Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So for those of you who have read my previous threads, I've had my share of non-AP related issues.

On my last system, I walked in one day, and all the grow beds had been knocked over. Presumably by some animal looking for dinner.

Since then I've also moved into an apartment. Recently I got my system up and running in a closet here. It's basically the same as my previous system. I constructed a stand for the grow beds out of 2x4's which drain by autsiphon into the 40 or so gallon fish tank that I got for free. Currently there is no sump, mainly because I didn't want to breach the acrylic of the fish tank.

I just sowed some basil and parsley yesterday.

Things to do:

1) upgrade grow bins to a more rigid walled structure. The drain spouts currently leak.

2) make a reflector hood for the light fixture

3) adjust the light fixture to get closer to the GB surface

4) make everything bigger!

Pics coming as soon as stop being lazy.... so figure a month or two

well at least the animals shouldn't manage to knock it over

G'day Tamo, nice to see you bounced back to the BYAP madness

Yeah, I'm hoping there aren't any raccoons or whatever in the apartment!

You can make a siphon-overflow for your aquarium that obviates the need to drill holes, but they are somewhat messy in PVC. Acrylic is better looking. Here is a link to one conversation: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3392&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

If you have any hollow trees in the apartment, check them carefully for the raccoons. If no trees, check under the sink....I could send Rex to help....

That's true, I could make one of those bridges. Hmm, I'll have to think on that.

[quote.I could send Rex to help....[/quote]
Rex looks like he might be more suited to office work!
Third time lucky Tamo.

Good to see you back on the horse Tamo...

Huzzah, we have germination. I have 2 GB's right now. Left one is hydroton seeded with basil. I spotted little buds poking up above the clay this morning.

The right GB has hydroton on the bottom, gravel on the top. This is because I ran out of hydroton . It's seeded with parsley, and I didn't see any buds this morning.

Overall I'm surprised the basil germinated so quickly. Yes the fish tank has been running even since my old system got trashed, but the media was completely dried out. I haven't done any water tests because I can't find my test kit. I think it's buried somewhere in the storage closet.

It only needs water to germinate - will need the nutes to get bigger

A few sprouts in the right grow bed (parsley) popped up yesterday. I was beginning to get concerned that the pea gravel was too heavy for them or something.

The basil sprouts aren't getting any taller, but the leaves are growing out.

+1

Yeah, so I shouldn't be surprised about the germination. I guess I'll just have to wait on growth for the bacteria to kick in. The shoots are developing, but slowly. The system passes the smell test though, so I'm not too worried about NH4 buildup (yet).

2 updates. The first is pictures of the system

It's a little kludgy looking because of all the tubing, and the GB's got crunched a little bit. But hey, it was easy, and I wanted the GB frames to be tight. Just made them a little too tight .

The 2nd update is that in my hydroton bed I have all these little white insects. I'm guessing they are some kind of mite. I tried taking a picture of one, it's the fuzzy white thing on the brown hydroton.

This hydroton was sitting on the floor in my former garage for a while before moving to the closetponics system here, so I guess it got infested there.

The questions are: what are they, are they harmful, will they get out of control, what treatment options do I have?

Looks like an aphid of some sort