Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have a cement porch at the end of the pond now. Also the two paver walk ways that I took out have been poured, cement. I have the main drain pipes in place now.

There is a photo of the plan at the beginning of this thread.

1.........2...........3.............4............5
6
7..........8...........9.............10..........11

Bed 1 and 2 drain into bed 3 as do beds 4 and 5. Bed three drains directly to the front of the garden beds via the two 3" pipes in the photo(the pipes run thruough bed 6 and 9 directly to the waterfall area. Beds 7 and 8 drain to 9 and beds 10 and 11 drain to nine as does bed 6. Nine has two 3" pipes that drain also to the waterfall area. At the waterfall area I will build a bed or catch area of sorts so when the water from all of the GB's come over the tops of the four 3" standpipes it can over flow as a waterfall back into the pond. I am still working on a design for it.

Final photo. Hopefully the next photos will show more. I still have to build two walls for bed 6. That is the bed that ties the two banks of beds together. I also have to build the catchment area for the water coming out of the four 3" pipes. I also need to remove more of the old planting medium from four of the beds. Also patch them and paint all beds. Then I can have fun washing the gravel for all eleven beds and I don't think my Nui is interested in helping.

The 6 for GB6 should be between the 3 and 9 but I can't get it to move over. The water from the back beds all flows from bed 3, through bed 6 and 9 directly to the overflow area. The water from all of the front row of beds plus bed 6 flows to the overflow area from bed 9. I am sure all of this will make more sense when I can submit a photo of the finished product.

Today I found a dead fish that had one mark on it. Right behind the pectoral fin there was a small, round, brown hole. Not deep. Sort of like the brown spots one sees on tomatoes. I have seen a mark like that before on one or two fish but a little larger mark and further away from the fin. Anyone know what this might be?

are there any fish eating birds in your area? we get heron's here that will "spear" fish.. and kill way more than they eat

None that I am aware of. Maybe AO+ or Duinui will chime in. They also live in Thailand and may know.
My cat can't reach the fish but he almost lives on the rim of the pond watching them but I don't know if that is enough to keep birds away or not. A little off subject--two days ago the cat was trying to reach the Koi (three times his size) and fell in the pond. Not the same pond where I have Tilapia. I have never seen a wet cat climb through the air before to get out of a pond. Wished I had of had the camera out at the time. Very funny and he looked a mess.

Well it finally happened. I got the GBs done, all repaired. As soon as I get the area cleaned up and paint them with the Lanko 222 I will be ready to fill them with water and see how the water flows. I plan to take photos tomorrow. Also tomorrow the workers are suppose to put up a frame and sunscreen. No more dead fish which I am very happy about.

Look forward to the photos Johnra...

As I said last night, I would post some photos of the progress so far tonight. I also said that the sunscreen would be installed today - at least that is what they said - not installed, but prep work done. They are to finish the sunscreen tomorrow. If you see anything overhead in any photos I post tonight it is just temp shade - sun is very hot here when working outside. Pipes were painted - redleaded gray.

One more of the poles. You guys like photos so tonight I will post all I have so far. LOL

Future Dinners if my AP system works and some of our Koi who help poo up the ponds

A few more Koi

The Waterfall Area is complete. Will it work - I don't know. I never built one before and I have not yet tested it. As soon as I paint with Lanko 222 to make sure all is waterproof I will fill some of the GBs and test it. Planed to be done in two or three days from now. All of the water from the whole system comes to this area to return to the pond so it should work - I hope.

All of the plumbing is cut, fitted and ready to go as soon as I finish painting. I got it ready while the man was rendering the GBs and it has been in the way every since. All I have to do is lay it in place and put some clamps over it. I need to finish cleaning some of the beds - rendering leaves a lot of cement dust and small pieces - just what I don't need in the pond.

Tomorrow I hope to be able to post a photo of the shade cover. Completed. The intensity of the sun here burns your skin. You can feel it burning your neck when you work out side. Working today under the temp. shade screen was ok so if the plants will be happy so will I. Then in a few days I plan to have all GBs painted and then I can fill it with water and test the system. I'll just jump in one of the GBs and cool off. LOL.