BYAP Trials

rsevs3

Would you not be more likely to see a nitrate spike in an established system?

BullwinkleII

rsevs3 wrote:

Would you not be more likely to see a nitrate spike in an established system?

Spikes in general then?

I'm new to this process of having a stack of dead root matter in my grow bed, and I'm wondering what to expect.

rsevs3

I am yet to get enough roots in my system to have to worry about dead ones.

I just guessed nitrates because thats what the plants remove. The bacteria takes care of amm and nitrite.

Just my thought process is all, i dont actually know

kthignight24

How could you not see a nitrate spike? You're removing plants that take nitrate out of the system and leaving roots that will decompose and eventually add nitrates. Even if you replant, those new plants aren't going to remove as much nitrates as the mature ones you just pulled out. The question I think is how much will the nitrate spike and is this a bad thing. I think most fish tolerate much higher nitrates than they do nitrites and ammonia (someone correct me if I'm wrong). So you'd just end up w/ extra fertilizer in the water until the plants caught up (assuming it wasn't excessive, killing the fish).

BullwinkleII

My fear was that there would be a huge dump of ammonia and then nitrites as the roots rotted, but this is getting too off topic for this thread.

Sorry everyone, I'll take it up in my system thread

TCLynx

If you go really stirring up a nasty root bound bed, you may see some spiking of ammonia or nitrite but in my experience it doesn't last more than a day unless you really stirred up the entire system really bad all at once while still feeding to the max.

If you remove all the big mature plants at once then you are likely to see a rise in nitrates but they are not that big a deal unless you are talking really extreme.

I've been known to simply chop a big plant off at the stem and leave the bed fallow for a bit when dealing with something so badly root bound that I can't easily tug out the plant (banana or lufa vine) Those beds have sorted themselves out after a time.

As to the previous page's comments about what Murray said about constant flow. Last fall speaking with him, it seems when he thought of constant flow it was more like a constant flow through a drained bed and that didn't work well since only the plants with roots down to the bottom could get enough water. I mentioned that constant flood works as long as you are talking about constant flow/flood. The thing about clogging and dead spots has more to do with fine sand/dirt/rock dust/ and roots clogging a bed more than anything to do with particular method.

Aquastud

Any recent trial system data available?

Would be nice to see how each system is performing from a filtration point of view, now that the fish should be a decent size and feeding well.

Charlie

kthignight24 wrote:

I think most fish tolerate much higher nitrates than they do nitrites and ammonia (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

fish can handle somewhere up around 600ish ppm of nitrate

CruelSun

Thank you BYAP for doing this trial, your time spent (time is money!) has benefited the whole community.

Thanks also to all the regulars who have contributed so much time and insight into this thread. Thoughtful questions and concise answers born of experience are priceless. :notworthy:

It has taken three days to read, but I now have a much fuller understanding of the variables involved in running a system, and I haven't even gotten my hands wet yet. :thumbright:

ShoestringAP

+1 Cruel Sun

Great thread, glad the trial is still going...

I AM curious about the $5.95 timers that Rup quotes though???

BullwinkleII

ShoestringAP wrote:

+1 Cruel Sun

Great thread, glad the trial is still going...

I AM curious about the $5.95 timers that Rup quotes though???

How so?

RupertofOZ

What timers... and where?

ShoestringAP

Now you're going to make me go LOOK for them???? :think:

Wait one...or ten

Brian

ShoestringAP

trout wrote:

RupertofOZ wrote:

I reckon setting up and running for timed flood & drain is the easiest way to go....

But Rupe, Flood and drain costs $5.95 more to set-up

cheers Lou

RupertofOZ wrote:

trout wrote:

But Rupe, Flood and drain costs $5.95 more to set-up

cheers Lou

But you save $5.95 in a week in power... by using a timer.... :wink:

This was from Oct 2011...I caught up yesterday... :oops:

I searched BYAP online and didnt find any timers...much less ones for $5.95...
soooo...I am presuming, not ASSuming that this was said in fun and said timers are MUCH more than $5.95??? :mrgreen:

werdna

About $7 actually on Ebay for a US version
http://www.ebay.com/itm/24-Hours-Mechanical-Timer-Power-Point-Switch-110V-US-/260766260794?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cb6e15e3a

I am sure you have a supermarket chain over there in the US that sells them cheap as well.

Andrew

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Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics