Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I use 3mm floating pellets. Handy for a wide range of fishie sizes. The fingerlings go from flake to 3mm.

Ok, so the pond diet looks like 5mm and the catfish food I have is closer to 7-8mm Both have protein somewhere in the 30s.

I tested a tiny bit of the meal on the fingerlings, ooh they went a little nuts though they were a bit confused at first, they really seemed to like it.

Anyway, The Aquatic Ecosystems Catalog page 156 has the High-protein Finfish starter food. It is slow-sinking and comes in the meal (like a powder which I got a 5 lb bag if you would like to try some.) There is also #1 and #2 crumble, still quite small stuff and they have a couple sizes of small pellets.

I dug out for the new GB this morning. It sure is hot in Florida

No Doubt but it is strange here. The temp outside isn't that extreem and even the Humidity wasn't that bad this morning but stepping out the door still made me wilt.

And you digging inside that greenhouse, ugh! Drink lots of water! And if it makes you have to pee too much, that is good for the compost since the pile is near the greenhouse!

Pictures! So are you going to have your barrel grow beds drain into the big ground bed then sump pump back to the main tank? That cascade should make the level fluctuation in the tanks a little more reasonable.

Yes, that's exactly how I'm going to do it. I'll drain my 8 half barrels into the big GB and move the sump pump. It'll be just like you did yours. I'm trying to find something to put around the pump right now. My milk crates are only 10" high. I may just cut one off at ~5" and stack it on top of the other one. I finished the design for the 2 channel sump controller so no more floats. I haven't had a problem with mine but I know others have. This should work pretty well.

I started digging at 6 this morning so I was pretty much finished by 8:30. It was only up to about 80 but of course the humidity in there is very high. Anyway, I started working out in the yard getting things ready for the dirt farm. I called the mushroom farm and I can get all I want 7 days a week. $5/load. I'll take the trailer and fill it and the truck.

Photo of soon to be GB.

Mark,
Do you have any sort of screens or grates over the water bridge pipes?
What size are your water bridges? If you don't have screens or grates on them, I'm certain there could be travelers between tanks until the fish get too big to go through. the pipes.

(reason for my certainty will be in my system thread shortly.)

My bridges on the barrels are 1". I did have one traveler from my smallest 'fish' tank. On my two 10 gal untils I have a 3/4" bridge and I'm sure withing a couple of days there'll be about an even number in each tank. I think I'll need a little screen over that one....

Neat.

Or get some of the clear tubing so you can watch the migrations.

Well I did finally finish the GB but can't switch over the plumbing for a few days. I'm going to drain my exist 8 1/2 barrels into it and pump out of the new GB back to the FTs. We had a huge storm a couple of days ago and it took out about everything electrical around my outbulding/system. Luckily all plants and fish are ok although things were a bit hectic yesterday morning when I figured out there had been NO water flow for about 16 hours. I had fish gulping air and a few sagging plants.

I guess there's the good and bad of using a lot of controls. When they blow, you'd better have a backup(which I don't yet) but if you built them, you should be able to fix them in short order(which I was able to do). That's the cool part of a 2 chip design! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to troubleshoot it!!!!

Here are some pics of the latest work:

Everybodies stuff is just looking so darn neat and tidy lately.... and professional as well...

Whatever happened to the old bathtub and pump AP system

Good to hear you averted a disaster Jazz

Is that the new sump level control there in the last picture?

I like the big grow bed, looks very nice.

Yes that's the new sump level control prototype #1....

I haven't power it up yet at the GB, but I hope to this afternoon. You're controller is running again after the power problem. The power supply fried too but I have another one for you. Maybe tomorrow morning. I wanted to get some run time on it again.....

Cool. Just let me know. John is home and we moved the tilapia into the big system this morning. I've put in an order with AES but haven't gotten an e-mail saying it's processed yet.