Hello Nate! I've been watching all your videos, and this one in particular confirmed my idea of what was going wrong with my system.. I was struggling to get pH to stay below 8.4, and I figured out that the well water at my house is very 'hard', causing build up of carbonates and an excess of calcium. So I emptied out my system, COMPLETELY, and now I've reassembled it, filled it with Distilled water, and added fish, planted new plants, the whole nine yards. I'm going to have to keep adding distilled water instead of topping off with the hose like i used to (WORTH IT!), I buy it by the gallon at walmart (evil corp, but who can argue with .68c a gallon?). I thought about investing in an RO filter, but at the moment it is out of my price range. That being said, I decided on the distilled water on a whim, to see what results I would get. It's been setting up (i'm using microbelift bacteria starter to kick start the cycle) and so far seems fine. Curious, do you know anything about the long term effect of using distilled water? It is my understanding that the distillation process removes all the minerals, which is essentially what i was after, however, which of those minerals might I need to supplement to offset the use of the distilled h20? I really appreciate the access to these videos, they have been more helpful than any other tutorials I've seen, and I will continue to watch, possibly going to enroll in the Upstart program, as this is more than a hobby for me.. Thanks so much, keep up the awesome work!!! -Cali
Always using DI or distilled water in any aquarium/aquaponics/aquaculture system is bad for fish health because it will completely wreck their osmotic balance. Adding DI water to an established system is less of a problem, but if you're trying to put fish into 100% DI etc., you'll likely kill all of your organisms.
Nate, that was quick, informative and down to the point. I feel like I can do it myself now. Once you said that "if you have a ph level of around about 7 it's not that much of a big deal, it'll go down over time anyway" I felt that I could stop worrying now. I'll simply give it a go. Thank you for this short video! :-)
Bright Agrotech On well water so I did get a RO with a DI Deionizer cartridge. Should I be using that cartridge? I am running a small system in my house with goldfish. PH high. Kh alkalinity really low. You can see my set up on my channel if anyone can help me :-) trying to grow Romain a bit wrinkly and edges are yellow. System has been up for almost 2 months thanks all
Using dam and rain water but still have a high pH and tomatoes don't do well. What else could I do? Thanks for your great videos, keep them coming please.
My system has a ph close to 8.2 because my tap water is at 8.2 and has a very high carbonate hardness. So, I built a filter that lowers the ph from 8.2 to 6.8 in one pass and also softens the water while removing carbonates. I accomplished this with a 5 gallon bucket and peat moss. It turns the water to a tea color, but the quality of the water is steadily improving in the system.
Hi everybody, I've been running my system for a year now and I can't seem to get the pH down. I give you some details more about the system to see if someone can help me. - Outdoor - Grow bed: 1.5 square meters with with expanded clay as substrate - Fish tank + sump tank: 300 L with Vulcanic stone at the bottom - 8 fish at the moment average size (about 8/10 cm each). Ph: 8 KH: 10 NO2:
Sorry for the delay to respond Regina. It seems the water has a high buffering capacity - is this well water or city water? Any idea what the incoming water ppm is? My first recommendation would be to try and use RO or rainwater or try and lower the carbonates to make the water easier to control. Phosphoric acid also tends to be more effective than the biological methods so this may be worth trying.
this all might be over my head, but based off of the pH vids and the q&a, it seems like flow through systems like zipgrow would have an advantage in systems with high carbonate source water due to the ratio of biological surface area to system volume, which seems like it could benefit stable stocking densities and allow the operator to drive nitrification and thus carbonate burn compared to rafts.
Thanks for the video. Very helpful. Patience is key in many things, aquaponic doesn't escape the rule :) For my part, I will install a 3 part filter to the house water supply, as it will be beneficial for us for the day to day life. It should help getting a slightly better quality water to the fish tank, once ready.
I've recently had to "repot" an established aquaponic system due to the plants root system out growing the grow bed. In that process I've wiped out my good bacteria and my system went from a 7.0ph to 9.0 I'm hoping my plants can compensate long enough for the system to reestablish. it's tempting to buy a product to fix this problem but I'm adding Poland spring water, supplementing with beneficial bacteria and doing frequent water changes. fingers crossed.
Try not to do any water changes if possible, just stop or slow feeding your fish. Your bacteria will rebound much faster this way, and your fish can go for some time without feed without any trouble. Be patient and things will return to normal soon. Good Luck!
Hi, thank you for your video I've certainly skipped alot of trail and error from this 3 mins hahaha. Because I just started a small bioponics system (using organic fertilizer as nutrient source) Can I ask how long does it usually take for nitrification to affect the ph of RO water? Because for some reason my pH keeps gravitating towards ph 8.1
Yep, good info, you can just get an RO system that produces 200 gallons a day and considering you are recycling water you will be ready to role in no time. Really if you have super high 3000+ KH levels it will never go down, maybe after a couple years of acidifying while not adding any water, but by that time it will all be gone from evaporation. LOL Otherwise you would have to top-off with RO or rain water. Some people add ammonium nitrate, but I agree with what you said. It is always easier to add what you need to water instead of trying to play chemist and take out what you don't need. Great video.
