Progress Report - Week 3

[Andrea]

Nitrites and Nitrates are still undetectable. I think there's little doubt at this point that the PH neutralizer the aquarium guy sold me included some resident chemical that kills ammonia. Even though I *specifically* asked him not to give me anything that would affect the ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates. Clearly he didn't understand what I'm trying to do here and I won't trust him again for anything except fish.

So meanwhile I did a 1/3 water change and dosed with some seaweed extract to provide some food for my plants (since that was the solution recommended by an actual aquaponics expert). Wow, the extract says to use 1 capful per gallon of water, and I've got a 30 gallon tank, but I still only used 1 capful. And the tank looked like someone had brewed some Lipton tea for an hour in there. I couldn't see 2 inches into the tank. But it's cleared almost completely now and the fish have been happy and active the whole time so I'm not going to panic.

Yesterday I hooked up the second growbed. The seedlings were getting big enough and not getting enough light so I wanted to move them up under the LED, and putting in the second growbed seemed like the best solution since I planned to do it eventually anyway. It's leaking a bit around the drain fitting, but the original growbed did that at first also. So for now I've got a bucket under there and I'll keep an eye on it.

I took the original drain hose and put a "T" on it to run both beds out through the one line:

And I did the same on the line from the pump, to fill both beds:

And once I was sure it wasn't running too hard, I moved all the rockwool squares with their seedlings directly into the beds. The hydroponics guys say it won't hurt the fish, but again I'm listening to people who only know one side of the story, so we'll see how it goes.

Later this week I'll get a second LED light (or maybe one bigger one).


Meanwhile, I've got two beds!

[Andrea]

Yes, I'm also phasing out the rockwool. Once again, I was listening to people on only one side of the equation who didn't know anything about the other side. The risks of learning.

My hydroton isn't floating in the growbeds. I'm guessing you were referring to my below comment - but I was talking about using it in place of gravel in the bottom of my aquarium. For THAT it needs to stop floating. 75% of it has sunk now and I'm expecting the rest to sink in the next day or two. It should make a good aquarium gravel without adding additional high pH problems like the regular gravel does.

I don't know anything at all about Higromite or Silica stone, so I don't know enough to be scared. Want to tell me more so I can decide?

I bought a cheap LED system when I started, and it's probably useless. But it was low wattage, which is important to me. Right now I'm running that plus a fluorescent fixture, and don't plan to purchase anything else since this is truly just a temp system to learn on until I can build a big system outside. I'd love to use only CA sources, though. I'm happy to take recommendations, if you want to share some of your knowledge with me. :-)

[Andrea]

I removed all the gravel last weekend (for that reason) and am currently waiting for a batch of expanded clay to waterlog and sink, since it's been mentioned that having *something* on the bottom is preferable.

The pH still remains high, but Crusty on APHQ has been working with me on it and I've started adding acid a little at a time to hopefully start to counter whatever is keeping it buffered so high. *I* suspect it was the gravel, but it's hard to say for sure.

[TCLynx]

Yea, the tint of the water from the seaweed extract will clear a bit with time but a mature healthy AP system usually has a bit of tint to the water which is fine.

And you were right to only use a cap full of the seaweed extract. The label that says one per gallon is for when you are using that gallon to spray the plants directly or water your dirt plants. One cap full per gallon of system water would be way too much. (I usually use about 32 oz of Maxicrop for my 700 gallon system about once a month or so.)

As to your pH. What is the gravel in the fish tank? If it is coral or limestone, that could be keeping you from bringing the pH down on your little system. It is actually quite common to use such things in Aquariums because fish are usually fine with high pH and most of the bacterias work best between 7 and 8 but the plants prefer a bit lower. Most plants will do best with a pH between 6 and 7. Most of us try to run our systems between 6.8 and 7.2 but a wider range can work so long as you keep it stable. (I've one system that runs between 7.2 and 7.6 and another system that seems to have settled between 6.5 and 6.8.)

[Andrea]

I've got a bunch of seeds germinating right now that I'm planning to plant this weekend. :-)

[Nate Storey]

I haven't had any issues with rockwool affecting fish or plants but know that it isn't pH neutral and might buffer your sys. at a bit higher pH. Looks good! You might end up needing a few more fish for those plants though. don't worry about tannic water- it can actually be really good for your system. my water's a bit tannic. tannins can help prevent algae blooms and can bind to heavy metals making them immobile/innert.