Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thats a good idea Janet, can see one being built for my new system

I like it Janet - hope you used crenellations rather than a couple of grotty common round holes (acceptable if you used the holesaw tho )

I hacked out triangular crenellations with my handsaw. Marginally acceptable, I know.

Pretty good - need the medieval (really evil) look... |_| ... then progress to the arrow slits


Thought long and hard about posting this (deep sigh!)

Les you are funny man....sorry I had to think about posting this as well

Looking great janet the duckweed loves it.

I have similar plans for my new system with a bath tub, the water level will be controlled by a stand pipe in the drain outlet.

MF, side point, what is that in your avatar? its got me puzzled

It is MF's motor bike that has had a minor accident - fortunately it is a haystack and MF is in there somewhere

sorry Janet - the AP devil made me do it

Well, there are now 126 tilapia swimming around in the tank. I had to ice 3 this morning that were just not recovering from injuries sustained during the shipping nightmare. The rest of the fish are swimming around nicely and are incredibly hungry. (If you haven't seen the story of Fedex vs the Box of Tilapia, read here: http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... c&start=30 )

I built a tank lid out of a chair mat and angle iron yesterday. I'm holding at 80F/25C with no lid plus every heater I own in the tank. I'm hopeful that the lid will eliminate the need for quite so many watts of heat. I would really like to keep the fish just a touch warmer, so we'll see how the lid does.

The lid is a heavy flexible plastic with an additional layer of bubble wrap for insulation. Here are some pics.

How neat is that!



Can you come around and help measure me for a new suit?



I think I have a tailor joke starting to happen .. too rude to psot here!

Clean and neat

Pandora just loves this system doesn't she? She's always there

the lid looks great, so does the little rack for the pipework, very neat

It will definitely do the trick Janet. I simply put a sheet of poly over my tank, along with my duckweed tank, and temps are in the 23-26 range, in a 19-21C greenhouse. You've seen the tank before: http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... php?t=1022
(I have a heater but it is not sufficient to heat the water that high without the lid)
I like your integration of "DD", it looks to be doing its job well.

Per Dave's request, here is a picture of the fishies waiting for their breakfast. They are not patient. Based on the amount of food I've shovelled in there, they may have grown about a half a gram. That doesn't sound like much, except they started at about 2 grams a piece. So that's actually 25% in a week. I certainly notice that they look bigger. They're still on short rations--I'm walking the edge getting my bacteria up to speed. I increased rations on Saturday, and the nitrite test showed a trace on Sunday. So no lunch on Sunday! Sad fishies. Today there's no nitrite, so they will get lunch.

Still no sign of any mass outbreak of disease. I have to admit I'm still incredibly nervous about that and am watching them oh so carefully. However, given that it has been almost a week since Fedex tried to kill them, maybe the worst is over.

The plants really like the influx of fish. New leaves on the wasabi are popping out on all the plants! The bok choi is bigger and the beans are doing really well, too.

That Fish Place in Lancaster is having a sale starting Wednesday, so I think I'll try to get over there to get a breeding tank and stand. I've decided that I need to do the breeding in an aquarium so I can see what's going on. The goldfish can break it in until I'm ready to pick out breeders.

Thanks! I think I see T247!

Fantastic picture Janet.