Trevs IBC CHIF PIST SYSTEM!

Trevponics

Hi guys Im located in Spearwood WA. As the title suggests Im doing a chift pist set up with two IBCs and one BYAP grow bed. Im using the flood and drain method with all the plumbing pumps ect...supplied from BYAP. So far I think I got everything I need except a stand for the GB. Tomorrow will be finding a stand, cutting IBC lids, washing my balls (hydroton) and setting up the pipe work. I will be making an SLO for the FT at a later date. And Ill keep you posted and ask questions here.
Any advice and comments will be appreciated :thumbleft:

freoboy

hi trev!! Good to see you started your own thread:)

bonsaibelly

Hi Trev, looking good already!

Trevponics

Fishless cycling time
thanks Freo I drew some Ideas and inspiration from ya. I managed to cycle a little today and will do the fine tuning of the plumbing, water testing and setting pump times tomorrow. there is a lot of info on here about fishless cycling Ill be checking the threads now. I have 900lts capacity in each ST and FT 1800l in all.
Questions so far.

1) I added water from tap so how will this effect the system?
2) Urea, how long in hummonia will it take to convert to ammonia?
3) I`m thinking put a pinch of worm tea for the bacteria a pinch of aged hummonia for the ammonia and a pinch of emulsion in the system as nutrients for the plants. any recommendations on amounts and frequencies.

ivansng

Well you are on your way...

1) Tap water is just fine if you left it cycle for a day at least before you add fish... and also fine during tank top-ups...
2) Hummonia (fresh pee) will show ammonia readings within 1-2 days...
3) Just add the worms in. And add some pee (maybe about 300ml). Test your water two days later, you want to get your ammonia reading to about 1 to 2ppm. If not, add pee again. After the ammonia reading is 1 to 2ppm (or higher), leave it alone. Test weekly...

Note that once you start on the fishless cycle route, you should never add fish until both ammonia and nitrite are zero.

swanberg

Looking good! :thumbright:

It might be a good idea to change the orientation of some of the brick legs on your GB, so it's less vulnerable to knocks. One leg like this || and the next like =

Is that a roof downspout pointing right at your fish tank? You might want to point that in a different direction, so you don't find it excavating your tank during a hard rain! :oops:

Trevponics

Quote:

Is that a roof downspout pointing right at your fish tank? You might want to point that in a different direction, so you don't find it excavating your tank during a hard rain! :oops:

It is but comes straight from the ceiling. Haven't had any rain since moving here yet to see what happens, Im thinking about carpeting some of the area around it all. The legs are tucked away enough and pretty firm might turn the middle ones if it worries me at any stage still think the height of the blocks are a bit on the piss tho.

vlt

You might want to put sleepers between the blocks and the growbed. Effectively you have the wieght of the growbed pressing on each block column. Putting a sleeper in would distribute the pressure.

Also, not sure if the growbeds can take the weight of water and hydroton being pressed into the corner of the brick. YOur looking at about 300kgs to 500kgs per growbed.

earthbound

Ummm, yeah as VLT says, sleepers highly recommended... I'm surprised that it's actually held up being filled without some support under it...

Trevponics

Yeah seems ok for now. Since I took this photo Ive alligned the blocks a little more to the centres of the 6 sections of the GB. The surface area of the blocks are 200x300 but there is slight sag on the end farthest from the GB so will definately take advice and get something done about it as said above its better not to have the GB in contact with the stone. EB As for our concerns about the time of filling the FT, it starts draining to GB more or less straight away so 15mins ph pump time is good. Ive added slight ammount of eggshells as the ph was 8.2 some hummonia 300ml, 5ml of fish emultion. Will test for ph, nitrates and ammonia this afternoon. Maybe get some goldfish when the ph stabilizes and plant out when I get some nitrate readings. But slowly, slowly winst the race.

Trevponics

Ammonia level between 2.5 and .5
But Im concerned about ph 8.4 :think:

will this stabilise when the system matures?

freoboy

And the cycling begins :headbang:

Yeh ph will drop eventually but seeing as you haven't for fish you could try adding a few DROPS of hcl acid from "b" till it gets to just under 7 it will help bacteri grow

freoboy

Oh and feel free to plant out now

ivansng

Well I think egg shells increases pH...

freoboy

ivansng wrote:

Well I think egg shells increases pH...

Yea it will ... I think

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