Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks.

We've been talking about a fish upgrade to koi. I don't think we can grow/eat fish, don't have the stomach for it unnecessarily, however, I will under necessity. I eat fish several times a week, but while I have access to reasonably priced tilapia here, its not worth it to grow your own. I'm mainly in it for the veggies, the experience with the correlation and sciences between the two. I have been getting deeper into plant sciences side. There is soo much to learn..

Hello all. Here's a quick update.

Second system up a cycling. Last water test 3 days ago ph 7.6 everything else was off the charts. I am doing a fishless cycle with fish emulsion again. This time I brought the ph down the 7.6 then started the cycle. I also innoculated it with EM brew 5 gal from the other system. I added plants a week ago, and they're alive a kicking. The temp here has been dropping to the 30's at night. The greenhouse seems to be keeping it survivable. I plan on wrapping both tanks with insulation soon.

The older system is alive and growing like crazy. A couple of the pak choi have gone to flower (I'm going to try to save the seed.)

Radishes grow like crazy. We have had radishes several times already. The dill and cilantro is used several times a week. We have a lot of pak choi as well. I am realizing the shortcomings of the media beds very quickly. Grow space is in short supply. I have a small raft I'm adding as well. Maybe 64 holes. We'll see. I've learned some fun lessons in piping too small (I've been warned and yes it came true). The water flow is starting to restrict because of the small piping. I'm upgrading that too. It's funny how mother nature happens..

On to the pics.

http://s300.photobucket.com/albums/nn8/ ... =slideshow

Here is a Jan 13 UPDATE:

All is well minus the feed comets I tried to save. I converted to Tilapia, and never been happier. The goldies got sick and died. I tried to save them, and realized just how nasty they were and have not suited for Aquaponics (this is my official position on this.)

Everything is growing like mad. We have been overtaken by Broccoli. I'm moving several plants to the other system tomorrow. I am also going to load the second system with some of the tomato plants to uptake some of the nitrates. Its nice having more than one system to help regulate nutrients.


Here is a quick photoshoot from today.

http://s300.photobucket.com/albums/nn8/ ... =slideshow

Nice to see landscaper, can;t go wrong with lots of broccoli... I was going to comment on the flooded bed but I see in the other photos it's not as flooded..

Hi landscaper, what's your water temp?

Thanks folks.

I keep the systems at mid 70's It fluctuates with flow obviously. I'm outta the goldfish scenario so I insulated both tanks spray foam underneath, rolls of the pink covered in black plastic on the outside and covered with thin foam board 1/2inch I believe. I've been monitoring temps, and from a full cycle with the outside temps @50F (65 day 35 night) avg are only lowering 6-8 degrees. I'm pleased at the results. I have 2 300W heaters in each. I had to panic insulate after I lost a few Tilapia to the cold. I went out and found 52 degree water even with the 300W heaters. I had goldies and they ate no matter what temps the water was, they were just nasty dirty..

It was so nice to go out this morn and find toasty water. I had to turn down the heaters lol..

Scott