Hello sir.. my system water is little hard and system water pH is 8.2 continue. If I increase biological surface area is it benificial to decrease pH upto 6.8-7 . And what should I use for increasing biological surface area. My system water is 200000 lit
Should you just feed more if ph is lowered my nitrification? I just do it as a hobby in my aquarium and I been rarely feeding my fish because of work. So if I feed more, ph will come down?
Dang it. I recently relocated my system, which required a large influx of tap water. If I would have watched you video BEFORE getting all antsy, I would not have put lemon juice into my system. I only hope now that I simply did not put enough in to do any real damage. Thanks for the video. I only wish I would have watched it sooner.
I have an IBC tank, 2- 45gallon aquariums with small grow beds, an d 1 100 gallon tank. I have grow stones and hydroton in the IBC bed and just hydroton in the other systems. The pH in the IBC stays around 7.4 while all the other tanks will continually drop pH to sometimes in the high 4s. Since all the water came from the same tap (7.3) I find it hard to believe it's a carbonate issue. I bought the Grow Stones in a hydroponic store so I wouldn't think they would be the problem. What are your thoughts. Oh yeah the IBC system is just over a year old while the others are more recent.
Hey Jeff Sullivan - Hmm. That's pretty strange, unless you have really good nitrification in your other tanks that hasn't established yet in your IBC, but you should still be cycling quickly enough that your pH should equalize. My guess is that your growstones are somehow alkaline.
Bright Agrotech The IBC bed is over a year old and seems to be well cycled. If your thought about the grow stones is correct the issue may solve itself when I use the media in that bed to fire up 2 new beds this month. Hopefully that will create 2 beds with a steady pH in the medium to high 6's.
Hi. The pH of the water from my well is between 6.3 - 6.5. But as it circulates in the fish tank, the pH goes up to 8.0 - 8.1. Is this pH increase normal as the water started as neutral pH? What is your suggestion to solve this matter? Thank you
Hello, I am at quite a loss.I live in central South Africa. My source water has a ph of about 8. And yet the system water has climbed to about 8.5. Why should that be? The startup went fine after an initial nitrite spike, but now I don't have enough plants to use the nitrates. So my nitrites and ammonia are very low but the nitrates high.I feed the fish only once a day to try and keep that under control. I started to add dutch buckets to the system that contain a little pepple stones at the bottom and coconut coir, vermiculite and perlite. I did have a few mishaps in my startup period, where I lost a lot of water and had to replenish with high PH source water. But I was shocked nevertheless that the PH now is higher than the source water. I bought an RO filter today and started to add that water......
I wonder, would rain water contain more ph or less ph than standard tap water ? I ask cause I plan to get 2 large water tanks and collect rain water for my needs ?
My outside system has been stuck in the 8.4-8.5 range for the last few weeks. I add a few ounces of vinegar nearly every day and it's right back to where it was the next day. I've never grown anything before, but it seems like I am getting a very slow growth rate with most of my plants and I assume that this would be the greatest contribute. Would you still recommend that I wait it out? The system has been going since mid June
Yes, your system is still really young, and while you probably do have some carbonate issues you'll have to deal with eventually, I'd wait a little longer. Once your nitrification really swings up, you'll see pH come down a little. If it doesn't then you need to find out where carbonate is entering your system (media, tap water, etc.)
Hello. I have an ~6000l established concrete fish pond which I have added an experimental small grow bed too. My plants are yellowing due to an iron deficiency. But my ph is 8.2. Any ideas to reduce this. I do have a lot of sediment at the bottom of the ponds.
Loving your channel:) I am just getting started with AP and I tested my "barrel-O-fish" water and it is at right around 7.5. Is that to high? I do not have grow beds setup yet but seeing that different types of stone can affect the pH what should I go with? Is there any videos you have that you can recommend me starting to watch to go from keeping fish in a barrel (successfully) into an AP system? Just looking for something to watch! Ha ha ha!
HomeFarmIdeas.com 7.5 pH is a little high. As for grow beds since we specialize in growing with ZipGrow towers, we don't work with them often enough to give advice on. And finally currently we don have any videos addressing transferring fish to an AP system, but our advice would be once you move them don't feed them for a couple of days because they will be in shock. Keep a close eye on the temp of the water too. good luck!
Can someone fertilizethe soil with huge amounts of nitrogen compounds to reduce the ph before it reciving fish and plants? And how does the water pourring play a role in this high kh and nitrogen relation?
Hi, the culprit for my high ph is untreated concrete pond. I didn't acid wash, apply neutralizer and sealant when I started the system. Currently I am applying phosporic acid which lowers the ph from 8.2/8.8 to 7-7.5. My system is more than 2 weeks old. Should I treat my pond with neutralizer & sealant or install a liner? Or will the ph normalize once the cycle is complete?
