Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello friends!

i'm bringing some fresh photos to let you see how things are working out

i'm gonna buy some more fish today as the basil uses more now + two died during my experiment + i added another plant for the fish in the aquarium, and i guess it's a hungry one because the pH still doesn't want to stay at 6.9 it rather goes towards 7.1

i tried feeding more, but my fish ended up like baloons, and i don't wanna give them more stomach cramps, so i'll add more fish
maybe a small fleet of gupies to fill in the small places still not occupied by the others

here's my little thingy

let's have a look at the roots and the fish
i gotta tell ya, everytime i look at the goldfish, i look how pretty she is, and how delicious would it taste on my plate if she continues to grow like that..mmmm and suprisingly i don't feel quilty as i feel when i eat a steak or something mammal.....strange but liberating
but no worries the gold fish is staying, i need her more in there then in my belly

Wow, it's amazing what a little proper nutrition will do.

nice case of how little things matter huh ?:)

what was wrong with ph 7.1 molj?

steve, nothing much, but the fact that it was going up more every day as the basil grew more. so every time i fed them i noticed that the ph went down but before it stayed at 6.8-6.9 even after feeding, now it locked at 7.0-7.1 even after feeding

ph was today steady at 6.7, and i did nothing but added fish and some water(ph~7)

hello

my basils are doing very fine, i think that in the next week we will see some more growth on the weakest one, since the roots have all reached the dwc zone. since i've noticed a pH down drift i've added a clone of rosemarin to thrive besides

a have a question regarding water pumps
do you use and inline one or a submersible one? someone said to me that cheaper pumps are better, because they fail as many times as the expencive ones, so you use less money. he also said that if the pump runs 24/7 u should expect it running for at least 1-2 years then you'd had to replace it

is that true according to your experience?

i was thinking on timing or using a float valve on the pump and using a flood tank to flood the grow beds when it is full....i mean a 400W pump uses a lot of energy runing 24/7

thank you for your answears, i was thinking if i'm writing this on the wrong thread, should i go to General system.... one? don't wanna crap on the wrong thread

have a good day!

Why a 400W pump. How big is your planned system?

1000L fish tank, + what's in the growbeds
so i'd need a 7000-9000L/h pump to circulate that the right way, and these pumps draw 350W at least i think?

If you were to run a continuous pump - which you suggested at one point, then a$40 pond pump running at less than 100 watts would do the job fine. Depends what you are trying to do.

hehe you'r right, i calculated the pump power and the result was 63,438 W
damn, i once bought a submersible pump that was rated 5000L/h and it sucked 350W!!

hello everyone!

i'm working on my big AP system and i've stumbled upon a question if is it safe to use molded pumps made out of iron(corrosive), these pumps are used for central heating in our houses.
can i use it despite the fact that it may rust a little due to slightly acidic enviroment(pH 6.8-->)?

tell me what you think about my pump theory?
thank you, the photos are bellow

I have one of these and they work without fail, but they were not designed to pump solids but potable water. However, mine has pumped lots of gunk, but mine is made for a commercial water heater. Looks like the same head. I see no reason to worry about the rust. It will only breakdown through bacterial action over time and be used by the plants. Once a biofilm covers the parts up then there will not be much rust. Its often black iron so it does not rust much anyway.

good news dan thank you, i needed a second oppinion!

i'd like to ask you another thing if you don't mind, if i use this pump i will have less heat issues in the summer, but our winters last for months and the temps are not much above freezing point or even under for a month at most

so i was thinking on using a submersible pump during winter time to add some heat, or would it be less of a hussle to make a solar water heater?

thank you again dan,
p.s. that carrot looks like someone's leg, is that your AP carrot?:)

molj,
A decent heater on an IBC would be 600W. The pump above is max 80W, and if very inefficient (50%) would output only 40W heat, which as we say over here, is a piss in the ocean.
I'm not saying don't do it, just, you'll probably suffer more losses than the pump puts out in heat.
You would need a BIG pump to add that much heat.
Off the top of my head I don't know how big your system is so I just gave the figures for 1000L.