New IBC system in freo

freoboy

Hi All,
Here are some pics of my new system (6weeks old), being a uni student its been set up on a budget so nothing fancy. id appreciate any feedback tips, advice, problems you can see etc.
I had som problems witht he cycleing (4 fish dead) but its settled down in the lasty couple of weeks so now i am slowly increasing feed, however my nitrate levels seem to stay on 0???
Cheers
Ben

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Simo

freoboy wrote:

...so nothing fancy...

Looks pretty fancy schmancy to me, well done :thumbright:

Some might tell you your GB depth is too shallow but one of mine is same depth and works just fine.

chillidude

Yep, agree with Simo, Freoboy - looks pretty good. An certainly seems to producing the veges pretty well. Well done.

Your issue is not that your GB is too shallow, just that you need more of them - ideally twice as much GB volume as FT volume to be able to run your system at full capacity.

Boris01

is that a UV tube ?

TEA20

looks good, but if its in full sun you may want to cosider shading the tank from the sun, when it gets warmer you`ll end up with a alge bloom

chillidude

Don't worry about the nitrate being on 0 - not a problem.

What fish have you got in there, how many, and what size ?

freoboy

cheers guys, i really appreciate the feedback.
im currently hunting arounds for another growbed, possibly looking at one of the BYAP ones (scholoarship money is in the mail

)
there is 14 rainbow trout, 1 silver perch and 1 large yabbie, the biggest fish being about 120-150 mm. i had green water so put the UV tube on the side, but in summer ill be moving the system to the back of the garden and will cover it all up and make it look nice then.

my rocket is very very pale, both the veins and leaves. is there any reason for this? i have put about 6 iron nails in the GB and put 1/2 cap of seasol every week or so? i will try and up[load a pic but the comp isnt letting me at the moment . . .

also algae on the sides of the FT is turning red - brown now? should i be concerned, clean it of leave it be?

cheers,
Ben

Simo

Jeez when I was at uni if I had a 1000L water tank hanging around I probably would have just used if for bucket bongs :oops:

or maybe an emergency esky for a party :geek:

Are the SP and yabby food for the trout? If not they will be. :twisted:

Just remember that to have double the FT volume in GB volume you will need to have a sump tank as large as you fish tank or sequentially flood the beds other wise the fish will need to learn to breath air if all the GBs flood at once.

I am not sure that the iron nails thing works or not :dontknow:

as the nails probably just produce iron oxide which may not be ionically available to the plants to take up like the chelated iron most of us use is ( not studying metallurgy or chemistry are you?). In saying that I use both methods.

The iron oxide from the rusting nails is probably staining you algae brown.

freoboy

haha well if i used it as bucket bongs/ eskies i wouldnt have nice, sustainable organic fish / veggies at the end of it all

trout will eat sp and yabbies? ohwell i guess its organic food . . .where can i get chealted iron from? is it pretty common? Im only keeping 6-700 L water in it at the moment, and 200L GB which floods and drains every 45min.

interesting thoughts about the nails / brown algae, i'm doing marine science / enviro management so a little chem but not enough for me to hold a conversation on it, certinaly not enough to know about iron oxides etc etc, i will do some research into plant uptake of iron.
cheers
ben

chillidude

Ben - what's your pH - if it's very high (around 8.0) that can lock out many minerals, partiularly iron. If you need to add a little chelated iron to make some available for the plants. A little Seasol would probably go down well, from the plant's point of view, in an immature systems as well.

desertrat

[quote="freoboy"]Hi All,
Here are some pics of my new system (6weeks old), being a uni student its been set up on a budget so nothing fancy. id appreciate any feedback tips, advice, problems you can see etc.

Welcome freoboy
I have to point out that being a Uni student does not give you exclusive rights to being on a budget!!! :support:

The system looks good and IMO I would be looking to increase the number of GB's and getting some shade over the FT
You have a nice neat system taking shape
will look forward to watching the progress

faye

Looking good freoboy! Id get more

Growbeds going with that numberof fish.

Simo

You can't believe every thing you read on the intraweb but this site seem legit and quite informative in relation to iron and water:

http://www.lenntech.com/periodic/water/ ... -water.htm

Seems iron oxide (rust) is not water soluble unless the water is very acidic. If the iron oxide cannot dissolve in water into free iron ions the plant won't take it up.

Looks like you will need the chelated iron, the only one i have seen is a Yeats brand and you should find it at most hardware/gardening shops in the chemicals section.

On the plus side the iron oxide form the rusty nails will help remove arsenic from your water so that has to be good. :cheers:

freoboy

chillidude wrote:

Ben - what's your pH - if it's very high (around 8.0) that can lock out many minerals, partiularly iron. If you need to add a little chelated iron to make some available for the plants. A little Seasol would probably go down well, from the plant's point of view, in an immature systems as well.

ph is 6.6-7.2, it seems to settle at 7.2 but im trying to keep it below 7 for plant uptake

simmo- thanks for the website, ill have a dig around for some chelated iron :thumbleft:

rmcpb

If your nitrate levels are zero and your plants pale green I would be betting on a nitrogen deficiency rather than an iron one. Maybe try bumping your feeding level up a bit for a couple of days and keep an eye on your levels.

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