System Update (Greenhouse & Aquabundance system)

[Jim Logios]

Greetings everyone. I purchased a system from Sylvia many months ago, but had to do some prep work before going ahead...that prep work being, getting a greenhouse up. Well, that's finally done, and this past week, I assembled the whole thing, filled it with water, and am now in the process of cycling it.

Yesterday was day one. The setup is complete and operational. The unit is in the greenhouse.

On day one, I added the dry mix included in the cycle kit.

On day two (today), I first tested the ph (8.2) and the ammonia levels (8ppm). Immediately after this, I added 5ml (2 tsp) of ammonia from the cycle kit. I did not check ammonia levels after this, but it seems to me that I was already starting out with 8ppm of ammonia, that adding ammonia would boost the levels even higher… I assume that as nitrites and nitrates climb, ammonia will go down? At what levels should I be concerned with if ammonia keeps rising?

2. I was watching one of Murray's videos, and the question I have is… Is the ideal way (with a flood and drain system such as Sylvia's) is to fill the grow bed up to about an inch under the top layer so as not to expose the top layer to water… thereby inhibiting algae? Then if so, and I had a better timer, would it be better to simply allow the water to reach the desired level, and then to have the timer switch to off? Or, is it better to allow the water to flood the bed for a full 15 minutes?

Thanks! and I'm sure i'll have many more questions.

Jim

[Jim Logios]

Thanks TC. That's exactly what I was looking for.

Unfortunately, the greenhouse has unremovable roof and sides, but has an automatic fan, and louvers at the top that open out, plus the storm door has a dropable screen.  Hopefully that should allow enough venting of the heat.

Now it looks like I've got some algae at the bottom of the tank. What to do? Is there some kind of vacuum device that will suck up the loose silt (from my well water which I think is the reason I get buffered every time I top off the ft) from the bottom of the ft... as well as the algae?

Thanks again!

 

Jim

[TCLynx]

Shade the fish tank, block the light and the algae shouldn't be a problem, I wouldn't struggle with removing it, once it is shaded out you actually kinda want the algae to get pumped to the grow beds to decompose and provide the chemical compounds that will help inhibit more algae growth in the future.  A small amount of surface algae isn't a big deal, you just wan to make sure to shade the system so you don't get pea soup.  If the sediment is major I think there are ways to siphon or pump it out but a very small amount is probably nothing to worry about.  Just make sure you are not getting a muck of fish waste or uneaten feed building up anywhere.

[wes]

I am in Fla with a greenhouse and the temps are causing a issue for me so I put a couple of fans in the greenhouse one regular box fan up high and one oscillating fan. It helped some but was not enough. So now I looked into a low cost form of misters to bring the temp down this is what I am playing with right now. These are very cheap so I dont expect much but a great way to find out how they work.
5 Nozzle Fan Mister - Outdoor Misting Systems 24.00 dollars on Amazon.

Ocean Breeze Misting System 16.59 on Amazon

The 5 Nozzle mister fits on any fan and puts the mist out into the air it works and has brought the temp down 10 to 12 degrees down were the plants are in my greenhouse I have 3 temp gauges in the greenhouse two on each end up at the top of the house and one in the middle right at chest height where my plants are and it works it can be 100 up top in the greenhouse but down where the plants are it stays so far a nice 80 or less degrees in temp. I have put this mister on a timer and the fans so I don’t have to be around to turn them on for the day and so far so good. I am only using the 5 nozzle mister on the box fan so far and works fine and dosent seem to use any water to speak of but time will tell as this summer goes on. Just wanted to pass the info along, hope this helps later Wes

[TCLynx]

This time of year here in FL the misters work but come the rainy season the humidity might be a problem.

 

The lowest energy option is to see if you can open the greenhouse up as much as possible.  I don't know the construction of your particular greenhouse but most of them have to have the coverings replaced regularly so it seems to me taking panels or sections off or rolling up the plastic on the sides should be possible.

 

Even with opening up the sides and ends, there are big greenhouses that still need the added shade cloth plus fans and misters to keep the temperatures down to sane levels for the plants.

[wes]

Thanks TCLynx, My greenhouse is only 20' long by 11' wide and I have the sides where they roll up to about neck height. I also have a covering that only lets in 50% of the sun but is white in color so it radiates the light evenly all around the plants, my next adventure if the temp still gets out of hand will be the shade cloth of some kind. Man didnt know I was going to be getting to all of this at the start. But so far so good and love concept it is the future I am sure of it.

