urban's system

[urbanrunoff]

can i mix turtles and goldies?
and don't turtles need a place out of the water too?
how about crawdads, a creak nearby is full of them?

but you need to control your beer.

not an option

[jackalope]

can i mix turtles and goldies?
and don't turtles need a place out of the water too?
how about crawdads, a creak nearby is full of them?

but you need to control your beer.

not an option

I can understand that! My better half says "you've had too much" .... I didn't know there was such a thing as too much!

[urbanrunoff]

just a little update.
I had couple of nice batches of salads, wife was very exited.

cabbage is growing too, but my PH is still too high (around 8).
i would like to try and get some calcium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide, but who sells that stuff ?

And i'm really happy my goldies finally eat duckweed. took them a while to get used to it.
in a couple of weeks i'm ready for tilapia.

[dufflight]

I use hydrochloric acid to drop the ph. Not sure of the ratio to water volume.

[badflash]

Use only a little at a time and re-check the pH after a few water turn-overs. The pH will rebound.

[urbanrunoff]

Use only a little at a time and re-check the pH after a few water turn-overs. The pH will rebound.

yeah i'm pretty sure it will, it's my gravel
Can i use the PH down they sell at pet stores?

[jackalope]

Use only a little at a time and re-check the pH after a few water turn-overs. The pH will rebound.

yeah i'm pretty sure it will, it's my gravel
Can i use the PH down they sell at pet stores?

I never did get my PH to come down, no matter what I did to it ...... it always stayed at about 8.5 ...... if I treated it, the effect would only last a few hours before it would be right back up there .... I was told it was somehing that was buffering it .... probably my pea gravel ...... Hydroton isn't an option here, it's 250 miles one way to buy it at the closest seller.

If you use the stuff at the LFS, it's most likely just diluted sulfuric acid or muriatic acid ..... might as well get the real stuff which is cheaper by the gallon ..... BTW, White Vinegar worked good for me, but as I said, in a few hours, it was right back up to 8.5

[dufflight]

A few hrs to bounce back up. Thats really buffered. No option for a media change. My gravel or river rock is the cause of my drift. With 500 ish fish the bio load still has to work against the buffer. The acid shifts it for a few weeks but I don't keep a check and it slowly goes up. I was thinking of installing a larger ABF(airlift bio filter) and another 1000 ish fish and let the bio work on getting the buffer slowly out of the media.

[badflash]

The rock used MUST be inert. If it isn't there is no sense in using any chemicals to deal with it. The rock will always win. Either live with the high pH and find plants that like that, or change your rock.

[urbanrunoff]

Yesterday was the big day.
25 tilapia fingerlings have been added to the tank.
Now i have 35 goldies and 25 tilapias. The tilapias are separated by a laundry basket (the netted ones that unfold).
Goldies will soon have their own tank.
Salads have been doing fine. Red cabbage is taking over but no heads yet. Broccoli is slow but looking healthy.
Basil is doing ok, but not as good as i hoped.
Spinach is just not happening, yellow and not growing.
Strawberries were actually doing well but i took them out because they were infested with flies of all sorts.
I got plenty of seedling and will experiment with what works the rest will go in my regular hydroponics.

i've had some white flies and aphids and have been dusting with DE and using sticky yellow cards so it seems under control.


Question:
if i get a bigger infestation can i use products like neem oil and BE (organic pesticides) if i'm very careful the stuff doesn't runoff into the water or rocks?
I thought about applying that stuff with cotton swaps on affected leaves and stems.

have a great Sunday everyone. I'm going to be busy plucking weeds in my soil based garden... pffffft what a hassle