Tony Sy hi Tony, unfortunately the Ph is not going to go back down on its own. You are going to have to drain the pond and either install a liner or apply some epoxy paint. Hope that helps!
my well water ph is 8.5 and rain water is 7.6 (my town is tropical & near active volcano), so i want to try your advice and buy a RO system, if i am not wrong a ro system has 2 filter for coarse & fine sediment, 1 carbon filter, then a pump to push water trough first semi permeable filter , then to virus&bactery filter, then last for make the taste better (add some mineral). do i need all that or just up to first semi permeable filter is enough? what ph & tds do i need to make the system working?
Baking soda is a carbonate. Still, I was wondering if vinegar could work in small doses. Or Carbonic acid, which neutralizes with calcium carbonate (lye).
what about the acidity of reverse osmosis water? ive seen tests of reverse osmosis water having a ph of 5.0 and lower....the bicarbonates are filtered out of the water leaving CO2 (because its a gas it can pass through the membrane) to attach to the H20 and form H2CO (carbonic acid). would the addition of water at that low of a ph be a shock to the fish or does the system mineralize the water and help to buffer the ph?
Unless your adding a significant amount it would be fine as your swing will be slow. I used a 'lot' of hydrochloric acid to lower mine as I was impatient, as it was it still took around 4 months to get it down using acid. Now I daily add some hydrated lime to keep it from falling too low. As a side note warning, once you are running in the 6.2-6.6pH range be very careful when buying fingerling fish. I've killed loads as Silver Perch (Australia) as they are fragile fish when fingerlings and can't acclimatise to the low pH easily. In the end I found it necessary to use a second tank for this purpose.
Most likely you have carbonates entering your system in another way- most likely through an alkaline grow-bed medium. Are you using rock as your growbed medium? Another possibility is diurnal pH swings from algae, but those pH swings aren't permanent they just swing up during the day and drop at night.
This was very helpful to watch Dr. I've got no background in the chemistry, but I'm beginning to get the gist that these are complex systems, though perhaps not complicated. I have a little 40 gallon tank setup in the Middle School where I teach. It's about 7 weeks old now and we've lost several little goldfish from the pet store though four of then seem fine still. Does scale of the system affect the rate at which the bacteria bring things into balance? Our pH is around 8 to 8.2 and I've tried adding pH down drops and several peat pellets over the past several days and haven't seen any movement.
No, but it's possible to raise it with gravel growbeds. Your pH will drop due to nitrification though, and biological surface area (BSA) provided by things like gravel grow beds helps with that process. For more on BSA, read this: brightagrotech.com/biological-surface-area-in-aquaponics/
Nate, I appreciate your videos. I have had my system running for about a month now. It is an IBC system with one full fish tank, a 150 gallon sump, a 150 gallon float bed, a 4 x 4 x12in gravel bed and four 15 foot 3" PVC pipe used as NFT. It seems to be cycling well. Ammonia and Nitrites are very low. Nitrates are ranging between 25 and 50. My PH is what is frustrating me. It has consistantly been about 8.2. The fish seem to be doing well, but my plants are stating to show signs of nutrient deficiency. I have been slowly addign lower PH water to the system, about (30 gallons) over the last few days. Should i just continue to add in low PH water? Or is their anything else I could try? Sorry so long. Don
Don, it sounds like you have hard water and/or some limestone or basic rock in your growbed. You have a really young system though, so I anticipate that your pH will begin to drop in the next few months. Don't worry about it quite yet, but you might want to check to make sure your gravel has a neutral pH. Everything else looks good. Be patient. If things don't improve in a month or two, then toss your gravel and find something neutral. Remember too, feeding drives the nitrification process, so if you can keep your ammonia and nitrites in check, feeding fish and growing plants aggressively will drive that pH down!
+WhatAmI “TheKingdomeWithin” IsItInMe Yes, we mostly test nitrogen and use it as a benchmark for other nutrients. Potassium, magnesium, calcium and iron are the most troublesome ones to manage, but we have a lot of other videos up that explain how to manage them in AP systems.
Hi Nate. Thanks for your great material. I have been studying some articles from US Aquaponics practitioner. An article by Sylvia Bernstein, author of Aquaponic Gardening says that carbonate are good for the system compared to carbonate free water or RO as it helps the system being more stable to pH variation. She says that a higher KH is, the more resistant the system will be to ph changes. Is this good? I would really appreciate your comments. Many thanks
Thank you.... It is good to know. I have prefect/ 7.0 from my creek house water.... I struggle a lot with it creeping up to 8.0..... I have tried citric acid.... and salting the water.. but I am doomed to 7.5 water... I will wait it out.. and look up that filter system...
Aquaponicpi, yeah, I found this video due to same problem. And it's well water. I'm looking up info and videos for a missionary out of country. It sure would be nice if anyone has some tips.
