Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

did a test last night, and amonia is down to 0..

i think i'm ready for fish, talked to a guy that may be able to get some yellow perch for me, (and he's close) he has the hybrid bluegill ready and will have his own perch ready in mid june to early july (he feed trains), and he has soft shell and hard shell crayfish,, i'll probably get a dozen cray's from him. i mentioned what i was doing and that i had minnows in the tank for now, he said that people can't get them to eat in tanks, but they seem to be quite happy with the catfood i've been giving them, he also really wants to see the system, so i might get a break on delivery! he also has high protein food that he will sell me..

plants are starting to take off, heading to tractor supply after work tonight to get something for the beans, cukes and tomaters to climb

ordered some duckweed online from a school science supply place, found it under live plants category, but didn;'t read the fine print, and got some plastic duckweed the wife saw how ticked off i was and went ahead and ordered some "real" live duckweed, will have that next thursday - if i set up a small tank for that separate from my system, should it be aerated?

gotta travel for work for a couple days next week, up to detroit, so if this guy can't find any perch, i may look near toledo on my way home for the yellow perch, because i don't know if i can be patient enough to wait a couple more weeks

oh, and another neighbor came over to see what was going on, her son is doing aquaponics in florida, and has a tropical fish dealer thing going on.. she was kinda shocked that i want to use fish i am going to eat, she asked if koi would work and i explained that yes, some people use decorative fish, but i want to eat what i grow! she may have some leftover hydroton that she wants to give me!

If you do come up this way, stop by if you have time. PM me when you plan to be coming through.

The redears (bluegill) that I got are feeding great now. Since there is some size spread, I feed them some larger pellets and some smaller ones. My plants are starting to take off as well!

been a few days..
it was great to see another member's system, you've got a beautiful family K

the wife managed to keep everything goin when i was traveling for work, lost a couple minnows but everything was looking good when i got home

this weekend i finally got some of my fish, my stepson noticed a fishfarm on his way home from work and called me about it, (no web presence at all, i didn't even see it in the phone book!) so i got 15 (plus a couple extras) hybrid bluegill, 1 sucker, and 2 dozen (plus a couple extra) softshell crayfish (and one hardshell, i couldn't tell the diff, but the guy said it was) - he'll have feed trained yellow perch in the next 2 to 4 weeks to.. hopefully. He was teling me about a perch guy near pittsburgh that just lost almost a million yp (he only has a couple hundred thousand left). He grows bass, bluegill, perch, crayfish and minnows, nice setup with7 or 8 ponds) he mentioned salting the water, he uses the blocks but says that yp do not respond well to salt, so i'll have to do some research about the problems i may have with them, and how to deal with them.
he asked if i wanted any seaweed, i don't think it would be beneficial to the system, but i could see having some in a breeding tank - i should know about a 150 gal fish tank within the next week or two, everything included - pump, filters, light, heater, for about 100

oh, i also got some duckweed, i put some on a small "pond", a 40 gallon thing that a guy gave me. i was earating that, it has no flow from my system, does the duckweed need aeration? since i already had it in, i threw a couple cray's in that, and 3 in each of the top flood tanks, but if the duckweed doesn't need the air, i'll put both stones in the ft, and take the cray's out of that pond thing

we're getting some storms this weekend, but i'll try to get some updated pic's up.. plants are really starting to kick in, radishes coming up, corn, beans, cukes, can't identify some of the seedlings yet.

anyways, hope all is going well for everyone in ap land

Nice talking with you as well, Keith. I'm glad you got most of the fish you were hoping for. I know the redears will eat snails, so make sure your crayfish have plenty of hiding spots!

How did that guy loose all those yp? That must have been terrible! Power outage and the backup failed? Who knows! Also, it seems that pond experts know a lot about pond stocking, but very little about AP. Like Don who sold me mine saying that you couldn't pellet train redears. Mine are all pellet trained now.

Did you get much from the storm? We had lots of wind - a tornado warning, and some branches down. We also got ~2 inches of rain overnight!

Stop by anytime, it was nice talking about different ideas. It is one thing to talk about them on a forum, but in real life it is so much simpler!

