Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Evernote is awesome. I guess I already said that back on page 7...but it's awesome enough to bear repeating ever so often.

Well, then why don't they just do the dosing instructions by chest circumference, then, instead of making it all so frigging complicated? Sheesh. :eyeroll:

Do you put God with all the Napoleons, or is there a special heavenly ward for him?

You keep talking like that and I'll unsubscribe this thread. No need to trash talk your Maker.

I do believe she was referring to a patient of hers that *believes* he is god. I was just playing on the common joke that there are usually a large number of mentally ill patients that believe that they are Napoleon. No need to get all up in arms. God knew the joke I was referring to. Besides if there was anything to forgive, he would have already done so. I also know that he has a great sense of humor, look at the duckbill platypus.

Dont you be trash talking our Platypus there Ron!

No trash talking intended, only a bit of irony from my daily work life. I forget people may not have viewed my profile or remembered what it is I do besides playing with aquaponics.

You know, come to think of it, I haven't had any Napoleons yet. Lots of Jesus Christs, a few Gods, dozens of secret agents, a couple of vampires, and hundreds of "the only one who knows the secret that can save the world."

One of my favorite patient quotes of all times -- my husband (also in mental health) greeted one of his Jesus patients by name, and the guy corrected him angrily, "My name is JESUS CHRIST, damn it!!!"

There's a great book, written back in the 50s or 60s, called "The Three Christs of Ypsilanti." It was written by a psychiatrist in an institution where there were three men who all thought they were Jesus. He made kind of a special project of them, bringing them together in a therapy group, and the book is kind of a journal of how they dealt with each other and their delusions that each of them was THE true Christ.

Egg laying mammals are cool, but you have got to admit that God was having fun with that one!

Umm...

I bought an aquarium.

It's my husband's fault. It was on Craigslist, and looked like a really good deal, and my husband, who is excessively indulgent, called the guy to see if it was still available, and then they started talking about guns, and the next thing I knew he'd made an offer and the guy accepted and we were on our way to pick it up.

(It's not all that easy to pick up.)

It came with a pump, sump, filter, 100lbs gravel, and a 24" plecostimus.

The pleco is awesome.

185 gallon tanks are really BIG.

Now what do I do?


Sent from my iPhone, typed with my thumbs.

It sounds like it is time to start your indoor system thread...

Okay, catfish are scary.

There is a large fish living in my granddaughter's bathroom.

The pleco that came with the aquarium was an unexpected bonus. The guy sold all the other fish to other people, but he was adamant that the pleco had to stay with the aquarium. I like plecos, so I was okay with that. Except, as I am often prone to do, I didn't think things through very well.

My excuse is that it was all so unexpected.

So home we came, with aquarium parts stacked on top of the remaining gravel in my pickup bed, and a five-gallon bucket containing a very cramped pleco in the back seat.

The aquarium is still in the truck, because unloading it is going to take either the borrowing of another set of man-muscles from somewhere, or some very innovative lever and fulcrum tricks. I'm giving myself until tomorrow to dream some up.

It wasn't until we got home that it dawned on me I had nowhere to PUT the pleco. I want a planted aquarium, which means I need to (assuming we ever do get the thing off my truck) 1) learn about planting substrates, 2) assemble the necessary ingredients and supplies, 3) add them appropriately, 4) plant a bunch of plants, and, theoretically, 5) wait a few weeks for things to settle before adding fish. I suspect #5 isn't going to get to happen.

Meanwhile, there was a giant pleco wrapped around the bottom of a 5-gallon bucket in my living room. The aquaponics system water is only at 54ᵒF. (When I reported this to my hubs earlier in the day, I said "all the way up to" in place of "only at." It seemed a lot warmer when I wasn't wishing I could stick a fish in it.

So I dug around in the garage and came up with a fountain pump, brand new in the box, and a length of tubing that was too small for it, but I made it fit anyway, and got him some oxygenation while I thought about what to do. After about 20 minutes the pond pump quit working. Which is how I came to be out in the back yard in the black of night blindly disassembling my decorative whiskey barrel pond in the darkness.

The pleco is now in my granddaughter's bathroom in a 30-gal tote I bought to plumb into the system to plant my lemon trees in, with a fountain pump splashing the water around for oxygenation. Good thing I hadn't gotten around to drilling holes in it yet. I hope he likes it, because unless it's possible for me to get the aquarium set up tomorrow, which I don't think it is, he may have to stay there for a couple of weeks.

I'm a doctor of bulls#@t

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Philosophy