Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi HB, since you have a mortar and pestle, have you planted basil yet to make pesto? Basil always does well in AP.

Hi, Dave, yes, I'm about to plant some, along with some lettuce and spinach. I need to add some more gravel to the GB first, since the flood cycle level is slightly above the gravel now.

HB
Salmon chanted evening...

Here's a better photo of my siphon that is working.



Today I changed out my siphon tubing to smaller 12 mm size, I got a straight male thread / reducing tubing fitting that worked with my threaded elbow. Now I have to see if it will work...



HB

Success! The aquarium siphon with smaller tubing and L on the end was not starting or stopping by itself, but I had some inspiration to try the T on the end and it immediately started both started and stopping! I can't believe it would make such a difference. Here is the siphon from above-



And closer up-



It's not a lot of water just being a 19 ltr GB, so it is F & D in about 5 minutes. Now that it is working I can consider getting more Shubunkins for the aquarium. I don't have any plants in it yet though, so maybe I should wait until something is growing?

HB
If someone sues a parsley farmer, can they garnish his wages?

Congrats on the siphon Nancy! You may want to pick up a water test kit before adding more fish. Grow grow grow!

Thanks, Victoria. I actually got a couple more Shubunkins for the aquarium this time. The 3 in the bigger tank have been settling in, eating their food better, making lots of fish poo. The aquarium is pretty dirty from the duckweed growing on top of the water and making brown stuff in the bottom. Some brown algae also seems to be forming. I didn't have room to put the plastic bag in to equalize temperature on the siphon side so had to lift off the 5 gal bucket to put it in the side below it (there is structure there from the lid). Anyway, the siphon outlet got displaced and I didn't notice so it was spewing water into the fluorescent light in the lid. It started flickering on and off and filling with water. I took it off and dried it out but it still was flickering, so I guess I'll leave it unplugged a few days to see if it dries out and starts to work or is trashed. The duckweed may need the light, but now that there are goldfish in there maybe they will eat it all anyway. I have some hydroponics baskets floating in there with some duckweed inside so maybe they won't be able to get it all.

My new Shubunkins are nice, they have some black streaks on their fins. They are easier to see than the ones in the black stock tank too.

My beans are over the trellis and I'm training half over to the nearby south facing window to see if they like it there. My cucumbers are started to vine and some basil came up from seed.


HB

Well, surprise, my pole beans have some flowers! I flicked them a few times. The first ones seem to have fallen off and left some tiny pods already, so here's hoping. The long vines are about over to the south window where there will even be some sun coming in.

The two Shubunkin in the aquarium are not quite the same size and the bigger one picks on the smaller one. I suppose I could put the smaller one with the other fish in the FT.

The Chinese mustard seem to be taking a long time to get true leaves. The cucumbers are starting to vine so maybe something will happen with them soon. This is fun, getting to garden in winter. Next month I will start tomatoes for outside.

HB

I'm watching my system grow slowly. The small barrel has better growth of the mustard, basil, and cilantro than the larger bed. Maybe the black sides being high and the light sources farther away, the light is not adequate. fI added another light over that part. I'm thinking I should have filled my gravel closer to the top of the bed but was hampered by my set-up to keep gravel away from around the siphon ports not coming to the top of the container. I'm still stymied about how to make a chimney in my bigger system I'm supposed to set up soon with a 265 ltr / 70 gal stock tank. My problem is I'm afraid of possible contaminants in pvc pipe, especially if a lot of holes are cut or drilled in it.

My cucumbers are blooming up a storm but seem to be totally male blossoms. So, no little cucumbers growing- yet. I've harvested a few beans from my pole beans but not many, maybe it will pick up as the vines get more mature. I'm wondering about ending the indoor stay for the vines and putting them outside for the summer to get a jump on the bean season, but dealing with all the vines may be daunting. What do most people do when ending up one growing season and starting up a new one, re-do the whole bed or just remove individual plants and plug in more?

You might want to check out a new salt-adapted vegetable I just found in a seed list, I might try it in my system soon-

http://www.evergreenseeds.com/landseaweed.html

HB
Can you imagine a world without hypothetical situations?

Here are some photos of my plants after 3 months. I haven't had a lot of pole beans but a few, and some female cucumber blossoms finally opened so have pollinated a few. I must need to get some cukes that produce more female flowers or that don't need fertilization because most of my flowers have been male, unlike cukes grown outdoors.



The small bucket system is growing greens and herbs better. The Chinese mustard is big enough to pick off leaves, and I should soon be able to eat some basil and cilantro.



HB

That's not bad for under lights Hannah....

Thanks, Rupert. I just got some more seeds for unusual Chinese greens I want to try, and want to try to set up my larger system in my garage soon that would have greens under lights and hopefully some cold water food fish like Perch.

HB