Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yes - he is doing fine. No idea of the cuase, but swelling went away afetr a week. It was scary though. We are not sure if it is related or not, but a few days later my wife found something on his back (did not look much like a mole or a bite - it hard to describe) anyway, the doctor had it removed and about the same time the lymph node swelling went away.

Anyway - boy is doing great now. Thanks everyone for the thoughts and prayers.

Mark

How did you resolve the water problem?

I run into the problems of chloromines and chlorine in my beer-making escapades (makes band-aid tasting beer)... typically, I use a whole house carbon filter the water to remove most of it, but I also use Campden tablets (potassium metabisulfate) for chloromine removal... it will remove chlorine from both sodium hypochlorite (bleach) and chloramine treated waters. The dechlorination reaction requires 1.47 mg of sodium metabisulfite to reduce 1 mg of free chlorine. In practice, this ratio is increased two–three fold. In easy to use terms, a 1/2-ounce Campden tablet can be used to dechlorinate 20 gallons of water. The reaction converts chlorine into chloride and the sulfite is converted to sulfate. When this reaction occurs with chloramines, there are also ammonium ions released into the water. Keep in mind, we are talking about very low concentrations of all of these reaction products due to the low concentrations of chlorine and metabisulfite involved in the reaction. It is a food safe chemical, but I dont have the knowledge yet on how this would affect other things in the system.

The leak I had that was causing me to have to topup more then most seems to have plugged itself for now. So I am adding maybe three pints of water a day and I do that by hand now and not with the hose. I also figured out I do not want my sump water higher then the lowest syphon outlet or the syphon never breaks... The long term plan though is still rain water collection...it is pricey though....about a buck and some change per gallon....it will work out to over a grand for day an 800 gallon cistern....yikes!

Why is rain water collection so $$ for your situation? Do you have to put on a new roof to do it?

It looks like you said a grand for a day and 800 gallon cistern. How would it cost $1000 per day? or is that like a one day rental of equipment to bury a below grade cistern tank?

Start simple, leave buckets around and when it rains you have some water on hand to pour in the system or into a bigger barrel for top up later.

Sorry my bad - exactly a day of labor and the cost of an 800 gallon cistern. The actual cisterns seem to be exactly 1 dollar per gallon. I was adding the labor for digging it in. I could do the labor myself, but digging a five foot hole just seems like it would be worth the extra 200 bucks. Our soil here is usally rock hard and takes a pick to get anywhere. It would take me weeks to do that and even then I would probably give up and hire someone to finish it. When I did the bunny hutch posts, it took me almost a coouple weeks to just lay six posts 18 inches down in my spare time. That - and it is just so darn hot out...outdoor activities wipe me out in no time when it goes in the mid to upper 90's. The morning window of slightly cooler temps is taken up by work...free time is always from 3-6pm or so during the hotest part of the day.

My cucumber (not really producing - but sucking up the nitrates) has developed a wooly aphid infestation. I've seen a couple ladybugs hanging around, but not enough to control them. Most of the cucmber plant is hanging over the growbed, so I know I can treat that with a soap mist - but what about the parts on the growbed?? I'm thinking just clip off the vines? Anyone?

I'd say clip them off, and of course destroy the aphids on them so they don't infest the rest, especially if it's not producing. Then again, my cucumbers finally just started producing fruit last week; before that the baby cukes were shrivelling up and falling off. Don't have any idea what the difference was; maybe the plant just had to mature, or something.

I have not updated in a while. I have an egg plant that has totally taken over one of the beds, but only has one fruit growing - so far about the size of a softball. The cucumber has finally started producing. I have picked one and have a couple more ready with lots of little ones. The cucumber vines have left the growbed and are growing accross the driveway - those suckers grow fast! Some of the wild flower seeds I put in ages ago have come up, but no flowers yet. I also have a couple myster plants comming up. One of them looks like an oak tree, but I cannot be sure. Something is growing where I put the passion fruit seeds in, but it does not look like passion fruit...it looks like another tree?

The weather is so hot here and the plants are growing so fast (along with failed attempts at fixing a leak) I am loosing a lot of water every day. Without any rain, I have been reduced to bringing in bottled water - about 10 gallons a day....and 30-50 on the weekends. I really need to find a better water source! In a pinch the other day I had to add a bunch of tap water before going to work....I really thought I was going to come home to a bunch of dead fish. The tilapia seem OK, but I have not seen the catfish in quite a while. They are not interested in eating and stay at the bottom. I guess it could be the heat, but I fear the chloramine levels are a little high for them.

I have backed off to one feeding a day and picked up another air pump to add extra O2.

When I get aphids on my hoyas I just wipe them off with my finger and crush then. Try to do it at least once a day if not twice a day. After a week they seem to give up.

How about a picture of the aforementioned aphids deja?

The aphids consumed most of the cucumber leaves near the gravel, but the vines that have left the GB and are traveling across the driveway seem to be OK. I'm not sure if the lady bugs got them or they just died off? I did mist all the vines that were not in the growbed with sevin, so I guess that stopped them from moving there. Anyway - to late to get a picture as they are gone now and I never thought to take one. Sorry.

I will try to get other pictures up soon.

OK - somehow I need to snap a photo of this. I fed this fish some leftover lasagna and watched as the catfish really seemed to enjoy it. I noticed one of the medium sized catfish has no tail...really no tail. The water is too deep to tell if it has been eaten off, but I really doubt it. He is by no means the smallest fish in the tank. A quick google search shows this to be a known genetic anomaly - but I did not see any images.

That does sound hilarious!