Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

added more plants to the system because one tube wasn't cleaning the water enough

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There's just something that seems right about those pipes and plants ...

Whats in the pipes rb? I assume you have gravel or some other sort of filter medium...

page one tim

i think its just water in the pipes

theres nothing in the top two pipes just water the bottom pipe has lava rock aquarium gravel green sand and i think some sea shells

Sounds like you need a bit more finer filtration. The plants don't clean the water as such. They don't remove the solids and particles from the water... They are only there to remove the nitrate and trace elements from the water, so you don't have to do water changes.

Agreed (he says not have back read many pages of this thread) you need some media to house bacteria to create the nitrites from the amonia, then more bacteria create phosphates and nitrates from the nitrites. Solids filtering imho is not so important, especiall in a slow pumping system, as they tend to settle out in the tank and be able to be vacuumed later. It does make for an ugly though. Of the flipside it's a good gauge of how dirty your tank is.

i have alot of media in the 3rd tube on the bottom its about 5 feet long and completely full so the water has to pass through. i have the media arranged in layers lava rock then aquarium gravel then sand then gravel agian and then lava rock this removes the solids and provides a place for the bacteria to live. it has worked very well for the past few months nitrate level stays the same and no major ph changes never had a problem with solids everything seems to break down fast

hey rblaster any updates?
from what it looks like to be very stabile right now. do you think it is balanced?

-df