Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Lol.. Awesome Chris! So you did good on that too. I hate those Gary fans. They are terribly loud.. I have one in the toilet stall.. Lol works but Damn it's noisy.. Not noisy enough to mask the sounds coming out of that stall though.. Or so I have been told

Fart fans not *Gary fans.. Auto correct is at it again

looks awesome Chris, I did a timer on our fart fan.

AP doing good- toms are growing and producing, have 2 more seedling trays getting ready to plant. Still having way better results with the starter mix then Rockwool- think I'll just stick with what works.

Started another project. We dug a 30-40 yard hole this week by the RAS. Going to make a large liner pond to breed the tilapia in. They don't seem to be doing very well in the "breeder tanks" 4-500 per year isn't going to cut it.

I found some registered Berkshire pigs and we have finished the hog pen. The new electric fence unit doesn't work, so am getting another today. Hoping these new pigs don't decide to test the fence. It's not hog panels, and won't stand up to a 500 lb plus pig if he decides to charge through it. Try and post some pics, just been slammed.

Fish are doing OK, temps this AM down to low 40's, and no heat in RAS- never have got the multi fuel heater going. The water was 76 yesterday, and will probably drop into the 60's today. Temps will be back to 80 in a few days, so it should be fine.

Bought out another rabbitry last week- 10 rabbits- 5 double cages- 1 single. A few kindled females, and the rabbits are doing what rabbits do.

sorry I still haven't sent the centrifuge CoachChris. It's still going to happen. I promise. 30X40 wow, you are going all in aren't you? It that pond going to be shallow?

Do you have the nitrite problem under control?

Boss- no worries, I know it will arrive. Thanks. The pond will have a deep end of around 5-6' so I have less to worry about in cold weather. Right now, it's just a very rough hole that I dug with a rental machine that I needed for another (paid) job. The guy I buy my fish from has used a similar setup with great success. A small waterfall, a few aquatic plants and some nice green water. He gets thousands of babies each year. never has to buy fish. He wants to sell me his whole business.lol Not interested in moving or doing that as a sole means of survival. He's retired and he claims it nets him 50K a year, but I'm pretty skeptical of that number. The electric and feed bil alone has to be 7-8K. He spends 2-3 hours a day average. Maybe with no salary, he may be close??

Swede- yes...and no. The MBBR's are working, but not at the conversion rate that they claim. I'm still not even close to maximizing my feed input/growth output. But, still being able to feed pretty consistently. Still doing daily nitrite testing, and whenever I try and feed to satiation, they rise, and I need to skip a feeding. I'm getting a feel of what I can feed without getting spikes, but still not comfortable "winging it" yet.

Big hole in the ground. Ben was helping.

It's tricky stuff this MBBR stuff.. I am currently cycling my small system. Two 55 gallon MBBRs and still tweaking water distribution in my fish tank to maximize rotation and for solids to end up in the center and be sucked into the SLO on its way to RFS. Time will tell if will have the same issue with my MBBR.
I will keep you posted. Cheers!

Btw Chris, are you using airstones for your MBBR or perforated pvc pipe? I bought a $25 8" round flat stone for one of the MBBRs it was/is a pain to keep in one place. Despite suction cups and tied rock to it it still doesn't stay put. So I simply made a 1/2" pvc cross with 0.8mm holes drilled in it. And it seems to work like a charm so far

Looking familiar?

Except I had no ammonia. lol
I use rubber air diffusers in the MBBR(old one) and 12" stones in the new one. Had to clean the netting tank today...joy, joy.

Lol.. Netting tanks becomes a big PITA.. Yeah my system is 17 days into cycling. More than half of that time I have had half assed aeration going. Finally got a good pump. So now I have both MBBRs running great. So,i expect within 2 weeks I should have no ammonia and hopefully no nitrite either... Lol