Beginner water questions - Aquaponic Gardening2024-03-28T13:00:23Zhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/forum/topics/beginner-water-questions?groupUrl=aquaponicsforbeginners&feed=yes&xn_auth=noFor one thing, your ammonia i…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2014-10-21:4778851:Comment:5835122014-10-21T14:50:31.088ZLeo White Bearhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/LeoWhiteBear
<p>For one thing, your ammonia is WAY too high. Try to keep the level between 3 - 4ppm, do not exceed 5ppm. With the ammonia at this level you are actually inhibiting the growth of bacteria. You will see some trace of Nitrites but that's about it. Do a 10% water change daily until the ammonia levels drop to 3ppm.</p>
<p> Your plants will grow in plain water but you put a drop of ammonia in the water and you will start to see that they will yellow out. You are bleaching the chlorophyll out…</p>
<p>For one thing, your ammonia is WAY too high. Try to keep the level between 3 - 4ppm, do not exceed 5ppm. With the ammonia at this level you are actually inhibiting the growth of bacteria. You will see some trace of Nitrites but that's about it. Do a 10% water change daily until the ammonia levels drop to 3ppm.</p>
<p> Your plants will grow in plain water but you put a drop of ammonia in the water and you will start to see that they will yellow out. You are bleaching the chlorophyll out of the plants.</p>
<p> My well water comes out at ph 4.4 and I have used it with no difficulties until the plants are established and getting good growth. All of the sudden the leaves start to wrinkle and curl. After I buffered the water they came back. I try to keep my pH around 6.5 - 7, and plants do very well</p> Vlad, Thank you. I will do…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2014-10-21:4778851:Comment:5834512014-10-21T14:00:25.205ZMike Beckmanhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/MikeBeckman
<p><br></br> Vlad, Thank you. I will do that. Just checked the tap water in the kitchen with my Taylor pool kit and once again the color is lighter than the lowest reading which is 7.0 on the tube. Thanks for the information and perspective. <br></br> <cite>Vlad Jovanovic said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/forum/topics/beginner-water-questions?groupUrl=aquaponicsforbeginners&#4778851Comment583450"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>Mike - so it seems…</p>
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<p><br/> Vlad, Thank you. I will do that. Just checked the tap water in the kitchen with my Taylor pool kit and once again the color is lighter than the lowest reading which is 7.0 on the tube. Thanks for the information and perspective. <br/> <cite>Vlad Jovanovic said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/forum/topics/beginner-water-questions?groupUrl=aquaponicsforbeginners&#4778851Comment583450"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>Mike - so it seems that you have your head wrapped around why you wouldn't want to add fish at a time when ammonia is 6ppm, nitrites are starting make a showing, and pH is unknown. Keep that line of thinking.</p>
<p>Rain water is pretty soft and aggressive having almost no mineral content (other than a few acidic pollutants like sulfur that it picks up along the way). Though I'm surprised that your city's tap water tests below pH 6. Most municipalities will raise the pH to protect pipes and equipment.</p>
<p>You should do the same. You want to raise your pH to a hospitable level. If it is your PlantIt media, you may have a very hard time keeping your pH in an acceptable range for any length of time.</p>
<p>You'll need a reliable way to obtain a true pH reading below 6. I'd recommend going to the local hydro store and getting a reliable pH pen, so that you can determine the source of your woes, and know what pH value you are actually dealing with.</p>
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</blockquote> Mike - so it seems that you h…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2014-10-21:4778851:Comment:5834502014-10-21T13:41:33.647ZVlad Jovanovichttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/VladJovanovic
<p>Mike - so it seems that you have your head wrapped around why you wouldn't want to add fish at a time when ammonia is 6ppm, nitrites are starting make a showing, and pH is unknown. Keep that line of thinking.</p>
<p>Rain water is pretty soft and aggressive having almost no mineral content (other than a few acidic pollutants like sulfur that it picks up along the way). Though I'm surprised that your city's tap water tests below pH 6. Most municipalities will raise the pH to protect pipes and…</p>
<p>Mike - so it seems that you have your head wrapped around why you wouldn't want to add fish at a time when ammonia is 6ppm, nitrites are starting make a showing, and pH is unknown. Keep that line of thinking.</p>
<p>Rain water is pretty soft and aggressive having almost no mineral content (other than a few acidic pollutants like sulfur that it picks up along the way). Though I'm surprised that your city's tap water tests below pH 6. Most municipalities will raise the pH to protect pipes and equipment.</p>
<p>You should do the same. You want to raise your pH to a hospitable level. If it is your PlantIt media, you may have a very hard time keeping your pH in an acceptable range for any length of time.</p>
<p>You'll need a reliable way to obtain a true pH reading below 6. I'd recommend going to the local hydro store and getting a reliable pH pen, so that you can determine the source of your woes, and know what pH value you are actually dealing with.</p>
