troughs

[G Mo]

I have a large system with a couple of media beds and a long trough that has been in operation almost a year now.  Everything has worked great except for growth in the trough.  Growth in the trough has been very slow until the past couple of weeks when it has seemed to finally support some good steady growth.  I wondered if anyone knows if it takes a while to get the trough chemistry right, even though everything else is good.  Maybe it is just a better time of year and the months of tweaking just clicked, but I wondered if, like the media beds, it needed time to develop it's own balance.

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

I'm just throwing this out there as an idea, it is possible with cooler temperatures there is more dissolved O2 in the water allowing the plants to grow better. Your description leaves a lot of diagnostic information out such as O2 levels, Nitrates and other data that would help someone to figure out your issues.

[G Mo]

I don't do diagnostics.  In my smaller system I did and it drove me crazy.  This one seems to balance itself out.  The grow beds have been doing phenomenally since set up (incorporated from previous system) and the fish have had no problems.  We have had aerators at each raft, so O2 should be good.  Haven't changed rate of flow.  It just sort of clicked to grow mode the past month, after 2 seasons of not much at all.   The trough water is less clear, so perhaps there is a buildup of good sludge?  I'm certainly not complaining, just trying to figure it out.

Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair said:

I'm just throwing this out there as an idea, it is possible with cooler temperatures there is more dissolved O2 in the water allowing the plants to grow better. Your description leaves a lot of diagnostic information out such as O2 levels, Nitrates and other data that would help someone to figure out your issues.

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

Well if you don't do diagnostics then I guess you should just be happy for the better performance. Life is difficult to figure out sometimes :)