All Discussions Tagged 'Leaching' - Aquaponic Gardening2024-03-28T22:49:19Zhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=Leaching&feed=yes&xn_auth=noPea Gravel Media Problemstag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2010-05-03:4778851:Topic:32092010-05-03T23:06:53.000ZWilliam Shermanhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/WilliamSherman
I was setting up a new system and went to a local nursery and purchased a trailer load of pea gravel. The gravel really looked good, a mix ranging from 1/4" down to almost sand sized. My wife and I washed the gravel until the water turned clear and proceeded to put it in our grow beds (GB). We have a 250 gal food grade liquid shipping contain which I sunk into the ground, as a Fish Tank (FT).<br></br><br></br>We filled the tank with well water (ph 6.8) and added aeration and fish. We saw algae…
I was setting up a new system and went to a local nursery and purchased a trailer load of pea gravel. The gravel really looked good, a mix ranging from 1/4" down to almost sand sized. My wife and I washed the gravel until the water turned clear and proceeded to put it in our grow beds (GB). We have a 250 gal food grade liquid shipping contain which I sunk into the ground, as a Fish Tank (FT).<br/><br/>We filled the tank with well water (ph 6.8) and added aeration and fish. We saw algae growing and felt we were home free. We started circulating through our GB and suddenly we had the "red river" in our FT. We couldn't see anything in the tank, so we drained it and got the fish out into clean water. I got in and power washed the FT and started with new water. My wife and I once again washed our gravel, 1 cup at a time and we started out again with clean GBs. We also purchased a 5-way tester and began daily ph testing. Mind you, we started with well water with a ph of 6.8. Upon starting to circulate through the GB, we saw our ph start climbing. We tried adding vinegar and ph-down, but nothing would get it back in range. Shortly thereafter our fish started dying off and we finally lost them all. Our FT remained pretty clear (a little cloudy, but could still see the bottom). We are currently in a holding pattern, no fish and no plants in the GB.<br/><br/>We are pondering our next step. We are considering doing another wash of the pea gravel to include a soak in pool acid before the final rinse to hopefully neutralize what ever is leaching out of the pebbles. Has anyone out there encountered a problem like this and do you have any recommendations?<br/><br/>Frustrated in East Texas<br/>