Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

It might be too late in the season to start strawberries, but i ordered two dozen bare-root plants. I got the Sweet Charlie variety, it supposedly one of the varieties recommended for the Central Florida area.
This is my first experience with bare root strawberries. i expected them to have green tops when they arrived instead I received brown mushy tops with dry roots. The whole bundle of plants was covered in moist shredded newspaper and wrapped in plastic. Each did have a green stem under the brown outer leaves. I soaked the roots in a maxi-crop solution last night.

Tonight I have them stood up in a net pot on top of the Gb with their roots being splashed by the feed pipe. The crown of the plants are not getting too wet. I think highly aerobic area will be good for them until I can get them planted.

Not sure how well they will do in the long run, but I may get my daughter, who wants to be a scientist when she grows up, to conduct an experiment testing how they grow in a media bed versus a vertical tower. I just need to get started on the towers.

Got another GB of gravel washed today. Only two more to go Then I'll get the set plumbed into the system.

Added 5 more bluegills that my daughter caught a few days ago. Each was 5-6 inches in length. Feeding them sparsely using some of the pond feed that my neighbor uses in his pond feeder.

My fish suppliers:


Marathon is a week from tomorrow. I'm not in the shape I'd hope to be, but healthy enough to finished it in reasonable condition.


- John

Now that the marathon is complete, I'll more time to work on AP.


- John

My system is humming along. With an unseasonably warm winter my greens and onions are growing nicely.




I'm still not done with the third set of grow beds,



but I have done some work on my rain water catchment tank.


I'll use this tank for rain water and when that's not available I'll use it for off gassing tap-water before I top off my fish tanks and for compost teas for my traditional gardens.

I removed my bell siphons and I'm currently running continuous flow. I think once I get my air pump set up and oxygenating the tanks - my veggies with really take off. And once I get the air I'll get more fish (right now I have about ten 6"-ish bream). Still undecided whether that will be tilapia, channel catfish or blue-gill.

Still haven't completed the fish tank cover, instead I have them covered with the plastic lumber decking that was salvaged from a picnic table and utility boxes from my employer.
They are not trimmed and pretty, but they are doing the job in the meantime.

I'm thinking that I want to convert to flood and drain by installing one of those new indexing valves that don't require the pump to power off to trigger a new zone. Anyone have experience with them? I think I remember seeing TCLynx mentioned them, but I'm not sure if she sells them. Who sells them?







- John

Rupe sells them.

Whenever I click on the link in Rupe's signature I get an error message.


- John

Website should be fixed/up in the next couple of days... but TCLynx is the distributor for the aquaponics valve in Florida...

You can contact her via... http://www.aquaponiclynx.com/contact

Come on Rupe, I been waiting six months for your website to come back up

... don't know why Luke.... you have my number....

Good to see you are still progressing John

Washing gravel really can take the fun out of it for a while...

Thanks for the confirmation Rupert. I live within an hour drive of TCLynx so I have contacted her and she is working with me.


- John

If that isn't the greatest understatement for DIY BYAP, then I don't know what is.


- John

I wash my gravel with the water the fish swim in and the plants drink from

Best way to wash gravel, have a workshop or a party.
I'm kinda shocked your "fish suppliers" are not up there on the roster as ace gravel washers.

Biggest trick I learned for washing gravel is set up your work station so it is ergonomic for you! As in, make sure you are not bending over at all while you are swishing baskets of gravel in the bin of water. If you are bending then your back will be aching. With a properly set up work station and the right tools (a couple bins of water, several small buckets, and a few plant baskets or strainers) one person alone can wash 100 gallons of gravel in 4-5 hours even in extreme heat. Heck, I had to get it done fast before it got too hot that year I set up the 300 gallon system and washed the gravel for the first 3 grow beds all by myself in May when it was getting over 100 F before noon.


Anyway. There is no commercially available indexing valve that doesn't require the flow to stop and start but I have an alternative method other than turning the pump on/off. Those motorized swimming pool diversion valves don't require any differential pressure to operate, nor do they have small orifices to get clogged the way solenoid valves can and I can use one of those to alternate between two indexing valves. Will get Aquahues fixed up somehow.

DrLuke - Reusing the same water to wash gravel would be my goal if
i could figure out how to do it easily and without burning up the pump. Instead I have washed my gravel where the water can fall and irrigate the landscaping. Far from optimal as most of the water is excessive - wish I had more time and energy to do it better. sigh!

TCLynx - thanks for your support so far. I look forward to improving my system with your help.


- John

It was a tongue in cheek way of saying that I don't bother washing my media well before putting it in to the system. All I do is spread the portion that will go in the next trailer load out a bit, squirt it with a bit of high pressure, then just let the rest of the crap settle in the bottom in my growbeds. If you run the system for a week, the water will clear by itself once the biofilm builds up and catches he particles in the growbed.