Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Back!

The fish did fine while we were gone, but the plants used up all the nitrogen in the water and the leaves went all yellow. I've transfused 15% of the inside fishtank water to the outside system and they look a lot better.

I finally figured out the giant mystery plant behind the corn. It's my son's sunflower! I thought it died, but no! The corn is nice and tall, with lots of tassles on top, but there aren't any ears forming. That is okay though, the cucumbers are climbing it and saving me from trellising.

I have a little tomato in the dwc bed, and the basil is growing well. I think the lettuce bolted. By that I mean it stopped growing little bushy leaves and shot up a stem like 6-8 inches tall and has little flowers on top. It was really bitter anyway, so no big loss.

Pictures forthcoming, we misplaced our camera. Oops.

-ellie

Aquaponics is fun..

There was a HSM about a week ago. The Loop siphon failed and flooded the GB to the overflow. Knowing that harvest was really close, I just left it that way. No harm to the plants. I forgot about the banana peel buried in the GB. Whenever the water touches it the fish die. They did. Damnit.

Anyway, I harvested 8 ears of corn, and we're having them for supper tonight. My son took his giant sunflower to school to show his class. The corn stalks are laying on the deck to dry. I also harvested roughly 5 pounds of Basil, and have enough pesto in the freezer to last at least a year. There are a lot of tomatoes, but they are all staying green instead of ripening.

The pumpkins and squash didn't fruit. The cucumbers fruited like mad. I thought the birds were getting them but it turns out the kids were the culprits. I'm going to disconnect the gravel bed and rip out anything out of the dwc bed that doesn't look productive. I've started some lettuce in the closet, and hope to set it out next week. It's starting to cool off here, but maybe I can get a few heads before fall makes it too cold for the fishies.

-ellie

Why would the banana kill the fish? Thats a new one.

I'm not sure, but when I put it in th gb, the fish died. When the gb flooded enough to submerge it, the (new) fish died.

I'm leaving it in there though, because it's making the tomatoes flower like mad.

Bad luck about the fish.

Banana peel may have had some pesticide on it. Shouldn't the banana be peeled before adding it to the grow bed?

AHA yep thats right

Sorry to hear about the fish deaths Elizabeth ...yeah, I remove the banana skin before putting it into the GBs - no fish deaths as yet

My new tank arrived today. Here is a pic of it going in to the garage. You can see the bottom in this picture. It is ~7 feet tall when stood up properly.


I have 150 Fingerlings in a 75G in the garage.


An unknown quantity of fry in the nursery tank.


It's going to be an interesting summer.

The nursery tank has a jellyfish in it?

Yes, they are the very rare vinyl jellyfish, one of the few that can be kept in freshwater aquaria. If you look closely you'll see a little suction cup that we tie them up to, so they don't run away.
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/242785/product.web

The kids saw them in the pet store and we just had to have them.

Now I need somebody to post a free hot-tub on Craigslist so I can scavenge the pump and heater.

I am thinking about cutting the top 2 feet of the tank off and adding a viewing window in the bottom half. I know some other people here had cut the top off of their water tanks.. opinions/suggestions? The top has an access hatch, but there is no way I could fit through it to clean the tank. (But my 7 year old could... I wonder if he wants to learn to scuba dive.. )

-ellie

It is coming into Winter here. Outside temps are below freezing at nights. The growbeds are disconnected and I have a trash-can based filter providing life support for the fish.

Here are some pictures. For scale, that window (the visible part) is approximately 8 inches by 20 inches.



Long time no see. Did I miss much?

Good to see you back... and still kicking along Ellie...