Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thats the problem with barrels cut in half that way karen TCL had the same problem, cant remember if she figured it out.

You will find that a simple water in, and water out will work fine with barrels - they work quite well without worrying about flood and drain.

or use looped siphons

I put the loop siphons back on, carefully arranging them not to kink. All is well.

I started running the system 24/7 a few days ago, and the water has cleared up considerably.

I'll do a water test in a bit, and then put in a goldfish to see how the system is. And plant a few cool-weather things, as our summer is slowly coming to an end...

Lots of progress on this system. I put in a goldie and a catfish for a bit, to finish the cycling, and planted some kale, swiss chard, watercress, lettuce, radishes, dared a few strawberries and a bunch of alfalfa to just take up nutes.

Today I got back from a weekend trip down to Iowa to see GF?'s system, and to lighten his load of baby tilapia. Great trip, wonderful to finally meet another APer, and now I'm the proud owner of somewhere between 20-24 tilapia fry. They're all eyes and tail!

GF? gave me 24, and I don't see any floaters, so I expect I just can't count them as they move so fast! The goldie and cat are back in their original home in the basement. No fry meals for them!

Love that icon

How are they feeding Karen?
Little buggars here just want more food, more food.
Looking forward to hear how that squash tasted as well. It is I think, the world's first AP Spaghetti Squash. If I'm wrong I'm sure I'll be corrected.
More Pics?

They're feeding really well. I've been crushing up some pellets in a mortar and pestle, and throwing those in, and they're gone in minutes. Growing quickly, too! I haven't been able to get any pics yet, they're too small and fast. Zooom! I'll keep trying.

I haven't eaten the squash yet, still working on the last one I picked from my dirt garden. I've been eying it eagerly, though!

And for everyone else, a pic taken at GotFish?'s when I went down to pick up the little tilapia.
I'm on the left with GF's gifted spaghetti squash, and he's holding one of his many, many cherry tomatoes.

Hey ... nice to see your faces Karen & John....

Nice little greenhouse there Gotfish...

Don't forget to put up pics as the fish grow and the system takes off -

no toes, so have to accept shorts and T-shirt then

sheez, I look like I'm 51. Couldn't you have doctered the photo up a bit?
Are the conventioners tearing up the city yet Karen?

Ah, finally got back here to post a few pics and answer a few questions. =) I've been so busy...

Here are the little tilapia! These were taken a few days after I got them, I'll get new pics hopefully showing some growth soon.
Two in the corner:


A school:


They're definitely growing!
I've been having some issues with my no-holes overflow, but I think I have it partially solved, and the plants are growing a bit. I'll take pics of all of that in a day or two.

GotFish? I suck at photoshop. I would have put the walmart smiley over your face or something. I think your face is much preferable to that.
And the republicans are finally gone, thank goodness. Everyone I know (both republican and democrat) had bad days when the convention was going on. Nothing directly to do with the convention (e.g. bad traffic), there was just a bad vibe in town.

(Aussies and others, the U.S. Republican National Convention was in town over the first weekend in September [Labor Day here], see http://www.gopconvention2008.com/ for the nitty gritty [well, the spin at any rate]). There were only 800+ protesters arrested, which is pretty good for a Republican convention.

All the little bellies with eyeballs. Though those fry look to be a little bigger than that stage now.

Do be ware that small tilapia are quite capable of swimming through small PVC pipe no holes overflows. Make sure to cover them with netting or screens small enough that your fish can't get it. I know, it means you have to check and clean the screens more often to keep things running right.

I have had difficulty getting siphons to work properly with half barrels cut the long way. The only ones that seem to work properly have the advantage of the flush tank on the barrel ponics system or if I add a timer into the mix so that the flow cuts off after the siphon kicks in and allows the siphon to drain and break while the pump is off. If you are still having trouble with the siphons, perhaps get yourself a timer with 15 minute intervals. My aquarium system goes 15 minutes on 15 minutes off (this is more to help keep the pipes clear of gunk than to allow the siphon to break but it works for both issues.) I had noticed that with the small pipe, my aquarium system was having a slow reduction of flow through the pipes when left on all the time. I found that if I shut the pump off for a minute and turned it back on, the surge of water through the pipe would clear some gunk and allow full flow again. So now the system is on a timer.

I've moved the tilapia inside for the winter. So I'll either decommission this system until spring, or maybe I'll put in a few goldfish to feed the plants for another month or so. I was really hoping to get at least another month from this system, but with some nights getting down to 40F, 5C, it was just too much for my heaters...

There are still a few small things on this system that I'd like to document (issues with the no-holes overflow) that I'll hopefully do in the next week. If not, I'll do it in the spring...

Spring has returned, and the nights are getting warm enough that I've started this system up again for the summer. I've been working on getting the siphons working again (always fun!) and I made some improvements on the no holes overflow, which has now been working flawlessly for almost a week without me ever having to suck out the air.

I planted some stuff this past weekend (tatsoi, lettuce, minutina, kale, beets, garlic chives, green onions...) and today I put in my first few fish to get the cycle kicked on. I'm using two of my smallest tilapia, and I also moved my one remaining crayfish from my kitchen system to this one, as he wasn't doing well at all in the smaller tank. Hopefully he can stretch his legs now. And maybe grow some straight antennae again! Once the cycling is well on it's way, I'll move most of my tilapia to this system, and use the kitchen system to hopefully breed some more of the little suckers.

My first sprouts are coming up. Pics soon.

I've also started the process of getting my greenhouse going. As in, I contacted a contractor to talk about foundations.

BTW, Gotfish?
The tilapia are getting pretty big!

This one committed suicide a few weeks ago. I didn't find it in time to eat it, however...



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