Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The fish took some pellets last night, and again this morning! YEAH!!! They might actually make it!

(Of course they will probably all be dead when I get home, but a girl can dream.. right?)

Chappo: I'm a big fan of heat. Our power (TVA) is cheep compared to most so We can heat all winter if we want to.

Looks like your pump was a bit of a set back. Glad to see you pushing on. I hope to see more Tennessee folk here in time. Keep giving up photos!

Well,,,the comments have at least directed my efforts toward looking at less environmentally damaging/rather than just cheaper heating. A combination system mayend upbeing thebest compromise (electricity and solar).

Hi all, sorry for the long dry spell.

I'm down to one fish in the system, but he is doing well, and eats happily. The plants were practically stalled, but are now growing at what I consider a remarkable rate. I will take some pictures tonight.

As to what fixed it, I really can't say definitively.

The salting definitely helped, I could see a difference the next day, even in the fish that didn't make it.

It wasn't the pump. The oily film and smell were from the slime covering it.

It wasn't the pH, as it marched right back to 8 and still sits there.

It might be related to aeration, as I switched out the undersized aquarium pump for a larger one and redid the DWC drain to add additional aeration.

It wasn't water changes or anything like that, though the fish and plants survived it.

Three days after the salting I went out and most of the algae had settled to the walls. The next day I could see the bottom of the tank.

Lessons Learned:
White Tilapia in a White barrel are hard to see.
Tilapia will eat the algae off the inside of a barrel, vigorously.
Plants can grow a lot faster than you think.

I have quite a bit of algae settled out on the walls of the dwc tank. I would like to sweep that down to the fish, but will take a picture before I cloud the water all up.

Talk to you again soon,
-Ellie

One more thing. Where can I get a bag to transfer the fish from one tank to another? They are all a bit too large to be floating in a zip-loc bag for any length of time.

-ellie

Fish prefer dark coloured tanks,,,read it somewhere,,,don't know why.

Asmall airpump and tube/pipe type air-stone will cost less than US$20 on ebay ( delivered) and remove any uncertanties regarding oxygen levels.

EG, I just use a bucket to transfer fish, tupperware or something similar

Over the weekend, I transfered 5 fish from the aquarium to the outside tank in a 10 gallon zip-loc bag. I added one cup of system water to the bag every 15 minutes for 1.5 hours, and then turned the bag sideways so they could swim out at their leisure. They seemed happy and active, jockeying for territory in the tank. They even ate a couple of pellets.

That night I stepped outside to get some feed for the aquarium fish, and the system didn't sound right. I checked and the flexible fill hose for the gravel bed had fallen out and was pumping the system dry at a pretty good rate. Roughly 2/3 of the water was gone out of the tank, and the fish looked rather concerned. I secured the hose and refilled the system from the water change barrel, salting to a guesstimated 1.5-2 ppt

The unexpected and major water change seems to have stressed the fish significantly. Two of them have died, and the others have significant fin rot.

And now, the thinking part. The indoor aquarium has unhealthy high Nitra/ites, but the external system is barely above zero. The plants respond quickly and drastically to increased nutrient load. The fish are having issues transitioning because of the shift in water parameters. A possible solution then is to interchange the water in the two systems. This gets the plants what they need, conditions the fish to the exterior living conditions, and improves the interior water quality. If all of the inside fish die, then I will know that it is a contaminant in the barrels and start over.

Plan: Tonight, transfer 8 gallons from the interior system to the exterior system, and start 8 gallons of freshwater dechlorinating*. Tomorrow night, the garage water goes in the aquarium and the cycle repeats until the exterior system and aquarium are full again. Then start exchanging 3 gallons/day between the tanks, probably in the afternoon.

Lessons Learned:
Moving fish in a bag and letting them adapt slowly to a new environment is required, even for "hardy" fish like tilapia. Netting them from one tank to another is an excellent way to kill fish.

Safety wire ALL flexible plumbing. Even if the end is buried under 1/2 inch of gravel, wire it to something.

Use some mechanism to keep the pump from emptying the tank. A sizeable rock underneath a submersible pump will work.

* - Fill the bucket and put it in the garage with an airstone in it.

-Ellie

Yep, I have found that to move my baby fish from a aquarium tank to the grow out tank requires that I daily remove some water from the aquarium and add water from the big system. Because I do it this way I have never had an issue moving fish from one tank to the next and like you said it makes for better water in the aquarium.

