Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Sounds good, then.

We had some rain last night, not much but enough to add some water to the fish pool (around half an inch). Not a water change but almost as good.

Still no deaths and fish appear perky. Every plant that's got it's roots down is taking off like there's no tomorrow. Could swear they're growing before my eyes. Also some green slime has appeared in some of the pipes, so I guess I've got nutes! Another sign is that there's some green slime growing in a few of the pipes and my water has gone murky

Oh Dear, my testing kits gone strange (just when I had an attack of "poor little fish, they look so hungry"

On Sunday morning I decided to up the feed (I know shouldn't have, given past fish death experience ). I normally feed 4 x .5 teaspoons to the remaining little silvers (and big fat goldfish); but I noticed they still seemed to be looking...20 minutes later at around 10 x .5 teaspoons I decided to stop

Then in a fit of madness I fed them more at lunchtime and continued on into Monday and Today

So after feeding tonight, I came to my senses and thought maybe I've just pushed my tank over the edge, better check the water quality...

At first I was sure the kit had expired or something because, there appeared to be NO ammonia or nitrite and just a little nitrate (see pic), so I broke out my old strip test and same results.

So here they are (hopefully this means I've cycled). I plan to test again on Saturday

Notice the PH, it doesn't move much (especially downwards). maybe I should have called myself bicarbman or something, oh well I think I'm buffered (gh and kh never change either)

Looks like it. Be careful about changing your feeding regime too quickly (upward I mean) even with a cycled system, as you will cop ammonia and nitrite spikes. You cannot afford to have an ammonia spike with pH that high.

I plan on sticking to my current increased feed until Saturday and then check the measurements again and maybe up a little (depending on the fish etc)

Been a while since I've had much to say so thought it was time to post some of what's happening with my system:

The weather went cold on me at Hawthorndene for a while so the fish almost stopped eating and I invested in a fish feeder (once a day spread over up to 5 hours), which seems to be feeding them enough at the moment.

Threw away my timers and went to flood and drain, with a simple ( ha ) loop syphon that only took me about a week to get working reliably. Upped my pumps to mainly 6000 LPH and changed the design so that all water feeds through the clay balls BEFORE going into the NFT in the greenhouse.

Did the last when I found the roots of the plants covered in sludge...seems I'd overfed, then cleaned/stirred up the debris in the pond, which got sucked up by the greenhouse pump......


Then all my leaves started going paler and paler... again, iron deficiency (which I should have remembered but never mind).

But at last the plants were all taking off again, until....

caterpillars

tried the soap spray and the check leaves every night and kill the buggers, with no real luck and then saw the reference to the Yates Dipel product which seems to have done the job and hasn't harmed my poor long suffering fish.

So now at last everything appears to be going well, system's cycled. waters clean and starting to warm up, plants are taking off like rockets.

So now all I have to do is wait for a while for some more fingerlings to take the numbers up again, and slowly increase feed as required.

Hey reading my own post I've detected a pattern:

1. Read the forum
2. Do lots of research
3. Come up with own design (ignoring any advice which you don't like)
4. make lots of mistakes
5. Tinker like crazy, making sure to change at least two things at once
6. learn patience
7. throw timers away and go to flood and drain like lots of forum members
8. finally admit some of your ideas sucked and change your system to match the advice you ignored in the first place
9.Finally, get a working stable system
10. repeat 1-9 as the mood strikes

Anyone else gone through a similar pattern?

An important point for all to consider when using nft trays

yep.

i seem to like number 5 for some reason

yeah, I tend to 5 a bit, didn't need to do 7

You forgot:
"5a. prepare to enter HSM "


Think we have all gone through the list at least once

Been lurking for a while; so though it was about time I actually posted.

Everything's been going fine with plenty of plant growth, although I'm having problems with water temp. (too cold for the silvers a lot of the time).

I'm also having issues with a lot of my plants not flowering very well. The cucumbers and strawberries are doing fine; but the tomatoes, beans, peas seem to be very reluctant to flower at all

Anyway here's a few photo's

And here's phase 2 (or the beginnings anyway). Quick question, I'm going to be using the fibreglass baths as growbeds, has anone else used these? If so how much support do they need? I plan to sit the base on bricks and support the top with wood and sleepers.

PS The pic quality is not too good because my camera batteries are flat so I've used that old standby the mobile phone cam

Hi E2 - we are having trouble with the tomatoes, peas and capsicums which are in the ground. I think it has something to do with the strange weather we are having in Adelaide.

Where did you pick up the baths from, I'm about to start looking for some myself?