Aqua Farm Update 7 Jan 2014 - Dead Pump

The Aqua Farm hasn't been doing very well.  The air pump seems to have died.  For a while it was not making very good bubbles, and the water was not reaching the upper tray.  The water wouldn't circulate, and the system was not functioning properly.  I tried cutting the airline tube at different lengths to make better bubbles, and it seemed to work, but eventually the pump stopped making any bubbles at all.  I'm going to ask Back to the Roots if they'll send me a new air pump.  I may also try using an aquarium air pump next to the fish tank to supply the bubbles for the air lift.  Either way, I'm not happy with the system right now.  I'm hoping that I can tinker with it and make it work better.  On the bright side, I regrew some green onions in one of the grow pots, and ate them in a tasty turkey soup (Thanksgiving leftovers!).

Edit 10 Jan 2014 - Back to the Roots is going to send me a replacement air pump.  They recommended placing it outside the system, sitting vertically next to the tank.  They're also sending me new seed packets, and suggested that for the basil and lettuce I may need more light.  Great customer service!

I apologize profusely for the vertical video.  :(

Apartment system update from October 27th, and Harvesting some Bitter Arugala

Here's a quick video of the system from late October.  I ran out of room on my camera, so it's a quick video.

Also, a few days later on December 3rd, we harvested the arugula.  It ended up being too bitter to eat.  We harvested it too late.  I'm still learning about growing veggies, but it's been a fun experiment!

Building a Muffler for a Drain Pipe

This system is in my friend's bedroom, and he asked me to make the drain quieter.  Here's what I did, and it worked really well.  After building this muffler, you can't even tell when the water is draining unless you're watching the water level in the fish tank.

This was the sketch of my idea.  The drain pipe would point down into the fish tank, but would not be submerged in the water.  A larger diameter pipe would sit around the drain pipe, with the bottom end submerged.  The larger pipe would be held onto the drain pipe with a wooden dowel through both pipes.  The larger pipe will muffle the sound of the splashing water.  To reduce the noise further, you could plug the top of the larger diameter pipe with cloth, foam, saran wrap, etc.

 I ended up using saran wrap, and the larger diameter pvc pipe wanted to float, so it started leaning to the side.  This may help the muffler, because the water runs down the side of the pvc pipe rather than splashing into the tank.  I'm planning on replacing the saran wrap with something better looking, but I want to test some options.

Our tilapia Zeus seems to miss the splashing water, though.  He used to like being splashed with the draining water.  Oh well, it needed to be quieter.

And the garden is looking good.  The growth has been slow, because the water was pretty dirty.  I did a partial water change, and cleaned the filter and plumbing.  I hope that helps the plants a bit.  After the water change, the nitrates are still high, and the pH is about 7.5.  I added a little pH down to get the pH closer to 6.8.

Low pH in the apartment system, but growth is good

I checked out the system this week, and it seems to be doing well.  The brown algae in the water is slowly disappearing.  The veggies are growing well, though the strawberry seeds that I scattered in one pot don’t seem to be growing too quickly.  My friend hadn’t checked the chemicals recently, so I did while I was there.  The pH was very low (<6), but everything else looked ok.  The ammonia was 0.5ppm.  Nitrite was zero, and Nitrate was 160+ ppm.

I added 6 capfuls of API’s pH up.  I decided that I didn’t want to rely on my friend checking the pH and adjusting, so I added enough pH up to bump up the pH to around 7.  Normally I wouldn’t want to raise it more than 0.2 per day, but I didn’t want to risk losing the bacteria and have to re-cycle the system.  My friend added a little water the next day, and checked the pH.  It was about 7 – 7.2, which is ideal.  Hopefully this weekend I can visit for a few hours to clean the canister filter, and plan out new fish that we want to put in the fish tank.  We’d also like to mount some small lights that we have onto chains above the grow bed.  Another issue is that the water draining is somewhat loud, so I want to figure out a way to muffle the draining water.  Here’s some pictures and a video from my visit to the system.

105 Gallon Apartment System Update

The system at my buddy Saqib's apartment is doing well.  Saqib was away for a week for work, so a roommate was feeding the fish.  We think that he overfed our tilapia, Zeus, because the water is filled with brown algae.  I've read online that this algae is not really caused by sunlight, but rather by overfeeding the fish.  High nitrates also lead to this type of algae.  We'll be feeding Zeus less from now on, and I plan to clean out the filter to make sure everything is nice and healthy.

Saqib added some small lights to the system, and the plants look to be doing well.  We'll get those lights up on chains soon.  In another 2 weeks, we'll be switching to some ornamental fish for the tank, and at that point we'll clean the tank and hang the lights.  Hopefully, that will help keep the algae in control, and help with the veggie growth.

IBC Tote!

A few weeks ago, I saw a post on reddit.com/r/aquaponics where someone was offering to sell an aquaponics-ready IBC tote.  I had to drive down to Alexandria, VA, but it was worth it.  I was able to get this awesome 330 gallon tote, already cut in half, including plumbing and a pallet, for only $180.  I'm going to set it up at my parent's house in Wilmington, DE in the Spring.  It's pretty much ready to be set up, and just needs a pump.  This will be my biggest aquaponic system to date, and I'm excited to see how it turns out.  I have a few months to plan the system, but I'm thinking about building more grow beds to link into the large fish reservoir that we'll have.  I might even set up some strawberry towers.  Super exciting!

This is what it looks like now.

 

This is what it will look like in a few months, hopefully.

Brief Video Update

We have green life!  The system is cycled and growing small plants.  Zeus, our tilapia, is doing fine.  We're probably going to eat him soon, and put in some ornamental fish.  I'd like to have a bit more plant growth before making the switch.