Hi!

i pulled some photos out of my camera this morning, and thought you might like to see some plant pics! (Kind of like aquaponic porn.)

This was taken Monday afternoon.


And this one I took this Morning.


The growth on the corn is absolutely eye-popping, and the other plants are not far behind. I have already started juggling plants in the DWC bed to reduce shading. (Sorry that second picture is washed out, it was too dark and lost some colors lightening it.)

Now I need to start reading on how to keep the bugs off them. I can see signs of them on several plants. My assumption that being on a pressure treated deck would reduce the insects was obviously incorrect

-Ellie

Very nice

Over the weekend I added a 3rd half barrel configured as a DWC bed and moved some of the plants over to reduce crowding. There is a _huge_ difference between 4 inch and 8 inch spacing, and I swear I heard the lettuce sigh with relief.

Pictures are coming tomorrow, my battery was dead this morning.

I made a design changes in this DWC bed that are worth mentioning. The old bed has a bulkhead fitting at the waterline that determined the water level. That was effective, but required siphoning to drain the bed completely. The new DWC bed has a standpipe to determine the water level, and this is a better design because the water level can be adjusted by changing the standpipe, or drained by removing it.


This bed exceeds my current aquarium air pump's capabilities, and I need to start looking for a replacement. Ideally one that could supply the fishtanks and a 8x8x1.5 (feet) DWC system planned for the spring.

All of the fish I added in died. This leaves one "survivor" fish active in the system. On the plus side, I was able to observe him while filling the new DWC bed and he has grown remarkably, and is plate sized. Since he seems to be the most tolerant of the system conditions, I am least inclined to eat him and more interested in breeding. Unfortunately, that would require the female to survive in the system, which hasn't happened yet. The water transfer project is continuing, and the interior fish have not showed any signs of illness. I added a heater to the external system and removed the sunlight covers on the tank. Both actions with the intent of shortening the life cycle of anything naughty remaining in the water.

Friday we leave for a 10-day holiday. I am uncertain how to care for the fish in this time. Suggestions?

(Unpublished data from uncontrolled experiment) Heating the water to 82 degrees has caused the leaves of the pumpkin plants to yellow, with dark green remaining around the veins in the leaves. The lettuce growth appears to have stalled as well, based on visual observation, not measurement.

Here is my newest picture, showing off that shiny new dwc growbed.



In Other news, I purchased an FishMate p21 automatic pond feeder from PetsMart. I liked the digital ones better, but when I got to the petstore I realized they would hold maybe 3 days worth of food, max. The P21 should handle the feedings for the whole time we are gone. It uses what looks like a clock mechanism to rotate a drum that spins once every 24 hours, and dispenses an amount of food controlled by adjustable baffles. It is setup over a bowl in the garage right now, testing to make sure it works, and that I adjusted the baffles for the appropriate amount of food. Tonight I'm going to change 1/2 of the ammo-carb media in the filter, and that should control the ammonia and nitrites until we get back. Then it is back to the process of inside-outside water changes.

Observations:
Corn does better in gravel than DWC.
Lettuce does better in DWC than gravel.
For green growth, Tomatoes seem to do better in DWC, but the gravel plants may just be crowded.
Oxygenation seems to be the limiting factor in the DWC beds.

Lessons Learned:
When planting seeds, label them or draw a map. I have a HUGE viney plant, the trunk is about 2 inches in diameter, right behind the corn, and no idea what it is.
Oregano seedlings need to be more developed before transplanting. Every one of the Oregano seedlings baked off or was eaten by friendly caterpillars.
Caterpillars are evil.

Oui, please shrink pictures/diagrams down to medium size (800 x 600) as it is really difficult to read posts where you need to scroll sideways for each line in the page!

Good luck with the fish during your trip.

I am mystified at all your losses in the outdoor system. Hope it is sorted out soon.

Oh, the leaves that turn yellow yet the veins stay green, that is a sign of iron deficiency. I notice most cucurbits (cucumbers, pumpkins, mellons, squash, etc) seem to have more trouble with high pH causing them iron deficiency than stuff like tomatoes. I've not had much luck with any cucubrit family plant in my AP system yet. I have to add quite a lot of Iron or spray the plants with iron to improve the situation.