Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'll check out skrettings. There are lots of places to get food, but I was hoping for organic food like last year. The bullheads seem ok at this point. Last year it took a couple weeks for them to start eating. I started by feeding them trout pieces then I switched them to pellets. I threw in some earth worms on occasion as well. It took a bit, but they adapted and did well for the remainder of the year.

I wish it would warm up a bit so I could add in the other growbeds and have the whole system operational.

It wasn't too bad for awhile there but it's been cooler the last week or so.

Yep. I wonder if that is why my other tank cycled faster. It wasn't exactly warm before, but it was mid 60's for a few weeks. It's also slowing down my seeds. Lettuce is starting to show but corn is nowhere to be seen.

I thought the greenhouse would help get water temps up but it doesn't. All it is doing is protecting from frost which is still valuable. I planted early knowing it might be tough to get it going. Worth a shot.

Strawberries transplanted in the greenhouse have some flowers on them. Not sure how well they will get pollinated. I keep the door open during the day but we don't have a lot of bees and other flying stuff out yet.

awesome man. I will be doing the same from one of our local lakes.

I'm learning about bell siphons, what is the purpose of the different heights?

Those are just media guards. The first one I made short and then I decided I should make a little longer so I can use them in deeper beds in the future. The actual siphons on those beds are the same size.

Corn starting to sprout as is lettuce. Fed the bullheads some cut up trout the other day and they ate it. They are very active tonight and it looks like the trout is playing with the catfish. Kind of funny to watch them.

Parameters look good. pH in the low 7's, Ammonia at .25. Nitrites at 0 and Nitrates 40-80

Big catfish still hasn't eaten. Something happened as the pH in that tank skyrocketed day over day. I did overfill it, but the pH of the water from our tap is not as high as it is reading. I'll work it back down and see what happens.

The big catfish jumped out of its tank last night. That was a first for me. Fortunately I was outside and heard it happen. I put the dog in and went and rescued the fish. Not sure what that was about. He jumped out in the space between the tank and the ibc frowned sitting on top of the tank.

That tank does have some issues. I have se algae that has formed in the frowned because it is not full of media it was supposed to have been moved already but other projects have prevented that from happening. I covered the tank and most of the grow bed. Hopefully that will reduce the algae. It will get moved either this week or next.

Havent updated in a while because rhings aren't moving much. Life has gotten in the way and prevented me from building it out the way I want.

Baby coming on Friday so I am hoping to get it built on my time off.

Only interesting thing is my fish have gone canibal. I found one fish missing most of it's tail. Thought fin rot. Found one today that was half eaten, including all of the internals.


Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

My wild caught cats always jump out. I put rabbit fence over the tank and one managed to jump out. She must have pushed through the side. I have one in there now that I have managed to keep for a couple weeks. I usually put them in the FT about this time of year so it might be the urge to spawn that make them jump....plus they are river cats.

Might also be having a nocturnal visitor or a heron visiting if the tank isn't covered.

Tank is covered so I kind of discounted a nocturnal visitor. It's hard to say but it wouldn't surprise me to have them eating each other. I'm feeding more now which should help.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

Water temps are WAY up with the recent heat. 105F yesterday and 106 today. That meant the end of the trout I had in there as temps were up to the mid 80's. Lost a catfish as well, but I think it got attacked by some of the larger catfish. Last year, the catfish didn't have any issues. Not so this year. I do have two larger ones which may be the instigators in all of this.

I'm not sure how much more I am going to get done. I'm a bit discouraged because I am way behind. I'm considering just adding the second growbed and not going with the CHIFT-PIST system I was originally planning on. We just had a baby and that really slowed me down as my wife had some challenges during pregnancy.

We have to move this winter so I don't know how much more I want to put into setting the system up in our current location.

Congratulations and best wishes to you, your wife and baby SB

I'd just run the system the way it is, no point in giving yourself the extra work only to have to move everything in 6 months or so. Only thing you might add is some extra aeration because of the high water temps.

Cheers

I've got an air pump running to add aeration and bullhead are pretty durable. It would br nice to get my pH up some more. It won't stay up even with shell grit hanging in the tank.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk