Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Nice shot of the LW eggs! Never seen them around here.

I've never seen them here either. Totally a wild occurrence. I planted the ladybugs so I am not surprised I have a bunch of eggs and now hatching babies every day. I hope my aphid problem disappears soon.

Great pics SB

Also found out I have another good insect around. Parasitic wasps have been taking out some of the aphids. I only found out when I determined what the dry bloated shells of aphids were on the tops of some leaves. I'm hoping that with all 3 of the good insects attacking the aphids a good balance can be reached.

Every day I check the leaves I can for squash bug eggs.I have killed the squash bugs I see, but I am still finding some eggs. When I find them the leaf, or a portion of it comes off.

The squash plants aren't setting anything new right now and I think it is because of the aphids. If I can get their numbers down I think we can get some good squash growing.

Some of the melons are definitely setting fruit which is cool. Hopefully they will start to really grow and we can get a few melons to mature.

Not much else happening. Keeping an eye on the solids and use a stocking over one of the diversion to try to filter solids out. There are 4 points where water leaves my tank. Two up to the grow beds, one to the PVC grow tube and 1 diversion with a spray bar. I've got a fair amount of solids in my PVC tube which I need to pull out and I know I need to clean the spreader bars in the growbed.

We're moving in a few months. When we do, I need to come up with a better system which includes a sump so I can use a solids lift setup to get more of the solids out of the tank. The wife already told me I should go bigger next year.

Went out and did some clean up this morning. Found 3 adult squash bugs and squashed them. Not really. Cut two in half and squashed the third one. Also found more squash bug eggs. Hopefully, the squash bug problem will lessen as we are passed their prime egg laying time. For my rebuild I will definitely make it easier to get to all parts of my growbed. It was no big deal when the plants were smaller, but once the vines took off, getting in there is a bit tough.

Who says earthworms don't do well in growbeds. This giant almost went into the fish tank, but I put it back into the growbed.


Ladybug larvae just molted again.


I think this is a ladybug coming out.


Crappy pic of some of the catfish.


Better pic of the lacewing eggs.


Yellow squash growing as a bush instead of a vine.


Melons trellised to the fence.


The first melon on this vine.


A really small watermelon that I don't think is going to mature.


Hacked together shade using cloth and pieces of PVC with a few zipties


Watercress, asparagus ferns, broccoli


Solids filter

Tested my water for the first time in about 6 weeks. Lo and behold my pH dropped down to just under 7. Not sure when it happened but its cool to see that it actually dropped after months at 8.2. I'll test a little lore frequently now to see how the pH is changing over time.

My squash plants have what looks like iron deficiency. At least now I can use cheaper iron supplements to try and fix it.

Cantaloupes are doing well. Got 1 watermelon on the vine and more yellow squash are coming in. Cucumbers haven't set any fruit yet.

Just got back from a trip to Alaska for work. A couple days ago, the wife told me a pump was making noise. I said it was probably going out, but that is why I run redundant pumps. She also asked if it was normal for the water to be 1 foot LOW. I said it was as it is during the tail end of the fill cycle.

Got home this afternoon and the fish were barely in a puddle. WTH? All the water was gone. I immediately grabbed the hose and started filling the tank, adding about 50 gallons of water. I stopped there to try not to shock everything too much. The fish have some water, the tank is cycling and I have more water sitting to dissipate the chlorine and stabilize the pH. I'm pulling the tank down next week anyway as we are moving. I guess I don't have to figure out how to transport tank water.

People wonder why I use bullhead catfish. At this point, every single one is alive and I expect they will all make it. Until I harvest them over the weekend. They are hardy fish and can live through a lot. I will use them again next year as well.

Well it's all broken down for the winter and in pieces. Kind of sad. Packing up that rock was a pita. Time to start thinking what the new system will be like.

So what became of the bullheads Silverbullet???

They are in the freezer to be used as bait. I was too busy to try and pop the spines and skin them that way.