Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I know of very few people that are or have ever added magnesium and don't know of any kits used by anyone here. I'm sure there are ways to test this but don't know if they are cost effective . Not much help on this one. Magnesium is sometimes in short supply in soil but not so much in AP (not saying it doesn't happen though, particularly with people putting in lots of potassium)

For most nutrients if you have a good quality fish food, you probably won't have to add supplements unless you actually see a deficiency. It probably doesn't appear this way looking through the posts because I look through a lot of nutrient deficiency posts but I don't think people should add supplements unless they really are needed, and they should stop adding most things once the plants look good again. We run recirculating systems so what goes in sometimes stays in and can build up so I just think it's wise to be a bit cautious.

Iron and Potassium deficiencies are the most common. We sometimes get some odd ball deficiencies related to nutrient lockout, to pH, to temp, to feed with low nutrient levels or just not being able to balance the feeding with the plant growth because there aren't enough fish or they aren't eating.

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks for your help! Yes it does make sense. I will stop adding Epson salt.
I have a Hanna iron tester and I love it. I know exactly how much iron I have in the system and if more is needed.
My PH was running 7.2 and not coming down now it is down to 7.0. At this point I and not adding anything to adjust PH.

Here are some updated pictures. They growth rate continues to be very good.

Dinner time for the fish.
They usually eat better than this at the beginning but they were a little camera shy.

holy cow, nice growth, inspiring to see how quickly they grow when you are doing it correctly.

Thanks. This being our first crop I am very pleased.

I went down to Habitat for Humanity ReStores. I bought 10 panels from sliding glass doors. Nobody wants just one panel from a door so they sold them to me cheap just to get some room for other things.
They are all double pane glass doors and tempered glass.

Then I bought 25 double pane windows. About ½ are aluminum covered wood. These will go on the roof and on the east and west wall. Some will go on the front wall and swing open for venting. These windows were $5 each panel.
I got all this for $215 out the door. Just the shipping for Polycarbonate was more than I paid for all of this.
It will make building it all a little more of a challenge but I love repurposing all these things.



This weekend we ended up with getting
55 2x4 x16’
8 2x8x16’
18 2x6x16’
50 14’ XPS foam insulation. I got basically what my trailer could safely hold.
He was getting low on 2x6's
$300 total cost. I think it was worth the drive. Two hours one way.
It is a very good hull of reclaimed items for my greenhouse build.



I dug the holes for the piers that my treated 4 x 6 will bolt to. Next up is mixing some cement for them. I am going to pound a piece of rebar into each hole for extra support.
The stands that I have built my beds from are made to stack and I am going to stack them for scaffold during the build.





We killed six tomato horned works this morning. But the tomatoes are still producing every day. The broccoli is all done except one plant.

Good score on the material Mark! Growth looks impressive. Are you going to use just the glass, or try and use all the frames as well? It may be hard if they're different thickness and sizes.

I am going to use the frames. 6 of the doors are very close in size. I have two smaller ones the same size to go on each end. That is enough to go across the front. I have 2 extras doors that I might put on the east and west wall.

I will have small windows down the bottom front about 24’ ones that will open. I got those all the same size.
I have widows for the ½ roof I got those all the same size. Then I have some for the east and west wall I got those the same size.
The windows I may trim on my table saw to make fit a little better.
I will have 2’ x 6” and I will drop these between them with supports in between the 2” x 6”

It will look a little like this but it will have the glass I just got and metal siding.

I was just wondering whether you were going to shut it down for Winter. Yyes indeed, nice score from ReStores. I've been collecting sliding glass door panels for years, I love working with them. Sometimes I take them apart. Depends on if there is aluminum to recycle on the frames. I think they look nice too once they are removed. But wow, all that for under five hundred, now that is a score of a life time. I can't wait to see what you create.

I got thinking about the doors and the windows on the roof. I am going to take the frames off the doors and the windows on the roof. It will look better and make the framing simpler. When you framed you did you just use the rubber gasket that came on them and use silicone calk to seal them up?
It will have the greenhouse up for the winter. Lots of work in the coming weekends for us.

I bought a used (Craigslist) Kobalt 4-cu ft 0.5-HP Cement Mixer. $100.




My oldest boy and I worked all morning getting it squared and all the holes lined exactly up. Then we put rebar in all the holes and in the corners we put 2 ½ foot rebar in them. We put a couple 18” rebar in all the holes.

We used the new cement mixer and mixed 22 60lbs bags of cement.
We mixed 2 bags of cement at a time and could have easily mixed more. That was a good amount for us to mix at one time. This was enough to do one hole.

That cement mixer was so worth it. We would never finished in one day without it. My youngest son and I just went out with my laser level and it looked very good. I am so glad that job is done.

My boys worked very hard.

We put the cement high enough to lay 1 1/2 insulation between the ground and the 4 X 6 that will be bolted to the post.

Great Score! Now hurry up and build it so I can see how it performs this winter!

This shows how I plan to frame my door glass. Then a trim board will go on the outside. Is this how you do yours?

(This is not mine just a example picture)

wow you and the boys are swift.
Yes, I have found the frames add too many places for water to collect when using the on the roof, unless they are older frames with aluminum and that seam is very low profile.

yes, pretty much the same, it's that bottom edge that causes most issues catching water. In one greenhouse we just left the bottom run wild over the end of the building. That worked for drainage, but it it was difficult to tie down. We got wind to worry about here, it'll gust to 75mph. A 85 mph gust took out my wind-turbine, which for as yet unknown reason failed to furl.