1st System

[Charles Young]

Hello all,

 

This is my first attempt at putting together a system.

I built it this weekend with stuff around the house.

The tank is a 52 gallon rubbermaid tote with 35 gal in it the grow beds are 14 gal totes, and I used 3/4" gravel as the medium.  The siphons are 1/2" stand pipe with a 2" bell.  The pump is from an old pond I had, its probably 600+ gph at 8' (it was in the shed!).

 

I didn't rinse the gravel and was amazed at how clear the water was on day two.

 

My question is this I have the water flow turned way down, and it takes about 10 minutes to fill and 3 minutes to drain - should I slow this down even more?  

 

Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.

 

PS how do you deal with heavy rains?  In Southern AZ we can get 5" in 30 minutes

[TCLynx]

If the siphons are starting and stopping properly, then your flow is right.

 

Put an overflow on the fish tank (with something to keep the fish from going out it during a heavy rain.  Then hopefully during a heavy rain you get a nice top up and refresh to the system without loosing any fish over the top of the tank or anything like that.

 

If getting those kinds of heavy rains often keep a closer eye on your pH since rain water won't have any natural buffers in it so you may occasionally need to add something to keep the pH from dropping too low.

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Charles,

Heavy rain to me is a problem. I started my system with rain water because i wanted to have more control on the nutrient availability in the AP. After about 5 months i found that i simply couldn't buffer the PH at all. There are problems with rain water and PH over time. I had to start toping up with tap water and only after about 1 month PH started to remain steady.Tap water has a whole range of micro and macro nutrient not found in rain water and which is necessary for plant and fish.

 

If you can shade from rain its good, besides i think overflow is just throwing valuable nutrient needed by plants and for the overall wellbeing of your AP.

[Charles Young]

Thanks for the input!

I think I still may be a little confused on the drain and fill timing. is a constant 10 min fill 3 min drain ok?

 

Can I pack plant much closer together (like tomatoes) than I would in dirt?

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Charles,

Generally if you have the right fish/media/water ratios(rules of thumb on the main page) and cycle over the volume water  of the fish tank approx. once every hour this will for the most part dictate your drain/fill cycles. Some plants like tomatoes tend to do better with less cycles and ones like lettuce fare better with more frequent cycles so its a good idea to "group" specific plants to different beds. Yes we have closer plant spacings in AP but that won't mean we'll overstock plants beyond the bed capacity. Try to imagine(or look up some pics online) the size of a mature plant's roots and give it that much room from the one next to it. Having said all this, i know that AP is always going to teach us exactly what's needed through direct experience, and this happens to be the best part of AP!

[TCLynx]

Many people run with constant pumping and the siphons letting the bed flood and then drain as fast as they do.  You don't really get too much control over the speed of that with siphons since the flow rate has to make the siphon work and without changing the size of the siphon you only have a narrow window of operation.  If the siphon is working properly at the flow rate you have, then call it good. 

Aquaponics is all about balance.  See the bacteria would like a constant flow/flood (provided there is plenty of aeration for them.)  The plants (though this does vary) often like fewer cycles and more drained time.  But the truth is, it pretty much all works.  You just have to sort out what will work best for you.

 

I'd say if you got it working, go with it for a time and see how it all goes.  As you get cycled you will learn that you either like how it's working or that you want to tinker and change things.  For now 10 min to fill and 3 min to drain is probably just fine.

 

You can plant closer together to a point.  Eventually if you plant too close together the slightly faster growing plants will be shading the smaller plants which won't do as well and if too many of the same kind of plants are crammed too close, you may suffer more from pests or plant diseases that will find it easy to move from one plant to the next.  But again, go ahead and plant close and you will get the benefit of eating many of the small plants as you thin them to give others more space as they grow (this is especially nice with beats since you can eat the whole plant.)

 

 

[Richard Wyman]

Nice little first system. 

You asked about tomatoes, they get pretty big root mass but it may be possible to put them a foot apart, then train them on a trellis or something to give them room spread.

[Charles Young]

I could use a little advice on my water and where I am in the cycle.  I am using test strips for everything but ammonia and I'm using the drops and test tube for that. The readings are:

ph 5.5

Alkaline 0

Hard 1000

Nitrite 20

Nitrate 100

Ammonia .25

I don't have fish yet.  The only thing I have added to the system is a small amount of fish emulsion when I first started and some ironite Sunday (great growth, yellow leaves).  I had to replace about half of the water a week ago (something stuck in the ball valve and turned it into a spray head with about a 10 foot reach).

Am I just being impatient?

Do I need more grow beds?

Thanks

[TCLynx]

First, I recommend getting an actual dropper test kit since the test strips are not all that accurate.

 

Your pH is too low if that test strip is actually accurate.  You want to keep your pH above 6 or your bacteria may quit working and most people take action on the pH if it gets below 6.5.  You don't want to move the pH too quick though as it is easy to over shoot.

[Charles Young]

And the best way to move ph is.....

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Charles,

We have a great resource on the main page "Rules of Thumb" designed to assist newcomers in setting up AP. I personally use calcium carbonate from the Agricultural Shops also known as hydrated lime, about 1 tablespoon per 200 gallons water. A PH closer to 8ppm is ideal for cycling. Bear in mind, at your present PH you probably have a very minute quantity of bacteria so it may take a bit longer for you to cycle from when you start raising PH.

[TCLynx]

Well to raise pH, garden lime works, you can dissolved some in water and add it a bit at a time to the system and let it mix/circulate in and test the pH again in a bit.  This can be tricky to figure out the right measurment to use to move the pH the amount you want.  Generally it is best to only move the pH about .1-.2 per day.

Baking soda can be used to adjust pH and it will work faster than garden lime but it also will add sodium to the system which you don't want too much of that.

Hydrated lime (slaked lime, quicklime) can be use as well but you have to be careful with it as it can be a bit caustic and can move the pH really fast too, it is available from ace hardware or other places like that.

 

For a longer term slow release buffer, many people will hang a mesh bag of crushed oyster shells or chicken grit in their system.  It is important to use these things in such a manner that you can take them back out if the pH is getting or staying too high.  So once you get your pH back up above 6.5 you might get yourself a bag of chicken grit or shells to hang in the system for a slower acting way to control your pH.

[Charles Young]

Thank you!