Eleven11's system ... update

[Eleven11]

Hi all,

I put together a little slideshow of my current progress....

Special thanks to UrbanFarmer and davidstcldfl for the help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntxxKYm3 ... e=youtu.be

[urbanfarmer]

Merry Christmas!

Looks great!

[Eleven11]

Today, I moved the IBC fish tank in. The doorway is only 34" wide so the fish tank is now only 34" high (250 Gal mark).

I'm filling it with rain water that collected on top of the pool cover. The big problem is that maple leaves also collected on the pool cover and I never did get around to removing them so.... the rain water is looking like tea water. The PH is pretty low too... somewhere around 6.6 I think... the scale only goes to 6.5 but the water color looks a little darker than the 6.8 standard marker.

Good news is that the expanded clay water is somewhere around 8.2.... maybe mixing them will even it out... not sure.

The question is whether I should just pump this tea water out and wait for another rain after removing the maple leaves or is the tea water ok as long as the ph is corrected?

[Eleven11]

Today's video update....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAi3X606 ... e=youtu.be

[davidstcldfl]

Hi 11:11....Just watched your vid...I like the dome ....
If your going to keep the garden hoses for water circulation, cut off the metal ends and replace that brass manifold. The ph of the water will start to add heavy metals to your water, which will eventually harm your fish.

[Eleven11]

I didn't realize that about the metal parts. Thanx.

I pumped the rain water of the top of my pool and into my IBC fish tank... about 230 gallons at about 54 degrees F. The problem is that the water had lots of maple leaves from last month or so. The water going into the IBC looks like ice tea. No algae though... just tea water.

I checked the PH of the rain water and it looks to be about 6.5. I did a test for ammonia and surprisingly enough... it looks like about 2ppm. I was expecting zero. I'll take it again just to be sure though.

The nitrate test shows zero as expected.

The PH of the grow bed water is about 8.2.

I'll need ammonia for cycling the grow beds so maybe the ammonia in the fish tank water is a good thing. I'm just not sure about the tea color. Fish seem to like to hide... maybe maple leaf tea isn't bad?

Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

Hi 11:11....Just watched your vid...I like the dome ....
If your going to keep the garden hoses for water circulation, cut off the metal ends and replace that brass manifold. The ph of the water will start to add heavy metals to your water, which will eventually harm your fish.

[foodchain]

Tea water isn't going to hurt anything. It's just not appealling from the asthetic standpoint. Keep an eye on your water parameters just to be sure. But I have never had a problem with that by itself.
I have several tanks that are 'off' colored due to suspended particles.

[Eleven11]

I was thinking tea would probably be ok so that's good to know. I'll be keeping an eye on the chemistry during the fishless cycle.

Tea water isn't going to hurt anything. It's just not appealling from the asthetic standpoint. Keep an eye on your water parameters just to be sure. But I have never had a problem with that by itself.
I have several tanks that are 'off' colored due to suspended particles.

[foodchain]

I read the other day about a guy who used fresh egg whites added to the water to "pull" the particles out that get suspended. I haven't tried this, but thought I would mention what I have read. Might have to play with this and see if it's true or more internet BS.

[Eleven11]

If you have a link to the article, paste it here. I'd like to read it.

We had another day of heavy rain yesterday so I figured I'd change out the tea water. I pumped out all but a few inches on the bottom and am still pumping in yesterday's rain.

There is a bit of a green tint this time, due to some algae bits left from cleaning the pool cover Monday. The water has a bit of a ocean type smell too. I was thinking of added some peroxide (H2O2) instead of chlorine, to freshen it up. H202 is just water with extra oxygen attached and breaks down into O and H2O as it oxidizes wherever it comes in contact with.

Interestingly, I use 3% on any cat pee problem and it instantly gets rid of the smell.

There is a product at the pool supply store called Baquacil - Shock Oxidizer that is 27% peroxide and the rest is just water.


http://www.lesliespool.com/Home/Pool-Ch ... 13319.html
A chlorine-free liquid oxidizer of 27% specially-stabilized hydrogen peroxide used to clarify pool water by oxidizing organic compounds

I read the other day about a guy who used fresh egg whites added to the water to "pull" the particles out that get suspended. I haven't tried this, but thought I would mention what I have read. Might have to play with this and see if it's true or more internet BS.