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  1. #1
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    Tampa Barrel-ponic Setup!

    Hey guys,
    I had a thread going in the "Introduce Yourself" section for a while. Decided to bring some of my pictures and questions over here to make it easier for those who may be interested in my setup and troubleshooting.

    Here are a few pictures of my build:






    My system is young. It will only be 2 weeks old tomorrow. I kind of jumped the gun on a few things, as I was rushing to get plants in the ground. A few tips I recommend to those getting started: Build your system, wash your grow medium extremely well, then add to the system and wait a day or two to let cycle through (chlorine evaporation) and any residual dirt/dust settle, then add your fish. I did everything in reverse and lost all the fish I put in due to dirty water, chlorine, and tank shock.

    Anyways, I am on my second week and I am looking to add to the fish population. There are only 5 goldfish in the tank and I know they aren't getting the proper amount of poop and ammonia out to the plants. Today I will be contacting local tilapia breeders and picking up approx 20-30 fingerlings. With watching other's tilapia videos, it seems these fish produce a ton of poop! In researching ways to resolve this, I was thinking of incorporating a swirl filter, but I am not exactly sure how in this setup. Everyone that seems to have them are in much larger setups.

    I could use the pump to send water to a swirl filter mounted above the GB, which will then send the overflow water in the swirl filter to the GB, but doing this will just bog down the filter in my pump. Another idea is removing the pump from the FT, having an overflow connector from the FT flow into the swirl filter and then move into a sump tank which will then send the water via the pump to the GB's. Seems the best bet, but so many new parts I will be adding to my system. Wanted to get ya'lls thoughts on this before I dive in.

    Thanks for all the support this far.

  2. #2
    Moderator badflash's Avatar
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    Re: Tampa Barrel-ponic Setup!

    With your system a swirl filter is not needed for the solids, but red worms, and maybe scuds will help break them up and make the nutrients more available to the plants.

    If you re-do the system just a tad to interconnect the bottoms of the grow bed, you will only need 1 bell siphon and this will allow you to increase the cycle time.
    The best fertilizer is the farmer's shadow

  3. #3
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    Re: Tampa Barrel-ponic Setup!

    Awesome, I like the red worm and scud response. I was planning on using both. I can use both of these in my GB.

    So.... I am not an expert by any means, but something doesn't seem balanced in my system! Help!!!



    According to the API guide, my pH should be around 7.0, but it is sitting at 6.4(ish). I have crushed egg shells in my grow medium, which I believe has been helping my pepper plants out. Should I be concerened about this pH level?

    Ammonia has climbed since my last test and is between .25ppm and .50 ppm.

    Nitrities around .25 ppm

    Now, Nitrates are cranking! Between 40 and 80ppm, I would guess around 50ppm. API recommends 40 ppm or less, what can I do to bring this down?

    I am worried about these numbers as I have 10 tilapia fingerlings showing up on Friday and I don't want to loose them all right off the bat!
    Do I not have enough plants in the system to suck up the nitrates and nitrites?

    On another note, should I move around my GB? I have from left to right a Cal. Wonder Bell Pepper Plant, Celebrity Tomato Plant, and Banana Pepper Plant.



    The tomato plant is already reaching over to the Banana Pepper Plant. Should I be able to keep it contained with a tomato tomato cage or should I rearrange??

  4. #4
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    Re: Tampa Barrel-ponic Setup!

    don't worry about the nitrates.. most fish are fine.. the only thing i've found is that fry suffer when it's abover 400ppm
    ph is ok, but i like mine a bit higher (closer to 7.2) just cuz.. and i supplement with maxicrop w/ iron as needed
    shell grit might be a better option to buffer your system up a little, but you don't have to..
    just keep an eye on it, as it may drop even more (that's why i buffer mine up higher)
    your system is still in the cycling stage, so go light on feeding especially after you add the tilapia.. test daily at about the same time since some things will fluctuate..

  5. #5
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    Re: Tampa Barrel-ponic Setup!

    Keith - Thanks for the response. I was thinking of buffering with some baking soda. Is that fine with the fish? I am also going to hold off on feeding the fish all together.

  6. #6
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    Re: Tampa Barrel-ponic Setup!

    i wouldn't mess with it with anything but slow acting buffers when you have fish in it.. swings of more than .2 can stress the fish
    you could put some shell grit (i got some from a tractor supply place) in a nylon bag or something similar and hang it in your ft under your return water flow..
    big changes with ph (who doesn't like experimenting?) and testing with things like baking soda should be done before adding any fish.. you could test by taking a measured bucket of your water, test, and add baking soda (or hydrated lime, you can get from a hardware store), mix and test again to see how much you would have to apply for small changes..

  7. #7
    Moderator badflash's Avatar
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    Re: Tampa Barrel-ponic Setup!

    I'd put some marl or limestone in the system to buffer up the pH. The combo of ammonia and nitrite can be a problem for fish. You can help some by bringing up the Dissolved O2 with an air pump and stone.
    The best fertilizer is the farmer's shadow

  8. #8
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    Re: Tampa Barrel-ponic Setup!

    Hey guys, a little update with where I stand with my system. I want to apologize first for all those who do not like pictures of aquaponic gardening porn... this post is filled with images!

    So, I took my water test Friday night after coming home with a bucket o' fish and worms. Wanted to see where we stood on the levels in the tank. After taking the readings and comparing them to prior 3 days, I decided on holding off on adding the fish. I hoped the tank would balance out a little bit before adding more fish to it.

    Tank reading 4/5/13 @ 10pm EST


    The next morning I woke up and the tank levels had dropped a little, obviously it was only a few hours and didn't expect a big change. But I was running into a problem, I had 13 fish and a craw dad in a bucket of 3 gallons of water (w/ air pump). The fish were pumping ammonia into the bucket with no way of getting it out. The tank water reading is below. HUGE pH difference (approx. 8.2) and climbing ammonia. I was concerned about the pH change for the fish going into my system that was sitting at about 6.2-6.4.



    Yesterday morning, I woke up to find my battery operated air pump was dead. There was no choice but to add the fish. Slowly but surely I added the fish into the tank. Introduced them in ziplock bags and took about a 30 min transition, slowly adding tank water to the bag, while they floated in the tank. As of this morning the fish are doing great. Ammonia is dropping, nitrities dropped and I am feeling a little better.



    The picture lighting gives a little different perception of the numbers, but pH is around 6.4, ammonia is a little lower than .5ppm, nitrites at .25ppm, and nitrates at 80ppm or more. I am going to continue monitoring my numbers daily and hope that everything continues to balance out.

    All 13 fish and the 1 crawdad added seem to be doing good. I lost 1 goldfish this morning, but he was sucking wind near the top of the tank for the past day, so I feel he was sick or something for the last few days. There are a total of 20 animals living in the tank now; 1 craw dad, 6 goldfish, 13 blue tilapia fingerlings (none bigger than 1.75"). I have also added about 6-7 red wigglers to each grow bed. Is that efficient or should I add more?

    Also recently added were a few plants: cinnamon basil, lemon grass (to help repel mosquito’s), zucchini squash, eggplant, and a small tomato bush plant.





    Some cool news, my banana pepper plant has 6 flowers on it now. Hoping to have some of my first harvest in the upcoming weeks!!

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