Tony & Marilyn's System

[Marilyn]

Hi everyone we finally have our system up and running. We have had our jade perch since 1st Feb and today finally started cycling through 4 1m x 1m grow beds. Our jade perch are very hardy living through high ammonia levels for the past 2 weeks. Hopefully now everything will settle down. We had done numerous water changes but it never changed the levels of ammonia. we've planted up with melons, zuchinni, squash, lettuce, bok choy, corn, strwberries and tomatoes. Camera had to be recharged so will take photos tomorrow and put online as well. We will put two more lines of grow beds in to complete the system now that we know what we are doing. The system is currently taking 20min to flood and then 39min to drain before pumps kick in and start the cycle over so at this stage we don't have to use timers.

Till tomorrow Marilyn

[alexmac]

Hi Marilyn,
I think you GBed is draining too slowly. Can you hurry it along a bit.
Alex

[GaryD]

Hi Folks,



I think you GBed is draining too slowly.

My gravel grow beds take a similar amount of time to drain......I wouldn't be too concerned about it. Having said that, my microFish Farms (using autosyphons) dump the water in about 30 seconds. I will be changing all of my media-based beds over to autosyphons as the opportunity permits.

Gary

[fishfood]

I would not be worried about the drain times in my system the beds fill in 3 min and some take 45 min to drain This whole system has been running 2 years now with no problem[have a look at my thread in established systems] to see the growth

[alexmac]

Hi Marilyn,
Garry-- Fish food,

I was under the impression that the idea was to drain the water out quickly so that air would be dragged down through the media to help oxygenate the bacteria and root systems.

My system (1600lts) fills in around 8 min and empties in around 10 to 12. It takes 35 to 40 mins for the siphon from the FT to drain back to the sump and bring the water level up to the pump cut in point. So I pump once an hr 24/7.
I will be back up to the farm in a fortnight and will time the events again and post the result on my thread.


Alex :confused:

[GaryD]

Hi Alex,

If a grow bed is filled with water, and then you drain it (regardless of how long it takes), air is drawn down into the depths of the grow bed (otherwise you'd have a vacuum).....so a 45 minute drain period is not a problem.

That's not to suggest that more frequent filling and draining is problematic. It would mean even more oxygen around the roots......and that might even be better.

The point is that, borne of my experience and that of several other people that I know, 45 minutes is not an excessive drain time.

Gary

[alexmac]

Every thing is growing well in my system except that I do not have enough light at the moment.
I do have a problem with too much uneaten food on the bottom of the FT.
I am making an air lift pump to pump the rubbish off the bottom into the sump for the yabbies to sort through then the auto pump will pump the residue into the GB's.
Alex

[Marilyn]

Here are some photos of our system. One is the growbeds and the other is the sump.

[djs-sa]

pix look good,
and 45 min drain is fine, too frequent waters can cause stem rot

[Marilyn]

Here are some more photos. The first are lettuce that we are groing in sattelite pots, the next is our quails. Tony built using cheap shelving from bunnings with the shelves upside down and putting two lots together to make it 705mmx705mm. We then attached wire around. There are six shelves altogether. The feeders have been cut from pvc pipe and hung so that they cannot scratch it everywhere.And the last photo is of our brooder made from an old school workstation. The fluoro light keeps them warm enough but I have other lamps as well if need be but it has got very warm up here quickly with humidity already increasing.

[Hamish]

Hi Tony and Marilyn - great looking lettuce - is it in soil?

Using the shelves to make the bird cage is a great idea - could you post some more pics of this?

[Marilyn]

Hi Hamish the lettuce is growing just in coir peat and are only about 6weeks old. We've also got a tomato bush growing in the same pot and it also is big and very healthy looking. If you look on the thread about jap quails there are some more photos there.
Lots of luck with your property search tomorrow.

[Hamish]

That coco coir is great stuff! Especially when watered using fish tank water. The tomatos I have in the polystyrene broccoli boxes with coco coir are doing really well and like yours are setting fruit already. I have been cleaning out my canister filter every 2 or 3 weeks and dumping the contents into the coco coir beds - they are really thriving on all that good stuff :) And thanks for the well wishes :)

[GaryD]

Hi Hamish,



I have been cleaning out my canister filter every 2 or 3 weeks and dumping the contents into the coco coir beds......

I managed to kill some tomatoes doing a similar thing. I poured the sediment over the coco peat and it formed a crust around the tomatoes and they died over a period of a few weeks.

I'd propose that you mix the sediment and the coco peat and then plant into that.

Gary

[Hamish]

Hi Gary, What is it about the sediment that you think killed the tomatos? Did the crust cause the water to not absorb into the coco coir?

My coco coir is watered with under surface pipes - so that might solve the issue if it is to do with water not penetrating the crust.

What I did may have been a little different - I rinsed all the filter parts in fish tank water in a 25L bucket. Then used the mucky water to water the plants in to coco coir beds over a couple of days.

I do know what you mean about the crust though - I tipped the last bit of water onto the grow bed and it had a lot of solids in it and they did form a crust which I had to break up by hand.

[GaryD]

Hamish,

I suspect that the fine sediment created an airtight seal......but it may have been overfeeding.....who knows? I stopped doing it anyway. I suggest that the solids get put through your worm farm and that you feed your plants a tonic of worm tea.

Gary

[djs-sa]

with coco coir u should use it in this manner,

i will use a 50lt pot 4 example,

bottom layer clay balls 10lts
40lt coco coir, surface watered and u need at least two lenghts of 20mm conduit 400mm long and drill as many holes that practical all along the conduits using a 5mm drill bit.(50mm out of the top of pot/grow bed)

Now place the two conduits vertically in the soil until one end is in the clayballs and at least 50mm out of the coco at the top of grow bed.

The purpose is to provide o2 in to the clayballs and gas to escape,
It also helps watering

[GaryD]

In normal circumstances, aeration of coco coir is not a problem and water will drain through it quite successfully if you don't clog it up with sediment....which is what I appear to have done.

Gary

[djs-sa]

it was a pdf i read a while back its more about the coco needing it (o2) as is biodegrades as its from a living thing and will change states if 02 isnt availble
will try to dig it out some time for u guys it was maybe a canna document.