K

got quite a bit of rain saturday night, and sprinkles all day sunday off and on, not to bad on the wind, everything held up fine

something didn't feel right about the duckweed pond thing, so i decided to take out the crays, and the air stone, i think i killed one of them (the cray's) when i was dragging the duckpond to a sunnier spot, mr fish farmer said that sudden sloshes can kill them. i'm hoping the duckweed grows now.

was cleaning up a dirt pile and it was full of worms, took a couple small handfuls to the ft, and they went nuts for them..not one made it to the bottom of the tank

it's gonna drive me crazy waitin for the perch, but not much i can do about it, in the meantime i hope the bluegill thin out the minnow population. I gotta call the guy and find out the food he recommended for both the cray's and bg/yp, and probably pick some up this week, he gave me about a 1/2 kilo of 2mm pellets that will last a while i think

Duckweed likes fairly still water and can take up quite a bit of ammonia directly, doesn't need much aeration but keep in mind that still water will breed mosquitoes so I would put a mosquito dunk (the kind that uses BT Bacillus Thurgensis that kills mosquito larva. Avoid anything that is chemical) in the duckweed tank. Down here duckweed needs some shade to grow well but a shallow tank in the sun here will get rather hot here, up where you are a little more sun may be fine for duckweed.

hi keith im in northeastern ohio also i was wondering about the perch. i was wanting to know if you could let me know where they were. i would like some for my system also. thanks Big Al

hi keith im in northeastern ohio also i was wondering about the perch. i was wanting to know if you could let me know where they were. i would like some for my system also. thanks Big Al

Highwater Fish Farm on rt 608, just south of 322

I don't have the number with me, but the owner (Butch) is a great guy, he is hoping to have his perch within the next 2 to 4 weeks.

did you hear of the big fish die off in pymatuning? http://www.wfmj.com/Global/story.asp?S=12566529

that's an update, it appears to be wide spread, and there may not be many yp this year

Just spoke with my uncle up in conneaut two days ago and he said the perch are biting on just about anything he throws in. Catching limits in just a matter of an hour...30 a day I think he said.

in conneaut lake or lake erie?

lake erie...him and a few friends go out daily in a little boat.

Wow, that sounds like the kind of fishing I like!

i've lost 2 bluegill so far.. one looked sluggish in the am last week, and was floatin when i got home from work, looked pretty beat up
the other was caught in the bird netting i covered the tank with (i also have a tarp over it during the day), one of the clips holding it to the tank cam off and it was a little folded up, not in the water, but close enough for one to jump in.. i tried to count them since they sit pretty still waiting for food.. and did count 14 a couple of times, but there might be 15..
the bg's don't care for the pellet food (the guy i bought them from gave me about a 1/2 kilo of 2mm fish feed).. but they love worms! pretty aggressive little buggers
some of the minnows are getting quite large, 4" to 5", almost as big as the biggest bg!
had a radish out of the gb, still small, longer shaped than one out of the daughter's dirt garden, but all 3 of us agreed that the ap radish tasted better.. i think i planted a week before her though, and she gets full day sun, the gb's get sun till about 5:30 ish
she was cleaning out her little garden and thinned out her brussel sprouts so i put a couple of them in one of the growbbeds, also transplanted two of her cuke plants (started after mine, but hers are bigger) to two of the gb's
our town had a big neighborhood garage sale, i found a 55 gallon ft for $50 (then saw 330gal ibc's on craigs for $50 but i digress) and a pump some air stones and tubing for 2 bucks so i have the start of my indoor winter system
i think ap stuff too much now.. but was thinking of a greenhouse temperature solution for the weather we have.... i'm thinking some kind or raisable growbed, sitting on top of compost trenches.. kind of a "racking" system like they use in warehouses, but i imagine it's feasible with hand jacks, or maybe a couple of come alongs.., some flexible pipe or easy disconnects for the plumbing (ohh,, with disconnects you could use a conveyor to roll the bed away from above the compost, basically push the gb back and access the compost, but needs more floor space).... grow lots of worms for the fish, and keep the compost pile going year round.. slow the drain of the growbed down to let the water absorb the heat in that would gather in the media..
damn, i need some property (well.. $ would help!)
to much ap on the brain, gotta go build a server.
i'll get some progress pics up this week

Sorry to hear of the fish losses. I've been lucky so far not to have any drop. You know what they say, though, you're not a real APer until you've killed a thousand fish!

I didn't feed my bluegill for almost a week, then they came around and started eating the pellets. I've heard that it helps to have a fish that is pellet trained in the tank. I had two perch, so they knew what the pellets were. Your gold fish should do the trick. Don't give up on the pellets! They are aggressive and certainly love worms.

Also, my fish are not nearly so shy anymore. They used to hide and be very skittish. Now they don't really care unless we make quick movements.

Don't worry, everybody who's been bitten by the AP bug thinks about it all the time.