TCLynx said:

This time of year here in FL the misters work but come the rainy season the humidity might be a problem.

 

The lowest energy option is to see if you can open the greenhouse up as much as possible.  I don't know the construction of your particular greenhouse but most of them have to have the coverings replaced regularly so it seems to me taking panels or sections off or rolling up the plastic on the sides should be possible.

 

Even with opening up the sides and ends, there are big greenhouses that still need the added shade cloth plus fans and misters to keep the temperatures down to sane levels for the plants.

[TCLynx]

Yea, greenhouses are tricky here in FL in the summer.  Even out in the open I'm using 40% aluminet shade over my 300 gallon system and I've put rain saucers over my tower system to see if they will help shade the towers a little as well as catching rain water.

[Jim Logios]

I have too many deer, rabbit, coons, squirrels and possum around to take the sides off... might as well just put up bar stools for the critters to munch on the growbed... LOL.

 

Wrapped a white paint drop cloth around the ft.  Hopefully, it will cut out the direct sunlight...

[TCLynx]

I would replace the plastic sides with netting or screen then.

[Jim Logios]

Well, it's many weeks later.  I was really starting to be concerned about the heat in the greenhouse, and the water temperature. My plants were wilting, dry leaves, and lots of brown and yellow spots. I just got some chelated iron from Amazon.  Hope that will help.  As to the heat in the greenhouse... The first thing I did was to get an aluminet 70% shade cloth for the greenhouse. I also draped white terricloth bath towels around the ft to shade it from light.  The combination of the two seems to have really done alot. Even though we've been getting 90-98 degree weather here the last week, the water temp was 80 today.  Hopefully that'll be a comfortable temp for the bluegills when I bring them home this week. It's also much more humid in there now.  It WAS hot and dry.

 

System is totally cycled as far as I can tell.  Ammonia and nitrites are 0, 24 hours after a good dose of ammonia. Nitrates are still high (haven't budged at all for the last several weeks) and ph is still somewhat of an issue.  Hopefully, now that I'm shading the tank more, algae growth will decline, and bring down the ph somewhat. I have been adding battery acid every few days, but the ph likes to return to about 7.6-8.0.  This brings me to a question:

 

The bluegills I have are currently in a tank at work.  The ph is below 7.0   I'm planning on bringing them home this week, but the differences in the water ph at work and at home is concerning me.  I plan on filling a Coleman cooler with water, and an air pump bubbler in it connected to an inverter in my car for the trip home. What is the best was to transition the fish from the lower ph water to the higher ph water at home without killing them?

 

Thanks!

[TCLynx]

I would do it about the same way one does to transition them with temperature.  Siphon out some of the water from the cooler and pour in a small amount of system water at a time until the water in the cooler is aprox the same temperature as the system water and hopefully by then you will have changed out most of the transport water for system water so they will have gotten a somewhat gradual change in pH as well. 

Often when people bring fish home in plastic bags, they float the bags in the system what to equalize temperature but that doesn't work well with a cooler.

But as you noted your home pH and the pH the fish are coming from are a bit different so the water change transition is probably the way to go.

 

As to how you are trying to bring down the pH, Now that you are bringing home fish, you will probably want to restrict your pH adjustments to the water you will be using to top up the system.  If you can have a barrel set aside for water prep, that would be a good idea and in there you can deal with pH adjustments and anything you need to do to deal with water treatments etc.  My systems will stay up between 7.6-8 when I'm topping up with well water.  You may want to look into what types of acid or pH down are most appropriate to a food system, not sure battery acid would be my first choice.

[Jim Logios]

Once again, thanks TC.

I know not to adjust ph radically with fish in the tank. I really like the idea of treating a bucket of prepared water as a control.

BTW, everywhere I have read that PhDown is simply diluted sulfuric acid, which is all battery electrolyte is (in a more concentrated form). Have you heard differently? I guess the only concern would be too much sulfur in the system...

[TCLynx]

Yea, you only want so much sulfur (especially if you intend to grow any onions, too much sulfur is bad.)  In hydroponics the pH down is Phosphoric Acid.  And I've also heard of people using muratic acid.

 

However, you probably need to do some testing to see where the pH issue actually is (is it just your source water? or is it something in your media or system?)  If it is your source water, then adjusting the top up water should be possible however if you have limestone hiding out in your media then you might have a problem.