Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

If you go to a produce supplier you should be able to buy shell grit in a big bag. You use it with poultry to strengthen shells. Shell grit doesn't cost much either.

There goes my dreams of an online shell business

VB i'd definatily incorporate some into your beds, i'm not sure how fine shell grit is or even what size we are after

I'm fairly sure EB has incorporated them into his bed also

Aren't these pond the ones that you have been doing the water changes on becasue of the PH? If so then you are probably running much less than 5ppt now. But i may be getting confused between your aquarium.

Steve

It is the aquarium that I am having the PH problems with. Shell grit didn't occur to me . I have it handy from when I had my chooks, so I have put a handfull into a bag dangling from the side of the aquarium. Fish aren't looking very happy anymore, don't know how much longer they are going to put up with this.

Tonight has been a nightmare. Cannister filter on aquarium (which also runs the water through grow bed) didn't start after the water change. Pulled it appart and cleaned the impella, got it working again . Now if a dirty filter means a clean aquarium, my aquarium must be the cleanest in the world. Talk about filthy. Just emptying out the water in it must have got rid a massive amount of filth.

VB, maybe the amount of decaying matter in there was causing some problem? Cut back on the feeding while you are having these problems.

Trust me, i know what it feels like to have these issues. And why is it that its so LATE when this stuff happens? If you have one of those re-useable bags that you put carbon into then fill it with shell grit and incorporate it into your cannister filter.

Steve

Yes, it was your filter VB.

If it was my filter I'd beter give it a better rinse out (with aquarium water of course) tonight. All I did last night was get it going again and emply the muck from the cannister. I didn't take the baskets appart to rinse the media or sponges at all.

Filters yikes!

This sentence is typed 10 minutes after the "filters yikes" as AA did madly dash to the Kokopu tank and rinse the filter.

Once your filter gets full, anaerobic pockets are created. Then bacteria you don't want arrive. They can definately cause grief.

I have the sponge in my Kokopu tank because it is cycling, so I want to keep it cleaner rather than raise nutrients just yet, and I was getting the stone dust to put back in the system.

Normally I have no filters near my Aquaponics except my Aquaponics, but the sponge filters do get used to collect bacteria etc so I try to keep one running somewhere all the time so it is mature.

Without filters there's less to go wrong, and a more efficient feed:produce ratio.

I just plumb to a drilled container like many others and draw water through this.

The sponges should definately be rinsed, and the media if it is gunky. Hell, with that pH rinse the whole lot and give it some good water changes as well with pre amended top up water.

"Ohhhhhh, right..............." steve says sheepishly..........

I had better chek my cannister in my indoor tank, as while i have been assuming that it was simply lack of KH buffering capacity of the water i would have expected it to go back up now.

And there i was saying..........i cant believe how long my filter has gone without being cleaned

That's 3 of us

Took the sponges out of my cannister filter. Put hydroton in that section instead. Also gave it all a bit of a rinse to get the crap out. It certainly was filthy because despite me emptying out a huge amount of crap that was in the water of the filter last night, it was nearly as bad again when I did it this morning.

See how you go VB, you might find that there is not enough solids filtration in your system becasue of the small amount of media and the fact that you generally can see more of and pay more attention to a glass aquarium

I don't intend to keep the perch in there for too much longer. I transferred 5 or so to the pond this afternoon as a trial. Friigin hell those Jades are almost impossible to catch. Thought the things were going to kill themselves banging into things. Does anybody have a clever may to catch them (I did remove most things from the tank in the end - but was still really hard). I ended up catching them by letting them hide in my fake log then putting the net over 1 end and my hand over the other.

glad to see it s not just me!

I only attempted when the were the original fingerling size and that was hard!

I'd dare not attempt it now wile itwas filled, as i have some quite coarse textured large rocks in there that they will rip themselves open on.

I found that by draining most of the water out it made it VERY easy for a 200Lt aquarium just pump the water out to a 200l blue drum, then back in again when you have finnished. IT make it MUCH easier to catch them or just a BIG net that just fits in the tank

Put 3 teaspoons of PH up in my 200 litre aquarium this afternoon. Just tested PH and it is up to something between 7 & 7.5. Didn't think that there would be such a large change. Fish don't look stressed, so hopefully all is okay. Will forego the water change tonight now, as I have done 50% changes each of the last 2 nights.

Must go and put the halogen on the pond to see how the Jades are going in with the big silvers.

Those big changes denote your KH is out of whack VB.