Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Then again, there is this new RSG filter that JP and les have been trialling! Might mean no water changes due to nitrates!

LES and JP: have any of you noticed a rise in NITRITES while running the RSG?

i only ask becasue there are two forms of nitrate reduction, one to N2 gas and the other backwards to No2

The way i see it is a tank will drop 5 deg a day and my tanks are in the ground and lined with coolroom material

maybe, but you cant use yours as an example because they go through grow beds which strip / add heat.

i was more talking of people that wanted to keep a IBC off-line in extreme summer / winter to finnish grow out.

Oh, i just remembered your system can be all individially isolated............ i can see a test case coming up for the chiller

I have a steady 0.25 nitrites, both before and after RSGs. I suppose I could cut back the feed to get rid of that, but the fish have not been bothered by it.

Wow Steve!

You've put a lot of thought into it!

In the house we are hoping to move into the room I have picked for my computer room has a wood heater against the other side of the wall so it should stay toasty warm. I'd be happy to have them in there if they were still around for the worst of the cold weather. They could also snuggle up to the chimney of the wood stove if they were under the back veranda. It's pretty protected there and I'm sure they would like the heat. It would cut down the amount of heat being lost and power being used.

How long do they take to grow out anyway?

(I think I've hijacked too, not really about silvers, sorry. )

Hope to get some silvers first, before I play with more exotic things.

What is you estimate on the % of nitrate being processed by the RSG as opposed to the GBs Janet?

0.25 aint gonna hurnt anything, especially if you have even half a ppt salt.
maybe its a combination reaction...............hmmmmmm

cool, thanks for the update.

I'm not really sure how to measure that, VB. I see a lot of variables in that equation: nitrate level, water volume, ammonia/nitrite/nitrate generated each day, volume of RSG, water flow....ick!

I can tell you that once my RSGs kicked in, the nitrates dropped from 150 to something reasonable (like under 40) overnight. I can try to give another data point in a little while now that I am running only one RSG instead of 2.

That's cool Janet - only wanted a stab in the dark. When the nitrate was at 150, was it still rising? Did the plants kick off around then also (to help contribute to the reduction).

The plant level and growth was steady throughout, but not insane. I had wrestled the nitrates down from 1000+ to 150 with water changes. Hated to do that, but when I realized how high it was, I got really concerned. I just can't imagine plants reducing nitrate that extremely overnight. Of course, Les doesn't even have plants in his RSG test system, and yet got the nitrate reduction.

I am not doubting that the RSG did it Janet. The info you gave is what I was after. The fact that it had got up to 1000 and since the RSG was added has stayed down, indicates to me that it is responsible for a good share of the reduction. Ta.

Giving the RSG a week to settle down and see how it fairs, will post the figures on Saturday to compare with last weeks

Has any one a contact number for Kangaroo ground fish

lyndsay 0419828676

I saw the pictures of their 12m growbeds in F&F's system topic, so I went searching for more info. Found this:

Property ID: 5711
Suburb: KANGAROO GROUND
36 Henley Road, Kangaroo Ground

Land Area: 8.1 Hectares
Zone: Rural
Industry: Fish Farm
Housing: 3 Bedrooms plus Study

Property plus Business sale for 1.25 Million

http://www.98989898.com.au/ns/mh/menus.asp?menuid=buy