I like your video and advice, I'm using small NFT system to grow lettuce, tomato and chilies . my PH at starting point from tap water was around 8.2 and I have reduce it using phosphoric acid bought from General Hydroponic. it works fine during first week and keep my PH around 6.3 however after that the PH is increasing and reach 6.8 now and I'm afraid how to decrease it again but not using the phosphoric acid ( because I dont have it, it's hard to get it in my country). I'm thinking to use muriatic acid or lemon juice. which one is better and safe? thanks a lot
Guidahmed, we don't recommend using muriatic/hydrochloric acid or lemon juice! It could be that your pH struggles are due to carbonates in your source water - I'd consider checking that out and using an RO filter if that's the case.
H+ ions are a natural byproduct of nitrification. The more BSA, the better nitrification you have. So yes. But if you're having trouble with high pH it's more likely a carbonates problem.
Ok here it is, I made a huge mistake, filled my system with lime stone, OUCH I know... I am about 6 months and 8k deep I am running 12 IBC grow beds 12 zip grow towers 3 IBC tanks stocked with 160 Blue tilapia, my ph has been running from 8 down to 7.4, i am having K and Ca deficiencies but with my high ph its been tough to combat, Do I need a complete change of my aggregate? It would be a process and some time out, Do to the fact I am still in my construction phase and must push on for the changing weather here in the north country. I still have to close in my 40ft x 15ft greenhouse and get my heating system set up. So my timeline is hard and fast. but over time (Note: It wouldn't an easy change out 4tons of lime stone not quite and over night job) I am located in Upstate New York "aka" Canada ON Lake Ontario by the St. Lawrence River and it looks like the only stone available in this region is lime stone and or sand stone. I haven't yet started to research sand stone and its ability to be a grow media in an aquaponic system......... BUT in the mean time could a RO filter be a long term solution, Or is my end game for this grow bed media system still a complete aggregate media change? These grow beds with the additional 12 Zip grow Towers and an "Aeroponic clone/seedling start up system not that lime stone has any effect on my areoponics set up but I am including it in this big picture description to give you the big picture of my goals and investment. This being my prototype / R&D for my future career as a farmer... Any and all your input would be extremely appreciated.... PS. I am quit embarrassed of such a rookie & amateur MISTAKE but I am and this is my reality right now!
Dear Nate Storey, I feel a great closing to my asking for your in put is the Poem "A time to talk" by Robert Frost! If you read it I think you would agree, it seams like it fits into yours and is most defiantly my answer to the future of America and quit possibly the future of humanity. WIth that, I thank you for your time at the stone wall! I am sure I speak on behalf of thousands of people as well as future generations!! Stay Gold & Thank You Nate Storey!
Hey ronrprimp - I'm afraid if you ever want to run you pH lower than 7.4 or 7.5, you're going to have to change out your media. An RO filter won't work when you're combating carbonates where the source is inside your system. As fast as you remove it, your rock media dumps it right back in. I'm actually surprised you were able to get it down to 7.4. Start with changing your media and see if that helps. I'd avoid sandstone as a media and move towards expanded shale or matrix media. You're certainly not the first to do it and you certainly won't be the last so don't feel too bad! We hope you are able to turn things around here soon and get back to growing with #aquaponics .
Lemon juice is antibacterial. You don't whant to kill your good bacterial in a aquaponic setting. You can look up this video for more informations ruclips.net/video/8Fi9jPvhjqI/видео.html&index=61&list=PLR20yEf1qbq_Sx_ZuKqTv4VPbfE297XED.
I had watch whole ur video tat length was 3:42 mints and in the end got to know PH can't bring it down....don't u think this is a serious joke....don't create this kind of video if u don't know the salution of tat title u written on top and explaining like in the end u going to tell tat PH can reduce but you didn't ....Holly shit
Hello Nate!
I've been watching all your videos, and this one in particular confirmed my idea of what was going wrong with my system.. I was struggling to get pH to stay below 8.4, and I figured out that the well water at my house is very 'hard', causing build up of carbonates and an excess of calcium.
So I emptied out my system, COMPLETELY, and now I've reassembled it, filled it with Distilled water, and added fish, planted new plants, the whole nine yards. I'm going to have to keep adding distilled water instead of topping off with the hose like i used to (WORTH IT!), I buy it by the gallon at walmart (evil corp, but who can argue with .68c a gallon?). I thought about investing in an RO filter, but at the moment it is out of my price range. That being said, I decided on the distilled water on a whim, to see what results I would get. It's been setting up (i'm using microbelift bacteria starter to kick start the cycle) and so far seems fine. Curious, do you know anything about the long term effect of using distilled water? It is my understanding that the distillation process removes all the minerals, which is essentially what i was after, however, which of those minerals might I need to supplement to offset the use of the distilled h20?
I really appreciate the access to these videos, they have been more helpful than any other tutorials I've seen, and I will continue to watch, possibly going to enroll in the Upstart program, as this is more than a hobby for me.. Thanks so much, keep up the awesome work!!!
-Cali
Always using DI or distilled water in any aquarium/aquaponics/aquaculture system is bad for fish health because it will completely wreck their osmotic balance. Adding DI water to an established system is less of a problem, but if you're trying to put fish into 100% DI etc., you'll likely kill all of your organisms.
