Comment

Comment by Holly Curtis on March 9, 2012 at 10:27am

Rob Nash & Michael Welber - Thank you for the book recommendation. I have ordered it and expect it tomorrow!

Heidi Burrows - Hope things stabilize soon and am glad you shared your experience for the rest of us to learn from.

randy proctor - I needed the reminder to sometimes back off on feeding...I think I over feed so this is a good reminder for me.

Michael Welber - glad you got the siphon working!

TCLynx - thank you for the diagrams. I am excited to look them over!

Comment by TCLynx on March 8, 2012 at 1:20pm

Hi Holly, here is a link to some diagrams I've done over the years, some of them might help give you some ideas.  diagrams

I will caution against using gutter filled with media as your grow bed since I fear it will be too small/shallow and you will experience too much trouble with clogging and overflows as roots fill up the space between the media.

Here is another link that might help you get your mind around some of the other basic physical elements of an aquaponics system.

plumbing class with diagrams

Comment by Heidi Burrows on March 3, 2012 at 9:07am

Hi Randy - That is exactly what is up with my system!  LOL  I just went through this morning and tried to get more plants in system - they are at the stage where they are stalled..ugh timing is everything - so I will have to be patient and hope the fish make it - I feel sorry I am putting them through this which is why I went for the 15 cent each to start.   My net pots seedlings are doing well but the roots haven't reached the water flow yet - most are still keeping moist from the wicks - fingers x all will right itself in a few days or so... thanks for the help everyone!

Comment by Michael Welber on March 3, 2012 at 8:27am

Figured out my own problem. Hydroton had gotten into the siphon itself and was impeding the water flow. Whew! 

Comment by randy proctor on March 3, 2012 at 8:15am

Heidi do you have much of a root system in your bed, if you do not have enough established plants with good roots you would not have enough filtration to take care of the nitrates/nitrites.  It could be one of your problems.   Good bacteria etc takes time to establish.  Ours was all over the place the first 4-6 weeks.  Drove us crazy.  We kept doing water changes and backed off of the amount of food for fish per day, At first we stopped feeding like you did for 2-3 days and then changes of 1/3 water and very little food and put in more roots established plants in grow medium.  All our sysems are bell and siphon systems.   

Comment by rnbowarrior on March 3, 2012 at 7:18am

May I reccomend adding worms to your beds. I cycled my system for 2 weeks using kelp exctract. System has been stable for 18 months now. Usually it's about 7.3 ph with .2 ppm nh3 and no detectable nitrites or nitrates. I have had some small hiccups like low flow pump due to clogged screen, and some stick siphons... But really it's trial and error with some serious monitoring. Best of growing to you all.

Comment by Heidi Burrows on March 3, 2012 at 7:13am

Hi Randy - Thanks I have stopped feeding for about 3 days now and the water has always been clear which is why I was surprised the level had spiked so much... which is a good reason for other Newbies to remember to keep testing water as it can change in an instant - set up good habits early before you have problems.  So if I already did the water change with no results - should I do another???

Comment by Michael Welber on March 3, 2012 at 7:12am

Trouble. I pulled out the bell siphon to clean it and now it won't restart again. The water drains slowly but I don't get that big rush of water. As a result the grow bed water gets too high and I'm going to have to turn the water on and off manually until I can get the siphon to restart. What should I do???

Comment by randy proctor on March 3, 2012 at 7:09am

back off of feeding your fish for a couple of days (2) and then cut back on the amount you are feeding them.  If your water is real cloudy etc do a 1/3 water change as well.  This is what has helped us in the past.  Good luck

Comment by Heidi Burrows on March 3, 2012 at 6:35am

I am hoping someone can offer advice... My system is 2 months old I have a 2x4x12" ebb and flo along with two 5ft length NFT tubes running off a 29 gallon tank with goldfish.  All has been going well - cycling I thought was complete - now in last few days my water test has seen a spike in nitrites.  Amm is 0ppm, PH is 7.5, Nitrites are 5.0 ppm (PURPLE - OMG!) it has always been 0 and Nitrates have been between 6-8ppm.  The Amm was a 2.0 ppm for the last 3 water tests but then dropped to 0 the other day.  Big problem is fish are starting to die - I did a 15 % water change with no change in the spike.  I did read a bit about adding salt and posted earlier on AG but had no responses as to whether I should do this or something else - or let the bio system run its coarse.  I am just a very nervous mother hen at the moment as I do not want to mess around and find out I caused more harm then good.  Please if anyone has advice I could really use it.  Thanks! 

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