Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Welcome Tom... nice to have a decent amount of fish tank to start with...

However... depending on how many fish you aim to stock... I think the idea of merely running some pipes for filtration... may be both limiting and flawed...

Well, if the pond is "stable" now with the filtration that is running, then so long as stocking is appropriate to the current level of filtration then the only worry is how high the nitrates go. Adding plants in pipes will help though there may still be issues with the temp and aeration of the water in the pipes.

Did you contact me by e-mail a while back Tom, or was that some one else? I'm over in Orange county NW of Orlando near Mount Dora if you ever get up this way. If you need some tilapia fingerlings, I'm willing to part with some of mine but you might have to get here before we go out of town since the ones still in the system when we leave will be on their own and I have noticed that when a batch of mixed size fry are left alone with no supplemental high protein feeding, the smaller ones tend to die of "consumption" The adults can survive a week quite well on the duckweed alone provided there is enough duckweed to start the week off with.

How bout some test results? Or maybe that would be best moved to a system thread in Member systems.

Welcome

.. saw the bit about the pond being stable... completely missed the ...



Sorry... skim reading again... ignore the above post...

As TCL says...as long as you don't exceed your filtration by stocking too high... then using the pipes should be fine...

Then again, and again as tCL says... you will have to stock high enough to actually generate some nitrates...

There will be about 120' of 4" pipe used as growbeds to start, after that gets established, I plan to add an additional 50 sq. ft. of traditional growbed at the base of the 'A' frame. KE has some nice vertical beds that I would like to try in the future. The veggies are the primary desired product of garden. I will add/remove fish to keeps the levels balanced untill I get all the beds inplace. I currently have 150-200 goldfish in the pond (along with countless mosquito fish) establishing the bacterial base.

TCLynx, I was not the one who contacted you in the past, but I certainly will in the future. I would love to see your system in operation.

PM me if/when you are interested in making arrangements to visit.

If you have a battery powered air pump/bubbler and an ice chest or other appropriate container for transporting fish. I could share some little blue tilapia with you anytime the tilapia think it is warm enough for breeding.

I will tell you that my opnion about NFT pipes is that they are of limited use for backyard aquaponics in our climate. Why do I say this? Well 4 inch pipes are really only big enough for certain types of plants and during a huge part of the year, a large portion of the best plants for that type of culture won't grow outdoors here. I am speaking of lettuces, they don't like it hot and are not likely to do very well outdoors in our climate from about May through October. So what am I growing in NFT pipes in the summer?
Basil, so far is the only plant I've found that we like that does well in the NFT here in summer (I am currently testing out others but no good results yet.)
Just so you know, we don't eat nearly enough basil to really make growing even 10' of NFT basil really worth while. My worm bins are full of basil now from my last cutting of it.

Also, 4" pipes are not nearly as huge as you might think. They still easily get blocked by roots and so need regular checking and root pruning of any plants you want to keep in there for long.

I am looking forward to cool weather when I can grow lettuce in the pipes and harvest them small and keep a nice progression going.

I am hoping for parsley, spinach and summer squash. Is there a chance these will grow?

Here is my Swimming Pond


My starter fish


Water Lillys


Prediator (Little Blue Heron)

ohhh. that looks awesome. Your system is already looking very beautiful, congrats.

Parsley tends to have a big tap root and would probably grow much better in a gravel bed though I've never tried growing it in cups in the NFT I have grown it in the gravel beds just fine. It seems to do a bit better during the cooler weather though I still have some growing in a dirt bed in the shade right now.

Spinach I have not had much luck growing in AP or hydroponics but I'm sure it can be done if you can get the seeds to germinate. It does like the cooler weather though as well.

Summer squash can grow in AP. I've grown some in Gravel beds, ya just gotta make sure it gets enough Iron and Potassium. I don't know if summer squash would be appropriate to NFT pipes since it tends to be a large sprawling plant and I don't know how massive the roots would be in the pipes but you can always try and see how it works.

Flat leaf "Italian" Parsley... growing just fine so far...

Don't think they will develope the "tap root" in NFT... at least not until they've grown to a point where they should probably be removed due to general root blockage..

We got our 'A-Frame' built and 4 of the 11 pipes cut, drilled and mounted. Nothing is glued yet, just fitted.

Pipes under only gravity pressure rarely get glued by me. I only glue them if they are positioned under the mulch or dirt or if they leak too much. If they fit and don't leak, and are not under any special pressure or danger of being knocked loose, I tend to leave things not under pressure unglued so that I can re-arrange things more easily in the future.

I have found though that the bell end large pipe usually needs something to keep them from leaking. I sometimes use some of the thread paste instead of actually gluing but that is not always effective and if it doesn't work, it's kinda a mess to clean off and then glue.

Looking good

We have been fighting the city where we live for a few months now about the definition of a pond. The local paper did an article on the issue and we thought it was resolved. I just received notification from the City of Tampa that my 'pool' is a health hazard due to the possibility of insect and rodent infestation. I have spoken to them and told them that it was not a pool but a pond, stocked with Gambusia affinis (native mosqitio fish) as well as other fish. I also informed them that it is part of our 'organic garden' (they didn't understand aquaponics). I informed them that our property is on a natural pond, which would be more of a rodent issue than our steep walled pond. The City has set a hearing on the issue mid August.

Does anyone know of an expert close to Tampa, who can attest to the fact that the pond is not a health hazard?

Thank you,
Tom

I know that unkempt swimming pools pose a hazard. But I've never heard of a city saying an ornamental pond is not allowed. (FYI, mosquito dunks work against mosquitoes and I've had them in my aquaponics system where/when there are no fish in a particular tank and even had them in tanks with fish and so far the tilapia don't seem to be hurt by them.)

So how did the city get involved with your pond? good Luck with it.

Tell them it's not a pond... but an in-ground fish tank...

Contact your local koi growers association... and raise the matter with them, and see what their response is... they've been around for many years and should have come across most legislation...