Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Water tests today
1.003 salt
7.6 Ph
0.25 Ammo
0.0 Rites
3.0 Rates

There is A big water frog in there now also. Do they eat fish? Water is not clear enough to chase him out.

I see in different places that the old leaves and such are not harmful to the AP Gardens. Does that mean that when leaves fall off plants you can just stuff em under the gravel and let them decompose in the beds? That would just be too easy.

Yep worms will break them down I never bother to clean old leaves etc up

Ok I have been reading about worm composting but I did not realize that you just put them in the beds and let go. I am considering starting a worn compost bin but it would be easier to do it in the beds. All I have read so far is about using a separate bin.

Can you give me some more information and advise on the use of the worms in the beds.
How much do you have to feed them to keep them alive? How many do you need to put in each bed?
Red wigglers I presume.

Yup - red wigglers....and no need to feed them. There will be plenty of dead organic matter in there for them to consume. I put 100 in my system when I started it. Now you can reach in and get 5-10 with every handful of gravel. Just feed your fish and the worms will do the rest.

Worms breed quickly, so I just put a handful into each bed, and let them figure out their own population.

Todays test results are as follows:
62oF Temp
7.4 Ph
0.25 amm
0 Rites
5 Rates
1.006 salt

I did a recalibration on the Refractometer and tested again and it still read 1.006 salt. There must have been a pocket of salt somewhere and it came out last night. I did a 30% water change today to remove some more salt. I did another test because the new strawberries are looking bad and I found a ripe one and ate it and it was salty tasting.

I started on the new racks for the second run today. I got the base put together. Tomorrow the barrel supports.

Question I found a green jumping frog floating in the FT yesterday and I was wondering if Frogs eat little fish. The frog is about 4" long in the body so he is a fairly big frog. My fish are mostly little. The Blue Gills are mostly 2 0r 3 inches long. The cats are 3 to 4 inches long. Should I try to get him out. Looks like a real chore if I need to get him out.

Nag leave him, frogs are a sign of a healthy ecosystem:)

Well I finished my third and fourth racks. I put them on my concrete pad. I put in some improvements on the end pieces of each rack. I also put in a wire screen holder, the A Frames. I plan to hang some pieces of 2x4 welded wire screen panels to tie up my tomatoes and cucumbers and cantaloupes. I saw something like this in the Virgin Islands years ago and that guy had lots of stuff hanging from the screen.

Nice work Don looks real flash

Don, given you proven carpentry skills, I wonder if it might not be more cost effective to build bigger fish tanks and growbeds, rather than building racks for lots of blue barrels. Barrels are great to start with, but the fittings needed to plumb them individually get get expensive pretty fast! Just a thought.

looks great don... one thing about leaves.. don't leave tomato leaves in there

Uh Oh something happened since I last Posted a pic. Something moved some of the barrels. Me Big Job. Aren't tractors with loaders wonderful. It took about 3 or 4 hours but they got moved. Now to make improvements on the original racks. and Put a slab under them also. I hope to get started on the makings of a Hoop house green house also. I would like to have a nice place to be in the winter while fooling with the veggies.

While I was working on the system yesterday I decided to remove all the dead leaves till I get it working better.

To answer your question, It might have been cheaper to use lumber and liners. I was coping another system and did it without really considering the cost. You are right but if you buy at the local Lowes Lumber Discount Store the prices are not so bad. It is the big chain store here. I got about 60 to 70% off the retail by buying in their packs of ten or 50 at a time. Contractor pricing.

To the other question, I am a wannabe carpenter. Actually I am a retired Instrumentation Technician. I used to calibrate the instruments that are used to measure everything. Pressure, Flow, Temperature, Guages, Frequency, Pulse, Weigh Scales, Oxygen, Co, Ph, and various asundry Switches and other stuff. They were mostly hooked up to computers or control panels. They in turn sent out control signals to control stuff like Valves, Solenoids, and Lights. Any thing some Engineer could dream up and set up a control system to operate.

After a long day Here is a picture of the progress. After all the beds were moved and the racks were moved out of the way. I put in the forms for the new slab for the first two beds. I called the concrete man and had a delivery made. Here it is.