence. Remember that a darker colour might help minimise algal growth. Also, your fish will be happier if they cant be seen. Think of it from a system/fish perspective rather than an asthetic one, but it is a consideration.

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I'm now having to supplement the system as it tends towards a pH of 6-6.2 and have a starting point of ratios to add but found by adding even more that its a very short term raise and a little bit annoyed how much I need to add will cost a small fortune. Happy with whats needed to add etc but maybe I was hoping for a quick fix and for it to stay around pH 6.5+ longer but its less than 24hours some days. Noticed a lot of yellowing on basil and cucumber leaves and thought maybe they like a higher pH? Adding around 150L of water per week for a couple of weeks with good plant growth but obviously its had no pH effect and as I will be upsizing to a 2500L FT & 900L ST there will be a need for even more supplements as the water loses goodness to plants etc. What is a reasonable amount to be adding/ expecting to add as Ive had good advice but like anything systems are different in many ways and I don't want to annoy this gentleman for answers if they are simple explanatory and maybe I'm even more simpler haha.

I am adding potassium bicarb to keep the pH above 6.4.
That seems to be normal that aged systems are lowering he pH value.

Hey Liney,

After letting all the crushed limestone dissolve in my tank I am now noticing my pH is heading south and was sitting at just over 6. Not too bad for plants but not so good for fish. However, there is a bit of literature that you can Google for silver perch and trout on their environmental tolerances (for Australian conditions even). It would seem there is a fair bit of wriggle room. Still, long term it's best to keep them in a happy range I guess.

To counter the pH issue I've placed a decent sized bag of shell grit in my sump tank. pH is now at about 6.4. To be honest I'm fairly happy with this and will just monitor it for a few months before doing anything else.

I've got a fair bit of this shell grit if you want to pop over and grab some.

Plants are loving the warmer weather and the lower pH is improving iron availability. When I add iron chelate the plants go nuts.

I really try not to fiddle with the water chemistry too much. Unless it goes bonkers you shouldn't have to play with it. Just nudge it over longer periods. If you treat it like a test tube you will be forking out a fair bit for chems.

Cheers

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Thanks to both of you, firstly Wilsil how much are you adding and secondly Doctor Fish I’ll take you up on that offer as I’d like to ask a few questions also.
It’s been a hectic afternoon as I’ve had to replace the 25mm tank fitting in my large growbed as I could not stop it leaking and it wasn’t draining fast enough so upped it to a 40mm job and was hoping for a magic transformation but after making the bell out of 90mm pipe it takes a while to kick in and I thought I’d would be as good as my IBC beds for speed and reliability. The closest GB to the FT isn’t getting much water flow but the end one is. Why? I just pulled apart all pipes to check for blocking but nothing and time lost. Fish tank is slightly murky with some debris but fish are eating and I can’t see if corners are dirty until I harvest them and do the upgrade. I wish I had a taller tank for the extra gravity force to drain into the beds which might help pump water quicker. It was good until recently but don’t know why the flow is so uneven. 25mm into fish tank and 50mm out of SLO. Am I doing something wrong?


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I am adding 1 teaspoon dissolved in a bucket of water at a time.
Always measure before I add.
The trout are every morning waiting for me to feed them. When I arrive with the bucket of food, they are at the front of the tank on the surface.
They are just like dogs. :-)

I noticed there are a few of those smaller (1500l) tanks for sale on facebook.

LOL, you are not wrong. Mine are the same. If I put food on the edge of the tank I recon I could teach them to walk.

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I’ve been adding a lot more than that so concerned as to why it’s not staying up there. The tanks for sale have been oval shaped and I’m not sold on that being much better than IBCs. Was up till 11:30 last night dismantling all pipes thinking I had an issue when I didn’t. Spent many hours yesterday and today timing my fill and emptying to find they were filling way too fast so spent hours fine tuning them. Also several trips tyretic shop for parts to get the 40mm setup to initiate syphon. Giving me the $&!!? Buggered if I know what to do sometimes.


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After searching and reading I see that by me stuffing around with the water flow that seemed to be the issue. Bugger me I’m tired now and have a night shift tonight. Was just concerned that the large 500L GB fills up in around 7-8 minutes. Hope that’s ok.

Sounds like a grind. I sent you a PM if you want to catch up.

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