ph down?

[litano]

What is the cheapest way to get PH down??

[Lee Scott]

What is the difference between the two?
Seems some AP sites use them interchangeably.

They seem similar in function.  Is the difference the timer and bell?

RupertofOZ said:

Ebb & flow... with bell siphons??

[Vlad Jovanovic]

http://community.theaquaponicsource.com//page/aquaponics-glossary-o...

here's an explanation with diagrams...

Lee Scott said:

What is the difference between the two?
Seems some AP sites use them interchangeably.

They seem similar in function.  Is the difference the timer and bell?

RupertofOZ said:

Ebb & flow... with bell siphons??

[TCLynx]

Yes the pictures in the glossary are good.

Main difference between standard flood and drain and ebb and flow is that in standard flood and drain you do not let the water from the bed backwash through the pump and therefore the solids pumped up into the grow bed tend to stay there a little better and you generally get to have the water enter the bed in a different location from where it drains back out.  In ebb and flow the water has to drain back down through the pump. 

Flood and drain can further be broken down into two different categories, timed flood and drain with a stand pipe with holes and a timer or siphon flood and drain where the pump runs constant and the bed drains via siphon of some sort.

To switch to constant flood (constant flow/constant flood if you want to be particular about it and I usually am) it is easiest to do with bell siphons by simply removing the bells or with timed flood and drain by just leaving the pump on constantly.  I suppose you could do it with ebb and flow so long as the overflow on the ebb and flow set up was really good so as not to allow a real overflow or let the top of the media get wet, just run the pump constant there as well.

[Jim Troyer]

Hi Litano:

Sorry no video, it would be pretty boring watching water rise 6" over 20 minutes and then over flow a stand pipe for another 10 minutes.  I'll post a picture after it stops raining(?) in the desert...

I friended you, check your in box

[litano]

MY WIFE has busted me more than a dozen times just starring at my bell siphons going off when I first started. thanks, I will friend you..

[Jon Parr]

I did a little experiment with humic acid granules, dry grit that looks like course coffe grounds. I added a handful to one small bed (half barrel over 55 gal aquarium). I have several such systems that I do not manipulate the pH on, as they are breeding tanks and plant performance is of minor concern. My well water oddly seems to fluctuate between 7 and 8.2, much more commonly 8.2 than 7. And the AP tanks seem to chase the well water in pH, usually hovering in the high 7's. Anyway, the system with the added humic acid stays below 7, specifically not lower than 6.4 or higher than 6.9, and that was from one handful two months ago. Perhaps the humic acids buffer the AP to our desired range?

Cheapest acid? Muriatic (Hydrochloric), unless you live near a golf course and you can sneak over and steal battery acid from the carts :)

[litano]

thanks, i use muriatic too.