Wow, bad idea
I am assuming your fish all died
Nate, that was quick, informative and down to the point. I feel like I can do it myself now. Once you said that "if you have a ph level of around about 7 it's not that much of a big deal, it'll go down over time anyway" I felt that I could stop worrying now. I'll simply give it a go. Thank you for this short video! :-)
Thanks Nate. We're lucky to have great well water here!
That is lucky! Good for you guys.
Bright Agrotech On well water so I did get a RO with a DI Deionizer cartridge. Should I be using that cartridge? I am running a small system in my house with goldfish. PH high. Kh alkalinity really low. You can see my set up on my channel if anyone can help me :-) trying to grow Romain a bit wrinkly and edges are yellow. System has been up for almost 2 months thanks all
Using dam and rain water but still have a high pH and tomatoes don't do well. What else could I do? Thanks for your great videos, keep them coming please.
My system has a ph close to 8.2 because my tap water is at 8.2 and has a very high carbonate hardness. So, I built a filter that lowers the ph from 8.2 to 6.8 in one pass and also softens the water while removing carbonates. I accomplished this with a 5 gallon bucket and peat moss. It turns the water to a tea color, but the quality of the water is steadily improving in the system.
Hi everybody,
I've been running my system for a year now and I can't seem to get the pH down.
I give you some details more about the system to see if someone can help me.
- Outdoor
- Grow bed: 1.5 square meters with with expanded clay as substrate
- Fish tank + sump tank: 300 L with Vulcanic stone at the bottom
- 8 fish at the moment average size (about 8/10 cm each).
Ph: 8
KH: 10
NO2:
Sorry for the delay to respond Regina. It seems the water has a high buffering capacity - is this well water or city water? Any idea what the incoming water ppm is? My first recommendation would be to try and use RO or rainwater or try and lower the carbonates to make the water easier to control. Phosphoric acid also tends to be more effective than the biological methods so this may be worth trying.
this all might be over my head, but based off of the pH vids and the q&a, it seems like flow through systems like zipgrow would have an advantage in systems with high carbonate source water due to the ratio of biological surface area to system volume, which seems like it could benefit stable stocking densities and allow the operator to drive nitrification and thus carbonate burn compared to rafts.
Thanks for the video. Very helpful.
Patience is key in many things, aquaponic doesn't escape the rule :)
For my part, I will install a 3 part filter to the house water supply, as it will be beneficial for us for the day to day life. It should help getting a slightly better quality water to the fish tank, once ready.
Jason, sounds good - hit two birds with one stone!
I've recently had to "repot" an established aquaponic system due to the plants root system out growing the grow bed. In that process I've wiped out my good bacteria and my system went from a 7.0ph to 9.0 I'm hoping my plants can compensate long enough for the system to reestablish. it's tempting to buy a product to fix this problem but I'm adding Poland spring water, supplementing with beneficial bacteria and doing frequent water changes. fingers crossed.
Try not to do any water changes if possible, just stop or slow feeding your fish. Your bacteria will rebound much faster this way, and your fish can go for some time without feed without any trouble. Be patient and things will return to normal soon. Good Luck!
Hi, thank you for your video I've certainly skipped alot of trail and error from this 3 mins hahaha.
Because I just started a small bioponics system (using organic fertilizer as nutrient source) Can I ask how long does it usually take for nitrification to affect the ph of RO water? Because for some reason my pH keeps gravitating towards ph 8.1
Yep, good info, you can just get an RO system that produces 200 gallons a day and considering you are recycling water you will be ready to role in no time. Really if you have super high 3000+ KH levels it will never go down, maybe after a couple years of acidifying while not adding any water, but by that time it will all be gone from evaporation. LOL Otherwise you would have to top-off with RO or rain water. Some people add ammonium nitrate, but I agree with what you said. It is always easier to add what you need to water instead of trying to play chemist and take out what you don't need. Great video.
I could put cattapa leaves in the water to it will acidify and also add humic acids and tannins (???)
Hello sir.. my system water is little hard and system water pH is 8.2 continue. If I increase biological surface area is it benificial to decrease pH upto 6.8-7 . And what should I use for increasing biological surface area. My system water is 200000 lit
Should you just feed more if ph is lowered my nitrification? I just do it as a hobby in my aquarium and I been rarely feeding my fish because of work. So if I feed more, ph will come down?
Dang it. I recently relocated my system, which required a large influx of tap water. If I would have watched you video BEFORE getting all antsy, I would not have put lemon juice into my system. I only hope now that I simply did not put enough in to do any real damage. Thanks for the video. I only wish I would have watched it sooner.
I have an IBC tank, 2- 45gallon aquariums with small grow beds, an d 1 100 gallon tank. I have grow stones and hydroton in the IBC bed and just hydroton in the other systems. The pH in the IBC stays around 7.4 while all the other tanks will continually drop pH to sometimes in the high 4s. Since all the water came from the same tap (7.3) I find it hard to believe it's a carbonate issue. I bought the Grow Stones in a hydroponic store so I wouldn't think they would be the problem. What are your thoughts. Oh yeah the IBC system is just over a year old while the others are more recent.
