Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Looking good Les. Welcome back.
I always enjoy seeing what you are doing and what is happening to you.

Hey Les, Glad I could inspire you. I am thinking hard about the waterlevel problem and may go 2 pumps with timers and split the growbeds in to 2 units 1 for each pump consisting of 5 gb each. As well as fitting in a 1000ltr tank and 2160 lts of gbs for redclaw. Will see.

AussieP

Good way to go Aussie, I was a bit concerned about flooding all those GBs at once

Bilge pump idea - best thing I ever did, been raining here all day and the pump has done its job, never thought so much water would be able to get into the fish hole, most of it is probably seepage.

Anybody thinking of burying tanks should seriously consider the implications of water getting under the tanks

VB that "memo to self" is worth underlining

Les - When I get the digger to dig the hole for the sump, I also intend gettign it to dig a deep trench for drainage (will need to be nearly a meter deep to be the depth of the sump hole. This will need to be 6+ meters long to get to the edge of a drop of - from which the water can flow to my gully. Into this drain I will also direct the flow from a shallower drain that I will build around the greenhouse. Clearly I need to think all of this out properly and get the infrastructure right. Planning is not one of my strong points though

Great VB, I'm glad some-one is able to benefit from my near disaster.

I thought of a few "quick fixes", easy one was to raise the tanks about 100mm but then that defeated the whole point of burying the bloody things - so sat down to "plan" (another "P" word) a permanent fix and after yesterdays deluge, happy now that I did


The "P" symbol crops up again - there is a saying that I heard many years ago called the 5 "P's":
Prior
Preparation
Prevents
Piss-pore
Performance

But if you do it properly the first time and it doesn't work then what??

You do it again the way you should have.

Update on GB2, corn reached the ceiling, followed closely by basil. I have been grabbing hold of the corn stalks and giving them a shake for pollination

Looking good Ell, Does shaking the corn come under the saying "more than 3 shakes"

Looking good Les. In time those basil bushes will turn into shrubs - like mine which have inch wide trunks.

Not that I want to rush the growth, but could you remember to post a pic of the root growth of the corn when its done producing Les? How many ears do your have growing per stalk?

Les, have the corn plants started to have silks yet? I can't see any in the pics. I shook my corn too soon, and had run out of pollen before the majority of silks formed, hence only got one good cob. Was the best dang corn Me had ever tasted but!!

Mon, think you may be right, may have to be a little more patient.

John, shall do, here are some closer shots

Ell doing it like Ell!

Update:
Ordered new 2,000l fish tank from Foley's (forests local fish tank shop), price $330 and ready in about 6-8 weeks.

Ordered my Persimilis from Beneficial bugs to combat the red spider mite infestations, this could be the reason I am not getting enough nutrients removed from the water, which is causing my nitrates to keep rising.

My corn, have one silk on each of the stalks and looks like a 2nd one may be trying to form - being doing the sex thing each day to make sure they all mature

VB gave me a bag of oats, so threw them in to take up nutes - lots of little green heads popping up

Pic for John - removed shadecloth to allow more grow space for corn

Should have added, door actuators are working perfectly - real boring actually

looking blooming brilliant there Ell!
more ear than a rugby team....