Comment

Comment by Carey Ma on July 29, 2015 at 6:35am

Hello Amaury Rolin,

Sorry for such a delayed reply.

Not all bricks are created equal.  Your rise in pH is probably because your brick have a high lime content. I always use a weak acid to test batches before use. If it fizzes a bit more than a bit, don't use. A little fizzing is ok, it should eventually settle down as the system matures and gets coated.

Then again, I should have been more careful in my initial comment (Aug 10, 2011) and said hydro-organic instead of hydroponic. The difference being that in a hydro-organic system AKA Wicking-Raised-Beds; the bricks are used more as a mulch than a medium.

Nice those days, I have evolved my AP tech to be more sustainable, more natural, more livestock friendly and ecologically friendly than the typical back yard system.

Comment by Amaury Rolin on March 29, 2015 at 2:10am

The crushed brick I've found her in Laos (well the brick I collected an swung a hammer at), seems to have raised my pH from the 8 that comes out of the tap to a 9. I suspect It's the cuplrit since I don't really have anything else in the system yet. The bricks where mortar free...but many have gray insides.

Any hints as to how I can bring my pH down...without using pH down from an aquarium store?

Comment by Carey Ma on August 10, 2011 at 11:41pm

These bricks are factory rejects and broken bricks from demolition. I had a truck go around scavenging broken bricks after villages were demolished for hi-rise construction projects. They were delivered to a rock crusher at a quarry nearby who charged a nominal fee. However, villages are becoming more and more scarce as the city keeps advancing. I'm not sure what I will do in the near future.

Comment by Kobus Jooste on August 10, 2011 at 11:33pm

I see the crushed bricks comes in bags, or did you bag it yourself?  In my part of the world, using crushed bricks involves swinging a hammer at whole bricks.  Many of the brickyards around me potentially have a type of product like what you show in the picture.  I think they recycle their broken ones at the moment, but perhaps I could take a drive out to one and see what they do with it.

Comment by Carey Ma on August 10, 2011 at 11:24pm

For me, even gravel is expensive here. Besides, what better way to recycle than to use it to grow life.

Comment by Kobus Jooste on August 10, 2011 at 11:20pm

Crushed bricks and gravel is just fine.  Hydroton is too expensive in South Africa too.

Comment by Carey Ma on August 10, 2011 at 11:15pm

I can't get that wonderful hydroton stuff so I use crushed bricks as medium in greenroofs as well as hydroponic/ aquaponics.