30 Gallon indoor system under vipar LED's

[alex281]

Hey guys! so i lost my previous journal from the recent hacking. But no worries, i saved all the pictures!

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4647&stc=1http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4648&stc=1http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4649&stc=1http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4650&stc=1http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4651&stc=1

[alex281]

More pics! :D

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4652&stc=1http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4653&stc=1http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4654&stc=1

[alex281]

Pics are as of today 9/27/2012

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4655&stc=1http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4656&stc=1http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4657&stc=1

[alex281]

So i havent updated in a while, but I finally decided to take some pics. The habaneros are growing like mad(a long with everything else.) I'm planning on doing a lot of trimming in the near future( as soon as i stop getting fruit) as i don't want to raise the lights any higher.

I haven't really bothered with testing the levels in a long time, but have been checking the ph with a pen and having a tough time keeping it above 7. I've been adding A LOT of calcium hydroxide but the ph always seems to drop after a couple days right back down to 6.3-6.5.

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4658&stc=1http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4659&stc=1

[Deadeye]

those look great;; i hope i can do as well. how many fish do u have in the system? ive had the 2 gold fish for a week now and the amonnia is only at 25ppp so far.. I was woundering .. my ph is at 8.2. any ideas on bringing it down?

[bsfman]

those look great;; i hope i can do as well. how many fish do u have in the system? ive had the 2 gold fish for a week now and the amonnia is only at 25ppp so far.. I was woundering .. my ph is at 8.2. any ideas on bringing it down?

Your pH will begin to slowly drop after your system cycles. That will probably take 3 or 4 weeks until that starts to become evident If I were you, I wouldn't mess with trying to adjust it now. A pH of 8.2 is actually good for establishing the nitrifying bacteria in the cycling process.

[urbanfarmer]

I'm glad you're still with us! :mrgreen:

[alex281]

those look great;; i hope i can do as well. how many fish do u have in the system? ive had the 2 gold fish for a week now and the amonnia is only at 25ppp so far.. I was woundering .. my ph is at 8.2. any ideas on bringing it down?

i have 9 regular goldfish 2 fancy, 2 koi, a pleco, and 2 loaches. I too had a ph situation when i first started the system and the only thing that brought it down was time.


I'm glad you're still with us! :mrgreen:

Thank you!

[Deadeye]

ahh,, thank you for the info BSF.

[alex281]

Hey all, Thought i'd throw up some pics of the system!

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4663&stc=1http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4664&stc=1http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4665&stc=1

[Alaskaponics]

Wow, those peppers are growing like crazy! I am really surprised the LED's were able to sustain the plants for the given height. Great job!

Cheers

[urbanfarmer]

Looking good! I see some mild signs of potassium and calcium deficiency. It could be magnesium instead of potassium because the fruits look good (hard to tell from where I'm sitting). A little epsom salt in the system won't hurt none and you'll get bigger fruit. The plants look stringy (cause of light, no biggie, work with what you got), but otherwise it looks like you're having a lot of fun (I see where you did some pruning, haha).

[alex281]

Looking good! I see some mild signs of potassium and calcium deficiency. It could be magnesium instead of potassium because the fruits look good (hard to tell from where I'm sitting). A little epsom salt in the system won't hurt none and you'll get bigger fruit. The plants look stringy (cause of light, no biggie, work with what you got), but otherwise it looks like you're having a lot of fun (I see where you did some pruning, haha).

i think it might be potassium or magnesium, i was adding calcium hydroxide because my ph was dropping so fast, but recently i poured in a bunch of oyster shell grit to keep it buffered rather than constantly adding. do you think magnesium is getting locked out? i got a huge wave of habaneros the first time around, then in the next batch i noticed the peppers were really dwarfed, this new set that is currently growing in looks normal though.

i shouldve spaced the plants out better, eventually things turned into a stretch fest for who can get to the light fastest. i still havent seen any trinidads or other peppers form, just one of the habaneros that outgrew everything else and is producing nicely.

any ideas on how to keep the ph more stable and possibly supplement potassium? i noticed the water is getting murky again and my ph is still low and dropping although there is more grit still in the system.

[alex281]

Wow, those peppers are growing like crazy! I am really surprised the LED's were able to sustain the plants for the given height. Great job!

Cheers

Thanks! these leds have proven themselves quite nicely :mrgreen:

[alex281]

hey guys!

so i had a terrible situation with aphids that ended up with me trashing all my pepper plants. i lost 3 fish do to a spike from no plants. since then i replanted with a bunch of lettuce and a tomato plant that is now sharing half the growbed with the lettuce. i planted everything on march 6th from seed except the tomato which i bought at 6 inches tall to try and save the fish. took some cool pictures but my hard drive failed on me so i just have a current picture. going to snap more tomorrow during the day when the lighting is right.

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4666&stc=1http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4667&stc=1

[alex281]

found some older pictures! these were taken 3/17

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4668&stc=1http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4669&stc=1

[JCO]

OK, no updates or photos since April. What do the plants look like now. Any edible veggies out of the system yet? :mrgreen:

[ChrisN]

Hey I love that you were able to make this out of a cheep FT and it is aesthetically pleasing. I am thinking of replicating your design. Keeping in mind that I am an AP noob, is there anything that you would have done differently?

Can the 30gal support a larger GB? Maybe double the size? Also does the level of the water in the FT fluctuate a lot? Is that why some people use sump tanks? to keep the level consistent?

Keep up the great work!!