Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

trying to upload my first pics. Pics taken December 1. plants grown in perlite first and then transplanted to system. In the pics, they are already 4 weeks old. Good and green but certainly don't appear to be the robust plants I see in others' system pics! thoughts?

For recently transplanted seedlings... they don't look to bad...

Remember it can take seedlings a couple of weeks to get over transplant... and probably at least 3-4 months for a new AP system to really start to "mature"...

Much depends on temperature, no/size of fish, amount of daily feed, maturity of the nitrifying filtration etc...

Post some water test results as a baseline... so that we can compare things in another 2-4 weeks..

unfortunately, the system died because some teens broke in and put 1/2 cup of dish soap in the tank. Of course all fish were dead within a few hours. They were discovered on Monday, a holiday, (jan 20th I think) when the teacher was checking things in the green house. The plants continued to survive, but eventually were pulled because of white flies and aphids. I kept the bean plant in but it never produced fruit....just bloomed and bloomed. I pulled that just last week. I cleaned the bed tank, rinsed the clay pellets, picked out the bean roots and we are starting again. (Read the unanswered posts on AP in Loveland School) The tank had cycled on Nov. 17....I recorded that triumph in the notebook.

If I get into the Greenhouse today I will test again. Nitrates tested on Friday at .3 PH was 7.0, I can't remember the ammonia.....we only have 4 fish in about 100 gallons of water. 5 inch for one the others are 3" or below.

but come to think about it, the system was started brand new about mid Sept. but because I am a newbie at this, was vacuuming the tank like I do my aquarium. The forum response to some questions I had set me straight on that. I have not done anything to this system (when it was "alive") but replace the water. I hope to take some pics of the setup to put on here.

What horrid vandalism

Actually, the pics of those plants looked pretty good. The beans might have been trouble with the season, day length or something, they are usually a summer crop. Of course sometimes you need to add potassium to get good fruiting.

I hope things can get back on track with the system, one would think teens could find something better to do than kill fish with soap. What ever happened to spray painting graffiti or filling trees with toilet paper. Sigh.

Looks like it'll be a good system if you can keep the vermin out. I hope they don't do any more damage. (Crossed fingers).

What kind of greenhouse are you using? I'm thinking of trying to put up a greenhouse, if I can convince a coworker that they don't really need that extra land on the south side. I was wondering how you dealt with the cold in your area, since heating to survive the winter won't be practical for that project.

Hi BG.

The school owns the greenhouse and it is heated. It's considered part of the science curriculum. It's about 40 x 20. I really havn't measured it but it's significant. I have no idea what the $$$ is, but they write it off as part of education. It's not used in the summer at all. We're still trying to get the system up and going one last time this year with a couple of boys who have taken a huge interest in it. But we will have to close it down just when it will really be maturing. It's great fun. I sure love it.

Where are you located? I too want to have a greenhouse. I would like to try a geodesic design and run it with solar. I checked the library and they have some resource books with plans (published in the 70 's originally) Last year I bought a temporary greenhouse on Ebay for $100 and grew lettuce, bokchoy, mesculin, cilantro and wintered my potted plants in there till spring...yes I did heat it with heat lamp and little heater. I joke about it being the most expensive salads I ever ate. I loved it. This year I was too late with planting, so abandoned the idea. I have a cold frame right now, about 5' high that the seeds are just coming up now, but everything is a cool season plant and can take temps down to freezing. I tarp it at night.

I could talk someone's ear off about this.

Go right ahead Pamela... we're all ears....

Okay, you asked for it.

I do have one question.....I have an outside pond, but it has 2 frogs in it. Are frogs eliminated as contributors to an aquaponic system? If they are not good for the system I won't try to grow any plants there!

I am experimenting with a mini system that a junior high person could afford. It's four gallons, 2 fish and I just started it on Feb 18th. Here are some pics of it with 2 water tests before and after water change. something to note, before water change I had 4 fish in it. I took two to the school system this morning. I have no heat in the tank and it's still at 66 but has warmed to 70 due to the sun in the window. Nitrites are bad even after water change. I also added rock from my aquarium....although that's not a AP system, I figured the good bacteria would be living in there already.

pics of both systems I'll load in Members Systems.

I hadn't realized there was a limit for pics....silly me....

more pics of Pam's school project

just per post Pamela.
Do you want me to merge a couple of threads?

done

Frogs are a great tell tale in suburban park areas, to say how good the water quality is.
I can't imagine they would hurt the system at all, however they would be the first to suffer during HSM.

Thanks Super Moderator.....
I'll get the hang of the pic thing pretty soon.

...and frogs......that's good news, Kudapucat. I'm not all that great with the acronyms yet....what's HMS? HellavaMessedupSystem? Hydrogen something or other? Health Monitor S.....? Help Me out here....