BKPmax
03-08-2024, 07:06 PM
The System: 120 gal rectangle tilapia tank.
2, 75 gal grow beds - one raft, one gravel.
A mostly hidden 175gal reservoir, including a mystery 50 gal fish tank sitting inside the reservoir.
NOTE: No solids removal system, and no air being sent to raft grow bed or reservoir.
No separate bio tank. We have added a 2 gal bag filled with clay gravel balls to the mystery tank...
Problems: Vegetables in the grow beds start, then die. After a few inches of growth, leaves dry and die. Slime all over the gravel. pH levels are way too high (8.5). "pH Down" is not changing anything.
My wife, a grade school teacher inherited an older aquaponic system. I'm just helping her figure out this old system.
The 3 tanks (1 fish tank, 2 beds) drain directly into what looks like a 50 gal aquarium that is sitting in the back of the water reservoir tank. There's almost zero access to this area. It's almost impossible just to get my head under there to see this.
What is this "hidden" 50 gal aquarium doing? Was this to hold solids? or was this a bio tank? I could just barely reach into this tank and felt a flat plastic grid type thing sitting in the bottom... There's no drain from this tank. It just stays full from the draining fish tank and grow bed's water and spills over into the general reservoir tank.
If it's a solids tank - there's no way to drain it, if it a bio tank, it's not filtering solids?
FYI - There is no air pump bubbles being sent to raft grow bed, or to the hidden "solids" tank, or general reservoir area...Just to the 120 fish tank with 11 small-ish tilapia.
Because we don't have a solids remover could we have a lack of dissolved O2 problem? Do we need to add a real waste removal system? And air stones to grow beds and somewhere in the reservoir?
Thank you very much!
Blake,
Milwaukee
2, 75 gal grow beds - one raft, one gravel.
A mostly hidden 175gal reservoir, including a mystery 50 gal fish tank sitting inside the reservoir.
NOTE: No solids removal system, and no air being sent to raft grow bed or reservoir.
No separate bio tank. We have added a 2 gal bag filled with clay gravel balls to the mystery tank...
Problems: Vegetables in the grow beds start, then die. After a few inches of growth, leaves dry and die. Slime all over the gravel. pH levels are way too high (8.5). "pH Down" is not changing anything.
My wife, a grade school teacher inherited an older aquaponic system. I'm just helping her figure out this old system.
The 3 tanks (1 fish tank, 2 beds) drain directly into what looks like a 50 gal aquarium that is sitting in the back of the water reservoir tank. There's almost zero access to this area. It's almost impossible just to get my head under there to see this.
What is this "hidden" 50 gal aquarium doing? Was this to hold solids? or was this a bio tank? I could just barely reach into this tank and felt a flat plastic grid type thing sitting in the bottom... There's no drain from this tank. It just stays full from the draining fish tank and grow bed's water and spills over into the general reservoir tank.
If it's a solids tank - there's no way to drain it, if it a bio tank, it's not filtering solids?
FYI - There is no air pump bubbles being sent to raft grow bed, or to the hidden "solids" tank, or general reservoir area...Just to the 120 fish tank with 11 small-ish tilapia.
Because we don't have a solids remover could we have a lack of dissolved O2 problem? Do we need to add a real waste removal system? And air stones to grow beds and somewhere in the reservoir?
Thank you very much!
Blake,
Milwaukee