New Farmer Update - Week 2

[Barbara McLain]

Just finished week 2 of my adventure in aquaponics yesterday.  So thankful for the people in here and on Aquaculturehub.org who have given me suggestions.  I even got an answer to my silly question about "what the heck do I do with basil?" (As you can predict, besides never having grown anything before-- I'm also not a gourmet cook). Fortunately, I like pesto pasta!

Week 2 of "Auntie's Food Machine": To my amazement, my fish are still alive. Most of my seedlings came up (think I got a bad batch of cucumber seeds..grrr).   Started a small bucket worm farm. Today I added 5 gallons of worm tea to the system (I needed more water anyway) and more worms to the grow beds.   Will plant some new seeds later today in my second "seeds for dummies" starter kit.  Bought a rain barrel cachement to snag some water off of my tin roof.  Will hook that up when I find some available male-muscle to hire.  My water chemistry is now starting to show nitrates, and my ammonia level is excellent (sigh of relief).  Added some seashells to the fish tank to help lower my pH...which is still too high.   Also have some minor algae in my bucket siphon, so I just put a lid on it...literally.

So... 15 days into my adventure... nothing dead...yet!

[Week 2: tub 1 picture below]

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Week 2: System picture below]

 Let me know if anybody thinks this is "below average" for two weeks... and what can do about it besides add worm tea (which I did)?  Considering buying that expensive bottle of EM maybe?

[Chris Carr]

Those pipes are great! I wouldn't be adding too much to the system, just give it some time.

What pH is too high? Keep in mind that the nitrification process the bacteria are doing will naturally bring your pH down over time (many weeks, even longer if the water was hard). The seashells will actually help buffer your pH UP to help counter act your nitrification, but It will do nothing to bring it down. If anything it will slow down the process.