Too Much fish poo in my grow beds - Aquaponic Gardening2024-03-29T15:31:35Zhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/forum/topics/too-much-fish-poo-in-my-grow-beds?commentId=4778851%3AComment%3A499759&x=1&feed=yes&xn_auth=noIf your ammonia and nitrite l…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2013-08-01:4778851:Comment:4997592013-08-01T10:45:00.000ZGeorgehttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/Geoge
<p>If your <span>ammoni<span>a <span>and nitrite levels <span>are OK, then perh<span>aps it is not yet <span>a problem. You could w<span>ait for your fish to re<span>ach t<span>arget weight.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
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<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>If your worms lived, then they will reproduce. Might help to <span>add more.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
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<p>You might want to plant heavily. Roots will add…</p>
<p>If your <span>ammoni<span>a <span>and nitrite levels <span>are OK, then perh<span>aps it is not yet <span>a problem. You could w<span>ait for your fish to re<span>ach t<span>arget weight.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
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<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>If your worms lived, then they will reproduce. Might help to <span>add more.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
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<p>You might want to plant heavily. Roots will add more surface area for nitrification. </p>
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<p></p> The largest fish is probably…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2013-07-31:4778851:Comment:4996052013-07-31T16:04:38.772ZRoger Baldwinhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/RogerBaldwin
<p>The largest fish is probably close to a pound, but the majority are still around 3/4 pound. My biofilter seems to be able to handle the ammonia load fine its only the solids that are becoming an issue. I am afraid that I may be pushing the limits with this many fish, but I just hate to harvest them when they are not quite big enough.</p>
<p>Actually about 3 weeks ago I removed every plant from my growbeds (actually every plant in my 20'X60' greenhouse), because the summer has brought a huge…</p>
<p>The largest fish is probably close to a pound, but the majority are still around 3/4 pound. My biofilter seems to be able to handle the ammonia load fine its only the solids that are becoming an issue. I am afraid that I may be pushing the limits with this many fish, but I just hate to harvest them when they are not quite big enough.</p>
<p>Actually about 3 weeks ago I removed every plant from my growbeds (actually every plant in my 20'X60' greenhouse), because the summer has brought a huge white fly infestation. My laissez faire approach to pest control has proven to be completely ineffective, imagine that. The only plant matter in my system is the duck weed, which is also in an IBC tote that I had originally designed for a DWC bed, but I use the duckweed so much (it has become a staple for my chickens) that I have not put a raft in this tank. your questions made me curious about how the numbers looked so I tested everything this morning. ammonia is at 0.25, nitrite is 0, pH was 7.6 (I have an issue with hard well water so this is lower than usual), and the nitrate test showed an alarming color of red that is way off the chart, I can only guess that it is well over 200ppm seeing as how the test only reads up to 160ppm. The fish seem to be unaffected by the high Nitrate, but I am going to use some of my system water on all my citrus and other nitrogen hungry plants around the nursery to try and use up some of those nitrates.</p>
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<p>When I say "in series" I mean the plumbing is in series, meaning it tees into one bed and then continues to the next bed. The majority of solids is deposited into the first bed. I was thinking of running a separate SLO line from my fish tank to the second bed to try and equalize the solids distribution. Either that or install a solids separator, before the first bed. Or maybe just harvest some fish... </p>
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<p>Amy's thread was helpful, thank you</p> 1) If your 40 fish are near h…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2013-07-31:4778851:Comment:4993432013-07-31T04:08:08.454ZJeffrey Iharahttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/JeffreyIhara
<p>1) If your 40 fish are near harvestable--approaching a pound or more--then this would be 40 lb. of fish for less than 20 square feet of growbed. If that's the case I'm impressed that your plants and growbed-biofilter are able to keep up. For that high a ratio, having a solids filter may not be such a bad idea to reduce the overall nitrogen load. Either that or you have some pretty heavy feeders going in your growbeds.</p>
<p>2) More worms could help. I don't think there's much risk in having…</p>
<p>1) If your 40 fish are near harvestable--approaching a pound or more--then this would be 40 lb. of fish for less than 20 square feet of growbed. If that's the case I'm impressed that your plants and growbed-biofilter are able to keep up. For that high a ratio, having a solids filter may not be such a bad idea to reduce the overall nitrogen load. Either that or you have some pretty heavy feeders going in your growbeds.</p>
<p>2) More worms could help. I don't think there's much risk in having excess worms.</p>
<p>3) By "in series" do you mean fish tank feeds bed 1, which drains into bed 2?</p>
<p>4) For solids filtration methods, a search on this site will offer up suggestions as well as debates on the pros/cons of removing solids. Check out Amy's fish poo thread on the Members Introduction forum.</p>