Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks for the suggestions. I am now wondering 'how much iron is too much?'
I have added approx 10gms twice to the hybrid system in 4 weeks, once to the bathtub system with strawberries & foliar sprayed strawbs. No improvement yet!

Bob H, thanks for the link on the strawberries - very informative.

The growth in the GBs is great, but there are a few deficiencies showing in the spinach & pak choy.
I cooked with the first produce last night - a great green curry & used 4 week old pak choy from the hybrid GBs & spring onions, basil, Thai basil, chillis from the old system.

The pics compare the growth in a month.
13th March 2015

28th March 2015

Today, 11th April 2015

Hi there Team41. Just caught up with your thread and am totally blown away! I need a window in my FT so I can lay in bed and watch my fish outside the bedroom window... Will be following with interest.

Thanks Joc. The window is covered over most of the time. The algae that grew on it stopped you from seeing in the tank, so it was basically useless. I gave it a good scrub then slid core flute between the frame & window & I only remove it for the occasional visitor.

Oh dear . Did it get any direct sun, or was it in the shade. If I did mine it would not get any direct sun from the window, but the inside of the window would get some afternoon sun through the top of the FT so I would have to put a solid lid on...

The tank is under 50% shade cloth but the window faces east & got early morning sun. I keep the top of the tank covered with coreflute to stop nearly all light hitting the water. My water has such dark tannin staining anyway, that even clean, it is still hard to see the fish.

Windows are awesome, mainly at night though. As Team said, tannins/lighting mean they don't work during day that well. However, at night they are amazing. I highly recommend putting lights above tank for night time viewing. Nothing better to sit around with a cold one in my opinion!


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The problem with that suggestion Ben is that I have packed so much into the greenhouse that there is very little space for sitting around & watching fish
I have hung solar led rope lights through the centre of the greenhouse so I can go out there at night, not trip over & pick what I need for dinner.

Hmmm, now that daylights savings is finished lighting is a real issue when picking a salad or just checking on things. Solar lights may be the go, but I have to be able to switch them on and off easily like the solar shed lights Fantastic set up in the greenhouse by the way .I rather fancy laying in bed watching the fishies swim around at night - its just that the neighbours and everyone travelling down the road will be able to see me laying in bed watching the fishies, unless I do it in the dark

Joc, maybe you just need a small aquarium inside with some pretty fish you can watch in private, rather than letting the outside world see into your fishy fantasies/obsessions!!!

Thanks for the praise - the green house is coming along - I need to get the plastic on it & try & keep things a bit warmer now. I still have tomatoes & zucchinis flowering so it would be nice to get them to grow & ripen.

That looks great!

I'm sure it'll be very productive.

I'm curious about how your tomatoes will do in the greenhouse.

Thanks, Colum.
You're welcome to come & have a look anytime.

yep. you've got that greenhouse packed. How are the bath-tubs working for you? They look to have done well over the course of the season. Somehow it' s distressing to me here where the warm weather is just beginning to watch and hear about the growing season ending. Thus is life.

Hi Brian.
The bath tubs have been great & best of all they were free. They are deeper than the standard 300mm GB, so did cost a lot to fill with the clay balls, but I think it was worth it. They are made of fibreglass so have shown no signs of deterioration & were lighter to handle than the old steel or cast tubs. I also painted them, which probably made them look a bit better too.

Thanks!

I've got a few tomatoes in that I'm going to try and overwinter out in the elements, see how well they do, I can't recall a bad frost since I've been living in SA, and since we are close and have similar climates, it might be a good comparison.

Your greenhouse looks very well done! Is the whole thing covered in 50% shade cloth?