Hey Jeff Sullivan - Hmm. That's pretty strange, unless you have really good nitrification in your other tanks that hasn't established yet in your IBC, but you should still be cycling quickly enough that your pH should equalize. My guess is that your growstones are somehow alkaline.
Bright Agrotech The IBC bed is over a year old and seems to be well cycled. If your thought about the grow stones is correct the issue may solve itself when I use the media in that bed to fire up 2 new beds this month. Hopefully that will create 2 beds with a steady pH in the medium to high 6's.
Its the hydrcorn they have to be p.h priori
Hi. The pH of the water from my well is between 6.3 - 6.5. But as it circulates in the fish tank, the pH goes up to 8.0 - 8.1. Is this pH increase normal as the water started as neutral pH? What is your suggestion to solve this matter? Thank you
As usual, all good stuff Nate! :-)
Thanks, Wayne!
Hello, I am at quite a loss.I live in central South Africa. My source water has a ph of about 8. And yet the system water has climbed to about 8.5. Why should that be? The startup went fine after an initial nitrite spike, but now I don't have enough plants to use the nitrates. So my nitrites and ammonia are very low but the nitrates high.I feed the fish only once a day to try and keep that under control. I started to add dutch buckets to the system that contain a little pepple stones at the bottom and coconut coir, vermiculite and perlite. I did have a few mishaps in my startup period, where I lost a lot of water and had to replenish with high PH source water. But I was shocked nevertheless that the PH now is higher than the source water. I bought an RO filter today and started to add that water......
What are your thoughts on using soft water?
Hi, Dr. Nate..Is it correct if Katapang leaves to able to PH down ?
Green Bunching Onions? Will they change the Ph of the fluid?
I wonder, would rain water contain more ph or less ph than standard tap water ? I ask cause I plan to get 2 large water tanks and collect rain water for my needs ?
My outside system has been stuck in the 8.4-8.5 range for the last few weeks. I add a few ounces of vinegar nearly every day and it's right back to where it was the next day. I've never grown anything before, but it seems like I am getting a very slow growth rate with most of my plants and I assume that this would be the greatest contribute. Would you still recommend that I wait it out? The system has been going since mid June
Yes, your system is still really young, and while you probably do have some carbonate issues you'll have to deal with eventually, I'd wait a little longer. Once your nitrification really swings up, you'll see pH come down a little. If it doesn't then you need to find out where carbonate is entering your system (media, tap water, etc.)
Thank you for the advice. I have since found that my tap water does come out really high on the scale. Thanks again!
What about nutrient lock out? I have hard water. 7.9 decoupled system. RUclips (Knuckleheads aquaponics)
Hello. I have an ~6000l established concrete fish pond which I have added an experimental small grow bed too. My plants are yellowing due to an iron deficiency. But my ph is 8.2. Any ideas to reduce this. I do have a lot of sediment at the bottom of the ponds.
Good video. Question. Does PH effects a tank cycle and the development of the bio load right?
I will try rainwater, but my pH is like 9. I have been topping off with softened water so likely a carbonate cycle issue.
Loving your channel:) I am just getting started with AP and I tested my "barrel-O-fish" water and it is at right around 7.5. Is that to high? I do not have grow beds setup yet but seeing that different types of stone can affect the pH what should I go with? Is there any videos you have that you can recommend me starting to watch to go from keeping fish in a barrel (successfully) into an AP system? Just looking for something to watch! Ha ha ha!
HomeFarmIdeas.com 7.5 pH is a little high. As for grow beds since we specialize in growing with ZipGrow towers, we don't work with them often enough to give advice on. And finally currently we don have any videos addressing transferring fish to an AP system, but our advice would be once you move them don't feed them for a couple of days because they will be in shock. Keep a close eye on the temp of the water too. good luck!
Can someone fertilizethe soil with huge amounts of nitrogen compounds to reduce the ph before it reciving fish and plants? And how does the water pourring play a role in this high kh and nitrogen relation?
Hi, the culprit for my high ph is untreated concrete pond. I didn't acid wash, apply neutralizer and sealant when I started the system. Currently I am applying phosporic acid which lowers the ph from 8.2/8.8 to 7-7.5. My system is more than 2 weeks old. Should I treat my pond with neutralizer & sealant or install a liner? Or will the ph normalize once the cycle is complete?
Tony Sy hi Tony, unfortunately the Ph is not going to go back down on its own. You are going to have to drain the pond and either install a liner or apply some epoxy paint. Hope that helps!
Hi Nate,
I'm in Zimbabwe, Bulawayo....How long will it take for the Ph to drop from 8.8 to the 6 to 7 region?
My gravel might not be pH NEUTRAL, so how can I lower the pH apart from waiting while the toms are comatose?
my well water ph is 8.5 and rain water is 7.6 (my town is tropical & near active volcano), so i want to try your advice and buy a RO system, if i am not wrong a ro system has 2 filter for coarse & fine sediment, 1 carbon filter, then a pump to push water trough first semi permeable filter , then to virus&bactery filter, then last for make the taste better (add some mineral). do i need all that or just up to first semi permeable filter is enough? what ph & tds do i need to make the system working?
