Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I achieved minor progress with the datalogger. Date logging repaired, hummidity logging repaired, but unforunately all temp sensors crashed. I have to unmount it and to find the problem, this is for the weekend.

Also a project for the weekend is to measure and maybe if needed select the fish to two branches. Big ones, and smaller ones. I also want to know how the weight of the big guys, as one or two of them are plannet to be the starter for our family christmas event!

Its foggy again, and the forecast says more fogg for the weekend and rain as well. Don't be too said I brought you some intresting video. This is my firt try to make some funny underwater shots.

Weapons: A cheap small camera, a huge glass jar, some of my socks to hold tha cammera still and on target on the bottom fo the yar.

For the SLO...just put a T instead of a hole....love your set-up...I'll be posting mine soon!

I tried a T instead a hole ant that cause an overflow in a few seconds, because the diameter of the SLO pipe is not enough for an overflow only operation.

I was wondering about your SLO zsazsa. Do you have another overflow hole up higher just in case the SLO holes get clogged for some bad reason?

If the top hole cloggs, the SLO sticks on siphon mode. This means that ths SLO sucks down the FT to the level of the irrigation tank. Than the siphon breaks and the water tops up again to the overflow point, when the siphon starts again.

On the bottom I have aprox 30 holes. If you see it in operation you are sure that its unable to clogg. It has a huge suction. Buts lets play with the worst case scenario. Half of tham is clogged it cant support the SLO with water > water level raised > the SLO switches to siphon mode.
Than it either clear the clogging because raised suction, or if enough holes clogged it overflows the FT.

Big job done today morning: Fish measurement.



The small ones are arround 150gr

The big one on the right with mouth open is 274gr

The biggest one closest to the bottom of the pic is 334gr

I found one that has a swimmbalder problem, or has a gasy belly, that one is in quaranteen now, mor over tha one is missing one of its front swimmer. Im gonna select the fish into two groups. Big ones - Small ones.

The weather is crazy! The night was +5C, and its warming! They expect +7-9C today and tomorrow, with rain...

If you haven't eaten your own trout yet Zsa Zsa, let me tell you 334g is a nice starter in butter, garlic and parsley!

No, have tasted my own trout yet. I have tasted the catfish, but no trout so far.

But the day is comming, its gonna be on the christmas family party.

Just a little sunshine and the GH air temp is back in the 20s

Great to hear that zsazsa!Hope to gain a lot of heat these days.By the way great job ,huge amounts of information and very interesting videos

Dear Zsazsa, (and readers of this group)

Finally I am here. :-)
A few unimportant things about myself. I live in Hungary (!) in a little village some 250 kms from Debrecen. I work as a farmer and try to make ends meet by growing (fairly successfuly) and selling (well, ahem) vegetables. Potato, carrots, parsley, onion, tomato, you name it... I have a university degree from chemistry - it might come handy if you need help in that department. :-) I have several hobbies, eg. tinkering with electronics. I like making small gadgets with microcontrollers - I'm glad you found the magic word "Arduino" for the datalogger, otherwise I should have told you. :-)

I'm contemplating to build a poly-tunnel to be able to extend my growing season and I got this aquaponics bug for a while. Unfortunately I have financial barriers and I try to plan twice and spend once so I'm still collecting the available info tidbits on this topic.

On the other hand I'm impressed by your work and achievements with your passive growing house and keep my fingers crossed because if you can make it (against our weather!) then it is the possible best info for me and my planning... So keep up the good work!

Anyway, I really can't be of great help at the moment, because I don't have an actual aquaculture facility and first hand experience with aquaculture but I have experience with net-caught small wild fish in an aquarium, I have seen and cured ich, I tried aquaponic lettuce in a big bowl, know that the hot soldering iron looks exactly like the cold one, etc.

So I will check this thread from time to time and chime in when I feel the urge. Of course, you can PM me and we can chat in Hungarian as well.

Cheers,

Glad to have you here. Pm-ed you a phone number, alsoif you feel like, join my FB page: http://www.facebook.com/aquaponics.hu

Im having problems with hummidity. Its humid inside the vapor is all around constantly and its not funny. Im thinking of covering the sumps and the tank with a clear plastic sheet, to reduce evaoration.

Have you read anybody with similar problem?

I thought humidity in cold weather will be a problem. I thought it because I have been growing oyster mushrooms for a few years in a low-tech poly building and I obviously needed fairly high humidity to do that - but it was hard to do it right when it was cold.

Covering the tanks will help somewhat (because you don't have too much vegetation at the moment) but it might cause another problem: lower DO in your tanks. Fortunately the lower water temperature (and reduced feeding, etc) will probably offset this. But you must keep it in mind!

I fear that humidity will eventually find your OSB panels, they are pretty cold and condensation occurs. Then in a few weeks green mold (Trichoderma) develops on the wood surface and it will be a constant spore source after that, all year around... Unhealthy, especially for the kids. (Since I was a mushroom grower I may be "oversensitive" regarding the problem of spore load in the air, but my very first reaction was this "ouch-feeling", when I saw your osb-panel walls. Big, nice, untreated and cold wood surfaces in a humid environment is a big NO for me.)

I know it is not much help but if I were you I would try everything to dry the air. Covering the tanks can be a good step.

Keeping my fingers crossed,

Pumukli

November weather was abnormaly cold, like a normal january. No sun, no rain, cold.
December is way warmer than it the normaly so far.

The plants suffering. The types that did well in the authomn, are not the ones that I need for the winter. I should have planted more cold tolerant greens in september, I had no problem.



The fish are fine and hungry, I reduced their feed rate by a third. I had one that lost ballance again, I put it into the the sump for a week, but it didnt get better so today morning I released it from the pain.


It was one of the smallest, ended its career with netto 90grs.
I mastered myself in trout gutting from some online videos, and I'am proud of the result.

I asked Rob about humidity. And he gave an answer that deep inside i was not hoping for.

This is an other issue where none has a solution? Im on the pioneer's path again...