Comment

Comment by TCLynx on May 4, 2013 at 9:01am

George,

    You have to make sure the sump is lower than the fish tank water level and the grow beds since siphons have to be able to drain to someplace lower.  The sump tank needs to be big enough to handle all the beds being flooded or drained at the same time. 

Don't Murray's plans and video explain this?

Basically you will need to fill the fish tank up to the point it starts flowing into the sump and you will need to fill the sump up to the max.  Then once you have media in your grow beds, you start your pump running and the beds will flood and drain.  You probably won't be able to start your beds flooding and draining until you have media in them since the media displaces a good amount of water.

Comment by George Johnson on May 4, 2013 at 8:40am

I am about to move to a location that will allow me to start my first ap system. I decided on chop mark 2 after acquiring MH video with plans. My question is how much water should be in the system. Will just filling things up and allowing the water to seek its own levels by just running the pump before cycling work?

Comment by TCLynx on May 3, 2013 at 8:52pm

Remember that most electronic testers are only going to be as good as their elements plus ongoing maintenance (most pH meters require regular calibration as well as storage solutions and element replacement which generally winds up costing as much if not more than using the test kits.)  Other electronic meters like for the ammonia, nitrite or nitrate are hard to find and when you do find them, they are costly.

Truth is, once your system is well established, you are not going to be testing for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate every day anymore.  You might only test all of them once a month and test others maybe once a week.  pH and temperature are the only ones you are likely to need to test daily or every other day.

Comment by Leo White Bear on May 1, 2013 at 8:36pm

No. actually dispersing the algae into the FT water will not harm the fish but, you are suspending the algae into the water that will also get into the GB.  If you have areas in the GB that stagnate the algae will die and start to decompose causing anerobic conditions.  This will cause your ammonia to rise so you may want to keep this in mind.  If the ammonia does rise unexplainable use your nose and check for rotten smells this may be the cause.

Comment by Linda Logan on May 1, 2013 at 6:37pm

I realize my statements were confusing.  My nitrates are about 80 ppm.  I wanted to know if releasing the algae into the water was harmful?

Comment by Leo White Bear on May 1, 2013 at 12:59pm

Linda-
Sooner or later your fish will die, they will succum to NITRATE poisoning. Although it is stated that nitrates are not harmful to fish, in high levels they are. somewhere around 200 - 250ppm will start to harm your fish. They will act as though they have been poisoned by amonia, they will start to act erratically, swim in circles, and slowly die. At the levels we are concerned with in aquaponics everything will go well - so in answering your question "do nitrates hurt your fish?" if you do not keep the nitrates in check by adding additional plants or removing some fish- Yes.

Comment by Linda Logan on May 1, 2013 at 9:45am

I really like what TC just said.  The orientation of my GH is mostly east.  The cable to my south is plywood and the person who designed my system did so with 3 sumps which pump water on timers to my grow beds.  I've had huge aphid infestation and some spider mites, I've killed all my plants and lost some goldfish and have a water heating system which is less that efficient.  There was a point where I thought it was all a disaster and wondered what I'd gotten myself into.  Should I just tear out the AP system and have a beautiful GH?  I decided I would make it work.  It might never be optimum given the design constraints but it would work.

Now I have lettuce, chard, broccoli forming heads, kale, peas, basil, zucchini, radicchio,small melon and pepper plants.  I think my tilapia just had babies.  It appears they were carried up in my return water to the sumps as I see very small fish swimming there.

I love things to be perfect and so I get to deal with not perfect and be happy anyway.

I do have a question:  my FT is built with white scrim fabric (like in a DWC).  I developed a lot of green algae lately.  I have high nitrates but everything else is good.  I scrubbed it off to some extent.  Does this hurt the fish.  Should I leave it alone?  I'm keeping the cover on the FT now that was exposing it to sun.  I'm assuming this is what promoted the algae.  Your advise is appreciated.

thanks

Comment by TCLynx on May 1, 2013 at 7:11am

Doug it isn't about the frequency of the siphon cycle so much as you want to make sure you are pumping and filtering enough water per hour to keep your fish tank from experiencing ammonia spikes once it is well cycled up.  Doing things like leaving the pump off for extended periods or not pumping the volume of your fish tank each hour can leave you with elevated ammonia and fish problems.

Get an API freshwater master test kit.  (order online either here or that pet place or go to the aquarium shop.)

it tests for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, and pH also get a thermometer.

Don't bee too scared of getting started, what is the worst that can happen?  Some dead fish, sickly plants and embarrassment?  Maybe you make a mess?  Anything you try even if it doesn't work so well, you will learn something.  And most people manage to do fairly well just do lots of reading, perhaps start a discussion where you can post pictures and ask questions and get advice to help you along.

Comment by Leo White Bear on April 29, 2013 at 9:21pm

I know this is a lot of fish per gallon of water BUT...according to...

Recirculating Aquaculture Tank Production Systems: Aquaponics—Integrating Fish and Plant Culture

November 2006

  “In general, the critical standing crop in aquaponic systems should not exceed 0.50 pound/gallon. This density will promote fast growth and efficient feed conversion and reduce crowding stress that may lead to disease outbreaks. Pure oxygen is generally not needed to maintain this density.”

0.50 per gallon of water is recommended by the UVI (University of the Virgin Islands) says that 2.5 pounds per 1-gallon of water is reasonable, I will still stick to 1-pound per gallon of water.  I also have a solids removing biofiltration system inline.

Comment by Leo White Bear on April 29, 2013 at 8:36pm

Matt-

Look at this as an oppertunity to add more fish instead of adding the amonia.  You may inadvertantly harm your fish in the long run.  Even though you are getting 0 amonia/nitrites/nitrates you evidently have a lot of grow bed space for the amount of fish you have.  The ratio of the pounds of fish to FT water should be at 1 to 5-gallons of water at a minimum.  That is pounds of fish.  that comes out to 55-pounds of fish (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Your two 4 x 4 growbeds equal 32 square feet of grow bed area and will easily support a lower density of fish but try to equalize the fish/water ratio.

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