Hey Nate, appreciate the great videos you've shared! I was curious why you wouldn't use lime to lower P.H and Baking soda to Raise?
Baking soda is a carbonate. Still, I was wondering if vinegar could work in small doses. Or Carbonic acid, which neutralizes with calcium carbonate (lye).
Hi Nate,
I don't need to lower my pH what so ever but was wondering if and RO/DI filter would work or is the DI component bad?
what about the acidity of reverse osmosis water? ive seen tests of reverse osmosis water having a ph of 5.0 and lower....the bicarbonates are filtered out of the water leaving CO2 (because its a gas it can pass through the membrane) to attach to the H20 and form H2CO (carbonic acid).
would the addition of water at that low of a ph be a shock to the fish or does the system mineralize the water and help to buffer the ph?
Unless your adding a significant amount it would be fine as your swing will be slow. I used a 'lot' of hydrochloric acid to lower mine as I was impatient, as it was it still took around 4 months to get it down using acid. Now I daily add some hydrated lime to keep it from falling too low. As a side note warning, once you are running in the 6.2-6.6pH range be very careful when buying fingerling fish. I've killed loads as Silver Perch (Australia) as they are fragile fish when fingerlings and can't acclimatise to the low pH easily. In the end I found it necessary to use a second tank for this purpose.
How long does a new AP System take before PH drops on its own?
Hi … I have only used rain water in my system ( which was ph 6.5 / 7 ) …. Now it's jumped up to ph 8 … why would this happen ?
Most likely you have carbonates entering your system in another way- most likely through an alkaline grow-bed medium. Are you using rock as your growbed medium? Another possibility is diurnal pH swings from algae, but those pH swings aren't permanent they just swing up during the day and drop at night.
Bright Agrotech Ok … yes I am using river stones for media . That must be it . I do have some Hydroton ready for bigger grow beds
Is it good to lower the pH with HCL on aquaponics ?
This was very helpful to watch Dr. I've got no background in the chemistry, but I'm beginning to get the gist that these are complex systems, though perhaps not complicated. I have a little 40 gallon tank setup in the Middle School where I teach. It's about 7 weeks old now and we've lost several little goldfish from the pet store though four of then seem fine still. Does scale of the system affect the rate at which the bacteria bring things into balance? Our pH is around 8 to 8.2 and I've tried adding pH down drops and several peat pellets over the past several days and haven't seen any movement.
+Mark Stephenson pH shouldn’t affect fish health too much. What are your ammonia levels?
I just use rain water
Hello. Is it possible to lower the PH of a system with gravel growbeds ?
No, but it's possible to raise it with gravel growbeds. Your pH will drop due to nitrification though, and biological surface area (BSA) provided by things like gravel grow beds helps with that process. For more on BSA, read this: brightagrotech.com/biological-surface-area-in-aquaponics/
No. I mean to lower the Ph of a system allready has gravel growbeds. I used gravel for my beds and my Ph cant drop from 8.4
Nate, I appreciate your videos. I have had my system running for about a month now. It is an IBC system with one full fish tank, a 150 gallon sump, a 150 gallon float bed, a 4 x 4 x12in gravel bed and four 15 foot 3" PVC pipe used as NFT. It seems to be cycling well. Ammonia and Nitrites are very low. Nitrates are ranging between 25 and 50. My PH is what is frustrating me. It has consistantly been about 8.2. The fish seem to be doing well, but my plants are stating to show signs of nutrient deficiency. I have been slowly addign lower PH water to the system, about (30 gallons) over the last few days. Should i just continue to add in low PH water? Or is their anything else I could try? Sorry so long. Don
Don, it sounds like you have hard water and/or some limestone or basic rock in your growbed. You have a really young system though, so I anticipate that your pH will begin to drop in the next few months. Don't worry about it quite yet, but you might want to check to make sure your gravel has a neutral pH. Everything else looks good. Be patient. If things don't improve in a month or two, then toss your gravel and find something neutral. Remember too, feeding drives the nitrification process, so if you can keep your ammonia and nitrites in check, feeding fish and growing plants aggressively will drive that pH down!
hey im struggling to bring my PH levels down from 8 to seven what should i do ?
love your vids! do you test for plant nutrients, like NPK?
+WhatAmI “TheKingdomeWithin” IsItInMe Yes, we mostly test nitrogen and use it as a benchmark for other nutrients. Potassium, magnesium, calcium and iron are the most troublesome ones to manage, but we have a lot of other videos up that explain how to manage them in AP systems.
Hi Nate. Thanks for your great material. I have been studying some articles from US Aquaponics practitioner. An article by Sylvia Bernstein, author of Aquaponic Gardening says that carbonate are good for the system compared to carbonate free water or RO as it helps the system being more stable to pH variation. She says that a higher KH is, the more resistant the system will be to ph changes. Is this good? I would really appreciate your comments.
