Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am hoping to have an update soon.

I managed to take care of the different sizes of tilapia by adding a couple of small large mouth bass that do a good job of culling the growth stragglers.

I want to get the first grow bed built before winter, but i have a lot of other stuff going on that;s been slowing me down.

The tilapia in the ferro tank are about 4" long and i will need to get them out and into a winter system pretty soon. They already eat less with the lower temperatures. I also want very much to get all of my native fish out of the IBC's into the ferro tank for the winter because 800 gallons is more stable than 300 gallons.


I planted the hops too late this year to really say for sure how well they grow in the heat. The plants didnt die. I got literally 1 hop off of them but the total growth was way less than a typical first year. Part of this was how late we started and part was probably that it had no trellis and was competing with grass for canopy space as it sprawled along the groing. It's tough to mow grass if you dont want to mow the hops. The plan is to have the trellis by next year and i can train them better as well as get a full seasons growth. I do know people grow hops in texas successfully, some cultivars do better than others. cascade and chinook are considered to be good options.




brian

Brian, some time ago I ran into a tip for waterproofing concrete construction. The guy builds waterfalls of concrete and is fully against the pond liners. Says they all start to leak sooner or later and are easily punctured. That to the side.

His advice for waterproofing was mixing tile glue into your 1:3 Portland to sand mix and make a kind of slurry that you can bring on with a brush or trowel. It would be 45lbs tile glue on 90lbs Portland and gives a very smooth and super strong finish.

I'll try to find his site back and post the link later today.

Expect tomorrow to receive a mortar sprayer from the US and then the fun is going to start here too with building tanks etc.

Which sprayer did you order? I have a feeling that if I had one, it would quickly become my favorite tool!

Ron, it's the one from Nolan Scheid http://www.mortarsprayer.com. I had the same idea about it, after seeing the videos and possible application of the tool. We soon will see how it works out!

Brian, the link to the article I read a couple of months ago http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/pon ... Ponds.html . I hope it helps.

Check this video about how they build tanks in Bolivia.



The link http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mVhnDGVBDr ... VhnDGVBDrU

Hey mate I'm a ceramic Tiler by trade with many years experience and tile adhesive is not water proof it has a bit of water resistance but like all motar products it does leak. If it didn't I wouldn't have to fix leaking showers all the time and when I pull all the tiles up the adhesive is soaked through. The amount it leaks would be no problem in the application that the link provided because its a stone waterfall where you can't really see where it leaks if anything the leaks would probably Leach back into the earth slowly.

bcottons tank is a little bit different where any leaking appears straight through the wall if it was leaking a little through the bottom he probably wouldn't really care but water patches on the side don't look great and it prevents painting it.

In my opinion the best way to waterproof is to paint on some waterproofing that is UV stable an rated for ponds. You can buy it from tile shops and hardware stores for $80 and it covers 20m2. I would stay away from motar waterproofing pruducts that you mix with water I've never seen one work effectively.

I had great success growing hops in Dallas back when I was brewing at Yegua Creek Brewing Co. I had them started next to the billboard on the patio, first year growth was ok but second year was 20' and lots of cones. I planted a few new ryzomes (sp) this year at my house, not great growth, but hope for better next year.

Rob C

Thoroseal seems to be the product most people bring up for waterproofing, have you used that MatyH?

MatyH, I think you cannot compare your experience concerning tile glue and leaking shower walls with the situation and example described in that link. I guess the tile glue in your example was not mixed with the Portland, before it was applied to the wall, was it? That might make all the difference? I have no experience with that setup, but surely will give it a try when the moment comes and let you guys know how it turns out.

I havnt used that particular product because I've never seen it here in aus but I've used a few very simular and its mostly used in bricked up garden beds to stop water leaching through behind the paint. Also brickies use it against the concrete next to the fistcoarse of bricks in the cavity from my experiance it works for those situations cause there not under constant water.

I'm not saying won't work but for the amount of work involed getting it mixed right and applyingit properly you may as well slap two coats of waterproofing on it that's also flexible upto a couple mm. As most cement based builds get small crack after time.

Tile adhesive is made of 1part silica sand 1part cement and an ingrediant called methocel(I can't remember how its spelt ) wich is also the main ingrediantin chewing gum. So all adding extra cement does is make it more like neat cement

It doesnt look like it would be too expensive to mix up a batch of the thinset+portland and see how it works. I dont mind using my grow bed as a guinea pig because if it doesnt work i was planning to pond liner the grow bed anyway.


Thanks for the ideas.

brian

That's the spirit! Make sure to mix the stuff good and thoroughly so you'll get the best possible results. If you're ahead of me, let me know how it worked for you. I will vice versa.

It looks like it will rain the next three days. I am gonna build the framing in the garage so i can do the ferro later in the week and into the weekend.

brian

Let me step up on my soap box for a second and show how viable using native fish (instead of tilapia) is for outside systems in texas.

I only keep a dozen or less tilapia for algae control. I bring them into a 100 gallon living room aquarium for the winter. Otherwise i run my systems with native fish such as bluegill, channel catfish, LMB and HSB like shown here.

I drained most of my tanks this weekend so i could catch the tilapia and bring them indoors for the winter. I took the opportunity to document the growth of some of my HSB. They were about 4in/1oz when i bought them in may.


I will be moving the HSB to the 800 gallon ferro tank for the winter later this month (after i finish building the ferro grow bed.)



brian