Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Duff,

Are you referring to the paint’s durability in contact with water or some other issue such as toxins?

The inside is painted where it is likely to be visible (ends and top of lip) so it may have some contact with water or damp media. However it’s an exterior grade paint (Kel used it for her fences and shed) so I’m sure it’ll be OK in the short to medium term (which is sufficiently long enough). How long do you really thin this will last before I start tinkering with it anyway ???

AJ

Well... it's all up and running.

Leak and flow tested, running on a timer doing 15min on and 45min off for now, planted and some Seasol added for a kick-start.

Here are a few photos...

This is the unit in place and plumbing done. 13mm is from the pump and 19mm the drain.


Expanded clay in place and flow test. I had two pumps ready to try out. Both Resuns but one at 100lph and one at 1600lph. The smaller has a max head of 1.65m so I was unsure if it'd have enough flow for the unit, which is at about 1.5m, but it was more than enough:


Plumbing to and from the goldfish pond. Water was already pretty murky some residue from the expanded clay (even after washing) add a bit more. Was much clearer this morning:


All planted up with Bok Choy, couple of lettuce varieties (namely Cos) and two strawberries. Other than the strawberries we’ve tried to go for easy growers to start with that will not dislike the wetness (at least until we get the pump cycle’s on/off sorted out):


How it fits into the courtyard:


I’m pretty happy with how the unit looks in with Kel’s courtyard garden (lots of other potted tressures behind the camera) and we’re already thinking how to expand on the system already with maybe an auto-pot or two.

There was a clear lift in behaviour form the two goldfish too, which I think can be accounted for by water flow and greater oxygenation. The plan is to let it all settle in for a week or two and then add a couple more goldfish to up the numbers from 2 to say 4-6.

Hope you like.

Aaron

Sweet and simple.... be interesting to see how it goes.... nice job...

Very nice.
I really like those brackets for the grow beds.

You could even give that return line elbow a slight twist so the goldfish can have a bit of swirl action current to play in if you want.

Let us know how it is all going after the settle in period.

Update time 6 weeks on:

- The strawberries got fried during the hot weather but they are still growing with new shoots and fruit. I'm expecting them to stop soon as the weather cools.

- The lettuce is doing good. I think the growth rates are slower than in my dirt gardens, but they look fine (very bitter though) other than some that vanished the day after planting in the lower right GB.

- Bok Choy was doing great, but firstly got hit by Cabbage White butterflies, which Kel missed until they had completely defoliaged the seedligs . They have recoved to this stage in the last 2 weeks but when I saw them yesterday there is a new bug (see image below).

- The pond is supporting 5 very healthy goldfish. Kel feed flake food every 2nd day and has not dosed Seasol since about week 4.

- Pump is still cycling at 15 min ON - 45 min OFF. With the cooler damper weather I might put adjust it to even less time on.

Here are the pics:







What are the bugs and any advice for treatment?

Cheers,

Hey Kel, healthy looking veges. The bugs look like aphids, so see if you can find some ladybirds to predate upon them.

Looking good. If the wood starts to crack you could put a couple of bits of wire around them and tie it to the fence. Just if one gb falls onto the ground it may empty your fish tank. Hope the paint is not the bitter you are tasting.

Faye, its Aaron not Kel and they sure seem healthy. Just a bit slow growing. I'll need a more....?.... 'proactive' method than Ladybirds for the Aphids. Looking for something I can hit them with now.

Duff, the wood is just fine thanks. It's not splitting, its not going to split, it isn’t going anywhere, not going to fall. After all it is protected by the paint you were concerned about last message!!

Cheers,

Aaron.

I was told , when the lettuce is that bitter taste, it's because it hasn't had enough nute's to grow at a good pace

Oops sorry Aaron
You can also squirt them off with a jet of water/ seasol combination or worm juice spray which also helps to act as a deterrant. Often most of the ones sprayed off don't come back and hopefully gives time for the ladybirds to arrive.
I've also recently heard of people using molasses, not sure if it may be watered down, it is sticky but also natural.

Jess, interesting thought there and would maybe explain the slow (although healthy looking) growth. There certainly appears to be no particular deficiency in the system but low nutrients in general may be the issue.

Although… it’s a very small system, has 5 goldfish and is fed moderately heavy on a daily basis. Hmmmm… maybe Kel is being more conservative with the feeding than I (she feeds 6/7 days).

Faye, no worries. Having searched this forum high and low I was already leaning towards the concentrated Seasol and sprayer solution. Plus if nutrients are a little low (re the bitter lettuce), that may help to get things growing a bit faster.

Cheers.

+1 for the bitter lettuce being a sign of insufficient nutrients...

+1 re bitter lettuce. Do you have a testing kit? Nitrates at zero may not prove that you are limiting plant growth, but it is likely. If you have about half a square meter of plants they would probably like you to be feeding your fish at least 15g of food per day according to UVI notes: http://ag.arizona.edu/azaqua/ista/ista6 ... n/p676.pdf. I'm sure it varies with temperatures, plant varieties, etc, but their numbers indicate 60g to 100g of fish food supports solid growth of a dense square meter of plants.