Many thanks
Very helpful! Thanks
we in brazil put vinegar it lower the ph fast and easy.
Great video, thank
Thank you.... It is good to know. I have prefect/ 7.0 from my creek house water.... I struggle a lot with it creeping up to 8.0..... I have tried citric acid.... and salting the water.. but I am doomed to 7.5 water...
I will wait it out.. and look up that filter system...
Patience is the most important part of the process! Keep it up and you'll be happy with the results.
My rain water round here has a ph of 9
Aquaponicpi, yeah, I found this video due to same problem. And it's well water. I'm looking up info and videos for a missionary out of country. It sure would be nice if anyone has some tips.
add home vinegar in the water it'll work on it fast.
I like your video and advice, I'm using small NFT system to grow lettuce, tomato and chilies . my PH at starting point from tap water was around 8.2 and I have reduce it using phosphoric acid bought from General Hydroponic. it works fine during first week and keep my PH around 6.3 however after that the PH is increasing and reach 6.8 now and I'm afraid how to decrease it again but not using the phosphoric acid ( because I dont have it, it's hard to get it in my country). I'm thinking to use muriatic acid or lemon juice. which one is better and safe? thanks a lot
Guidahmed, we don't recommend using muriatic/hydrochloric acid or lemon juice! It could be that your pH struggles are due to carbonates in your source water - I'd consider checking that out and using an RO filter if that's the case.
Thanks a lot for your advice
Happy to help.
does having more BSA helps lower down the pH. thank you
H+ ions are a natural byproduct of nitrification. The more BSA, the better nitrification you have. So yes. But if you're having trouble with high pH it's more likely a carbonates problem.
Ok here it is, I made a huge mistake, filled my system with lime stone, OUCH I know... I am about 6 months and 8k deep I am running 12 IBC grow beds 12 zip grow towers 3 IBC tanks stocked with 160 Blue tilapia, my ph has been running from 8 down to 7.4, i am having K and Ca deficiencies but with my high ph its been tough to combat, Do I need a complete change of my aggregate? It would be a process and some time out, Do to the fact I am still in my construction phase and must push on for the changing weather here in the north country. I still have to close in my 40ft x 15ft greenhouse and get my heating system set up. So my timeline is hard and fast. but over time (Note: It wouldn't an easy change out 4tons of lime stone not quite and over night job) I am located in Upstate New York "aka" Canada ON Lake Ontario by the St. Lawrence River and it looks like the only stone available in this region is lime stone and or sand stone. I haven't yet started to research sand stone and its ability to be a grow media in an aquaponic system......... BUT in the mean time could a RO filter be a long term solution, Or is my end game for this grow bed media system still a complete aggregate media change? These grow beds with the additional 12 Zip grow Towers and an "Aeroponic clone/seedling start up system not that lime stone has any effect on my areoponics set up but I am including it in this big picture description to give you the big picture of my goals and investment. This being my prototype / R&D for my future career as a farmer... Any and all your input would be extremely appreciated.... PS. I am quit embarrassed of such a rookie & amateur MISTAKE but I am and this is my reality right now!
Dear Nate Storey, I feel a great closing to my asking for your in put is the Poem "A time to talk" by Robert Frost! If you read it I think you would agree, it seams like it fits into yours and is most defiantly my answer to the future of America and quit possibly the future of humanity. WIth that, I thank you for your time at the stone wall! I am sure I speak on behalf of thousands of people as well as future generations!!
Stay Gold & Thank You Nate Storey!
Hey ronrprimp - I'm afraid if you ever want to run you pH lower than 7.4 or 7.5, you're going to have to change out your media. An RO filter won't work when you're combating carbonates where the source is inside your system. As fast as you remove it, your rock media dumps it right back in. I'm actually surprised you were able to get it down to 7.4. Start with changing your media and see if that helps. I'd avoid sandstone as a media and move towards expanded shale or matrix media. You're certainly not the first to do it and you certainly won't be the last so don't feel too bad! We hope you are able to turn things around here soon and get back to growing with #aquaponics .
very helpful thank you
Happy to help Derek Deans - Thanks for tuning in.
A PhD bring the pH down.
Happy growing!
Most RO filters produce 2-3/1 waist water; not terrible of you run the waist line to your regular garden l.
Great idea and good point.
Nice beard! Great video, too!
What if i put drops of lemon juice
Lemon juice is antibacterial. You don't whant to kill your good bacterial in a aquaponic setting. You can look up this video for more informations ruclips.net/video/8Fi9jPvhjqI/видео.html&index=61&list=PLR20yEf1qbq_Sx_ZuKqTv4VPbfE297XED.
GRATITUDE 💥🐟🐟💥
I had watch whole ur video tat length was 3:42 mints and in the end got to know PH can't bring it down....don't u think this is a serious joke....don't create this kind of video if u don't know the salution of tat title u written on top and explaining like in the end u going to tell tat PH can reduce but you didn't ....Holly shit
You must not be a very smart person if you didn't understand what he was saying!!