Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

moved a couple of stalks of corn to the gb that had one, and spread out the others a bit..
this beautiful sunny morning i'm debating with myself about making a 3 hour drive to get some yp or waiting an indefinite amount of time for the local guy to get his - OR,

get the available yp now, and do an in place expansion of the system, and get the other yp when they are ready.. so, i spent the last few days trying to figure out a "cheap" and in place expansion of the system - if i could find a tank around 200gallons, i could fill it about half full and let it gas out for a couple days, then pump the water from the ft to fill it, as the levels get lower i can transfer the fish to the new ft, then convert the existing ft into a gb
my existing pump could handle the flow (started with a little over double capacity)
but i'd still need to come up with some plumbing bits, gravel, blocks for a stand, and not sure how the stock tank would attach to they system using the flood method from barrelponcs.. i'd have to make a 50 gallon flood tank..
maybe a different pump, and the exiting pump would be used on the planned indoor system.. or a second smaller pump on a timer just for the stock tank.. hmmm

Go for the three hours - I love watching the yp, they are fun to see.

As for the expansions, you'll find those mornings for more/bigger repeated on this forum time and again. Even those with (what I would call) HUGE systems are always thinking of expanding. Maybe try the 300 gallon tanks that were discussed from the tractor supply? They sure tempted me!

i guess i'm not making the drive today, but i did talk to the guy i got the bg and cray's from, i guess i'll be patient for now..
regarding the stock tank, that's exactly what i was thinking, we're renting this house so i can't really sink an ibc (i found some for $55).. the 300 gal stock tank is a little over $200, which would be kinda tight, and it would take me a little while to get it all together..
i could use my duckweed pond as a gb, and the existing ft as a gb, that gets me up to about 250 gallons of gb

guess i'll build that worm box today
the bait shop a couple blocks from my house is selling cry's for 3.5 a dozen, but i already have 2 dozen.. if i coulda only been patient on those! ha

headin to detroit tomorrow to set up a server, if all goes well, i'm stopping at a fish farm on my way home and getting some yellow perch! hurray!

the system is looking good, i think the plants need more fish poo... i'll try to get some pic's tomorrow, if not, this weekend

That is one thing I didn't get until after the first year. I should have been feeding 1-2tsp/T of fish food instead of just a sprinkling of gold fish flakes based on the number of fish/growbed size I had. I have found that by slowly increasing the amount of food and monitoring the levels, you can find the upper limit for your system.

so, i finally got perch.. picked them up last wednesday and drove about 3 hours home, put the bags in the tank till the water temp was pretty equal and took the fish outta the bags (the water they are raising them in was a blue/green color, i figured was an anti algae thing.. so i didn't put that water in my system)
wednesday night one of the perch was "gasping" at the top, had what looked kinda like a bite mark on its back, i put it in a salt bath for about 15 minutes, and back in the tank, thursday am i saw him swimming slowly, when i got home from work he was floatin, and he'd definitely been munched on.. planted him in the middle of the tomaters
last night at about 10 i went out to throw some food in, a bluegill was caught in the bird netting, he looked really dry but when i carefully extracted the little feller, he flipped around a bit, i threw him in the tank, and he took off pretty quick..
brocholi is doing great.. tomaters in the gb stalled.. got a few beans, and a couple of cukes starting, and the corn's doing ok
temps in the 90's all week and high humidity, feels like walking in a warm washcloth, but the plants don't seem to mind
aphids were looking to be a problem, but pepper/garlic spray seems to have gotten them under control.. now if i can find a way to catch all the @$%^@$%^ cabbage butterflies (besides running around the yard with a fish net in each hand, making the neighbors laugh) - the fish love them btw..
after the first night with a light just above the water, there musta been 25 to 30 "japanese beetles", i skimmed them out of the tank, the next morning there were quite a few but i was running late so left them, when i got home the only thing left was wings..gotta take some pic's... maybe tonight

Good to hear things are going along. We're in the heat as well. We had our first fish death yesterday. I noticed him swimming a little weird and he was basically toast. He was one of the smaller ones, and he basically didn't have a stomach. We figure he must have been starved by the other fish. Oh well. Yours will eat the Japanese beetles? I don't think mine will touch them.

Sounds like a damn good way to be feeding your fish there Keith...

I hope you meant you buried the dead fish in the dirt garden rather than in the growbed..

yeah, the dead one got planted with the dirt garden tomaters

hi keith, were using some tank water to water our dirt tomatos & peppers and boy do they look good.picked some cherrys tonight peppers were picked sunday. big tomatos real soon. later Big Al

I'm so happy about how clear the water is! smells nice too..fish started really hittin the food 2 nights ago

i mentioned the wife's camera early in this thread, a little 1.5" square digital thing she found online for 8 bucks w/ free shipping, we took over 150 pictures before the button stuck.. i used a can of air and managed to take a few more pic's last night. only working a half day today (yay for "summer hours"!) gonna bring some scrap copper to the metal shop - the wife wants a gazebo and i found a way to fund it, at least partially - gotta keep her happy
but, anyways, i'll post some pic's this afternoon, supposed to get some much needed rain throughout the day, that should keep me from tinkering with the system

some pic's from this week
the one that didn't make it;

4th of jul;

another from the 4th

more to follow

also on the 4th, the main sunflower patch between the gb's and the dirt garden;

here's the dirt garden, a sunflower to the back right and a pineapple in the orange pot;

basil cutting that seems to be doing ok in the front, there's a rosemary cutting in the back, kinda hard to see;

a few more
brocholi, beans, cukes, the shallot on the bottom was real green, when it the leaves starting dying they started dividing like crazy!

corn in the back of the gb with the brocholi beans , cukes, (and a couple dwarf sunflowers);

had a hard time with the light trying to take a pic of the tank, here's one of many attempts;

very nice looking