<p></p> Go buy about 50 feeder goldf…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2014-10-21:4778851:Comment:5836032014-10-21T13:04:36.217ZPhil Slatonhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/PhilSlaton
<p>Go buy about 50 feeder goldfish ... about $.25 cents each. Toss them in that tank and get their poop in the system. If some die, get them out of the tank right away so that the ammonia level does not go up. Get some Aqualife and treat the tank accordingly. Guess that I will start sell and shipping it since I am a dealer.</p>
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<p>No you do not need urine now.</p>
<p>Go buy about 50 feeder goldfish ... about $.25 cents each. Toss them in that tank and get their poop in the system. If some die, get them out of the tank right away so that the ammonia level does not go up. Get some Aqualife and treat the tank accordingly. Guess that I will start sell and shipping it since I am a dealer.</p>
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<p>No you do not need urine now.</p> Vlad - Makes sense about the…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2014-10-21:4778851:Comment:5833622014-10-21T12:48:22.711ZMike Beckmanhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/MikeBeckman
<p>Vlad - Makes sense about the PH. I tested the tap water and got the same reading(color). Most of the water in the tank is rain water and that also tested the same. I thought the PH solution might be bad but when I used the PH test for my pool, got the same color. Also the media is 45 lb bags of PlantIT clay pellets. </p>
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<p>Phil - I thought urine was to raise the ammonia level and I am already around the 6 level. I havent added any fish because I thought the idea was to get the…</p>
<p>Vlad - Makes sense about the PH. I tested the tap water and got the same reading(color). Most of the water in the tank is rain water and that also tested the same. I thought the PH solution might be bad but when I used the PH test for my pool, got the same color. Also the media is 45 lb bags of PlantIT clay pellets. </p>
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<p>Phil - I thought urine was to raise the ammonia level and I am already around the 6 level. I havent added any fish because I thought the idea was to get the water correct before adding fish. You seem to be saying that adding the fish first gets the water to the right level??</p>
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<p>Appreciate the responses and any further thoughts. Thank you both</p> You need to treat your tank(s…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2014-10-20:4778851:Comment:5834282014-10-20T20:15:53.608ZPhil Slatonhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/PhilSlaton
<p>You need to treat your tank(s) with Aqualife. I'm a dealer, but find a dealer in your area. We treat our tanks once a week with Aqualife and have none of the challenges that you mention. Cycled or not, do a weekly 25% water change.</p>
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<p>Also when my guy needs to cycle a tank without Aqualife, he pees in a jar and dumps his urine into the tank ... it works! We also maintain a tank of cheap feeder gold fish. When beginning the cycling process, we dump about 50 of them into the…</p>
<p>You need to treat your tank(s) with Aqualife. I'm a dealer, but find a dealer in your area. We treat our tanks once a week with Aqualife and have none of the challenges that you mention. Cycled or not, do a weekly 25% water change.</p>
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<p>Also when my guy needs to cycle a tank without Aqualife, he pees in a jar and dumps his urine into the tank ... it works! We also maintain a tank of cheap feeder gold fish. When beginning the cycling process, we dump about 50 of them into the tank to be cycled. After the tank is cycling, those gold fish that we cannot catch, we put 2-8 inch catfish in with the remaining feeder goldfish. The cats eat the remaining goldfish and also add good poop to the tank.</p> The API test kit only goes to…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2014-10-20:4778851:Comment:5832842014-10-20T20:00:44.371ZVlad Jovanovichttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/VladJovanovic
<p>The API test kit only goes to pH 6. So anything below that (4.6, 5 etc...) shows up as pH 6.0...so you really don't know currently where you pH level is actually at.</p>
<p>Check the pH of your source water (tap water, well water...whatever)</p>
<p>And let us know what type of media you used to fill the grow bed with. There has been some sporadic "goofiness" with certain batches of LECA (the little clay balls).…</p>
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<p>The API test kit only goes to pH 6. So anything below that (4.6, 5 etc...) shows up as pH 6.0...so you really don't know currently where you pH level is actually at.</p>
<p>Check the pH of your source water (tap water, well water...whatever)</p>
<p>And let us know what type of media you used to fill the grow bed with. There has been some sporadic "goofiness" with certain batches of LECA (the little clay balls).</p>
<p><a href="http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/forum/topics/bad-batch-of-plant-t-media-leca?commentId=4778851%3AComment%3A581751" target="_blank">http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/forum/topics/bad-batch-of-plant-t-media-leca?commentId=4778851%3AComment%3A581751</a></p>
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