Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Have washed choir ,How's the school project going ? I have started to grow lettuce in choir -doing very well twice the size than growing in hydroton stones. Cheers

School project is going great. Will add some more trout in april. Am going to put some DWC bathtubs.
Good to see your lettuce adventure is paying off.

Hi well the bacteria are now beginning to colonize .I transfer the gold fish from the original A P system to new system -will recycle the old system in the spring the glass greenhouse needs more work- insulation of fish tank build a new grow bed .It's surprizing how the gold fish have grown very good for A P systems ,I have three glass thermostat heaters to keep fish tank heated . This is Max the dog who likes to over pea every thing Temperature about 16C ,not sure whether it's hot enough for gold fish to breed not sure - love to see new pictures of school project ,hope to send some more monies in the summer for project it looks great

Hi getting to grips with the slug problem using a tape round the grow beds that has a copper face that deters slugs ..beer in the grow beds also acts as a good stand by.The other product I will use will be welding wire .8cm thick ,two wires running parallel round the grow beds attached a small 9 volt battery also to deter slugs..asking a question- is there any product that you can spray onto grow beds to deter slugs insects ?.

There are OMRI certified slug killers out there. Their active ingredient is chelated iron, which is actually quite useful for our plants too!

This is the one we use in our dirt garden - you could use this in tubs buried in your growbeds
http://www.multicrop.com.au/horticultur ... killer.php

Thanks for information unfortunately I cannot buy the product in the united kindom,but have put down some chelated iron mixed with water hopefully that will kill of bugs.

I have put down chelated iron .also bought slug repellent, pellets thinking of mixing up tomato leaves to kill of bugs in grow beds'also i have put round the grow beds 0.8 welding wire attached by staples the second wire have attached a battery to repel slugs and snails .

For plants that need potassium If you put bananas into the soil then plant ,they rot and give potassium to the plants.

I'm sure they'll have a version of the slug pellets there.

Look for the pet safe versions, and read the description, they should be iron based ones.

Just be warned, they have a high level of potassium (or whatever causes fruiting/flowering in plants), I used it and it made all my lettuce bolt, and tomatoes went mad with fruit. It sorted out the snails and slugs quickly though.

The banana's don't have enough potassium in them to make much of a difference, somebody did the maths, and you'd need 300 something bananas for one tomato plant.

thanks for information Thanks for information- I will have to try a local web site to find the right product concerning slug pellets .I have planted Kale seed in coconut coir in pots coming up quite well- will plant out in large pouches containing coir -I don't know whether they are fairly slug resistant or not?

How much do T5 lights cost to run ? I have a set of eight tubes

Hi John
There are many variables with T5 lights. However to give you an idea. A rough average would be 25 watts per tube. Times eight so 200 watts. The same cost as running two old incandescent light bulbs.
I too am having problems with slugs/snails. These are available locally. You will recognize the shop.

Add water cress straight away or other veg ,not tomatoes ,they need plenty of nitrates which build up in time say about four to six months cheers

Hi sorry I haven't been very active lately ,but I have been looking into heating the fish house -one idea is to build a sola panel made from beer cans you can see how they are made on YouTube ,good idea no working parts very effective with good insulation. Have been quite successful growing tomatoes .The T 5 grow light to keep the greenhouse warm doing very well ,the gas heater very expensive to run .finding the water heater is very effective the fish house properly insulated keeps very warm so will now concentrate on growing winter vegetables ,love to hear from you all John