Aquaponic system Maintenance Dealing with a nitrite spike

Have had a bit of fun trying to get some fluctuating nitrite levels in the system under control over the past few weeks but think I have it sorted now.. Made up a clip explaining how I think it happened & the steps taken to keep the fish safe..

Will be keeping what happened with this system in mind as I start to plan for the new tanks & beds that will be going onto the system.. Have already thought about altering the way the filter is set up to try & remove as much solids as I can before they make it to the grow beds..
I found both the folks on the Backyard Aquaponics Forum & Paul from Earthan group very helpful with the advice that gave .. Pauls site also has a great salt treatment calculator that might come in handy to some..

Thought I would post a bit of a look at how we managed to clean out the grow bed that was loaded with fish solids.. I think this is part of the reason there was a nitrite spike in the system in the first place..

Held off posting on the bed cleaning just so I could see the levels drop & stay stable for a week or 2.. I think this shows that the cleaning was successful in reducing the solids that caused the nutrient "spike".. 
Making the air spear was really easy & came in handy cleaning out the beds..

Thanks to Paul from Earthan group again for giving me the heads up on the design of the DIY spear..


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Aquaponic radial flow filter cleaning pipe maintenance

Time to clean out the filter & also solve a few mysteries involving the murky water that appeared from nowhere previously.. The filter is straight forward & we ended up with some great liquid to put on the garden beds..

 
Was good to solve the murky water in the fish tank mystery from a few weeks back... Was a bit of a "facepalm" moment as I turned the pump off & back on before both previous cloudy water events.. I think the gold fish are the culprits as the majority of the solids should be cleaned out as the water goes through the grow beds.. Cleaning the feeder pipe from the sump is something that should really be done every second week I think... Getting rid of the goldfish will also help to reduce the volume of solids in the line so we will be looking into getting them out ASAP..

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