Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well, first for the good news. The sealeant has set (after 2 days under a box fan). The growbed is leak-free, up and running. The strawberries have been planted and after only one night in the system are coming up amazingly well. Thanks to the stupid dog, I know the peas, melons and squash have germinated (but have yet to put growth above the gravel line).

The bad news. My children have a foundling puppy they named Coffeedog (I know, I know). I woke up this morning to my Stevia, Stephanotis, Creeping Charlie and Syngonium ripped to shreds, torn completely out of there homes and spread all over the house. Right now I would like to beat that dog, but it is smart enough to run away from me at the moment and fast enough that I can't catch it (nice survival skills I would say). The stephanotis now has no roots, so I took the main stem, cut the lower leaves off and shoved it back into the gravel. The stevia is nothing but a rootball now so I replanted them and we'll see what happens. There was also 1 tiny shoot without roots that I placed back in the gravel as deep as I could. I took about half inch pieces of the creeping charlie and planted them around the base of my soil pots, maybe a few of them will take root. The syngonium is lost, not 1 leaf stem or root long enough to try to save. The tomato seedling and gardenia were spared, I must have woken up in time for them. All of the germinated seeds appear unharmed other than being dug up, so I just replanted them.

Short of calling the dogcatcher (who we saved the pup from in the first place) any advice for avoiding a repeat? I have already caught her in there once this morning since this happened. Stubborn little she-devil. I may invest in a shock collar, but that won't work if I am asleep and she carries on all night long if you put her in a kennel (we tried). She is digging for the water, it must taste better than what's in her bowl. I'm sure the sweet taste of Stevia did nothing but encourage her to keep sampling the buffet.

When do we get a picture of the puppy.

And for that matter the devestation pics would be cool too.

Stuart

I'm with Stuart on this - how come no pics of the [s]destruction[/s] system modification

as for the pest, try organic sprays, predators or "squish and feed to the fish" methods

I vote for the squish and feed, mmmm or perhaps an organic sprits of water on the cute puppies face make the room off limits in training the she devil.

That's got the kids sorted out, now for the dog......

Do dogs respond to hot pepper oil? How about a little hot pepper spread around the system?

Phew when i started reading janets post i thought it ment cooking in oil and using pepper for garnish

You all are funny. My sister is bringing a muzzle this afternoon. She has a jack russell that was terrorizing her house, barking, biting, destroying (coffeedog has all of those issues as well)....he straightened out after about a week of putting the muzzle on for an hour or so every time he messed up. She swears that coffeedog will hate it and shape up. We'll see.

It's been a helluva week! Long story short the muzzle did not work. After digging/chewing not 1 but TWO holes in my bed mattress, biting my daughter (drawing blood) and several other incidents Coffeedog does not live here anymore. I feel kind of bad, but we did find another family who acted like I was Cruella De'Ville for rehoming her.....suckers.

Anyway, the aquaponics project is back on it's feet. Another setback is the short people took it upon themselves to plant 200 snow pea seeds all throughout my buckets....they are coming up everywhere. SO, I am pulling them as they come up before I replant. The strawberries are really looking good, amazing growth, even without the supplemental light up yet. There are the beginnings of blooms now. I will have to get a pic of them up here. I planted the rest in salad mix and am waiting to see if anything comes up.

The kids are really learning alot from this though. I bet there aren't many 4 year olds who can tell you strawberries need pottasium to bloom, or fish can feed plants because of the "nitforgen" cycle.

I have also been thinking.... ...... would aquaponics work with waterfowl as the nutrient source? I have read poultry manure needs to be aged for 1 year before being used in worm beds, so I am wondering why.

Could you in theory have a raised duck pen like this one plumb it to your growbeds and use that water as a nutrient source? I was thinking a bigger stock tank (600 gallons or so) with fish in it as well would be cool if it worked on a smaller scale first.

Also, do you think there would be risk of disease to incorporate turtles into your system? I know they possibly carry salmonella and wondered if that would preclude them from being used in a system with food (assuming they were prevented from climbing around the growbeds and making direct contact with the plants of course).

Anna, many Asian fish farms are based on exactly the premise you propose... especially in Vietnam, Thailand and the Phillipines...

Has been various post on this forum in this regard.... perhaps do a search... lot of the posts were early post... got to go back into the depths of the AP vault.

Coincidently, I'm waiting on a call (after Easter) from a rep for a fertiliser company whose product is essentially sterialised chicken manure...

intended for use as a lawn fertiliser.... but the company now makes most of it's money exporting the product to Asia where they use it as fish food... it's actually produced as a pallet

Congrats on getting coffeedog train in another home. It does seem his/her absence has allowed the little elves a planting spree. LOL. Great stuff.

"nitforgen" awwww cute!

The Asian permaculture thing I read about before was where they put ducks, duckweed, rice, and tilapia in the rice paddies. They harvest the tilapia when they drain the ponds to harvest the rice.

Rabbit pellets are another source that could be useful.

Have you read about black soldier fly larvae? They are awesome!

My Dad raises homing pigeons and I have wondered about using their waste probably indirectly for fish food. Their high body temperature seems to make tem immune to bird flu.

Since amphibians are going extinct by the dozens lately I hae been kind of wondering if I could make an amphibian habitat with an AP system, more for preservation/science/interest than for food.

DD... this has come up before.... no reason why not... especially if you have a sloping block....

Design it like a series of sequential rush/reed bed/pools each draining to the other... then pump back to tank or top pond

Sure all manner of frogs and other amphibians would love it.

DD have a look at this thread Ceres

They're devoting a whole park/reserve to a similar idea.

By the way my sister is an NZ Champion pidgeon breeder and racer

what size fish would you need to eat fish food the size of a pallet

Rupert, why would Asia need to import chicken manure? Because it is sterilized? Asia used to do well with the ducks/chickens in cages over the water. Looks like they have money to burn.
Also, I thought the manure into the pond was to grow algae and veg for the fish to eat. Do they like manure as a food? They must have a real gourmet taste when they are eaten (you are what you eat).