Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well, that is a good question. I believe the temp dropped below 60 at the end of October or November.

My catfish were a late and experimental spawning the fellow at the hatchery was trying, so you would probably get yours much earlier than October (when I got mine). I kept mine indoors all winter to get some growth going.

I can't find chelated iron I use on the web at all except in the mfg catalog: http://www.growmore.com/images/GrowMoreCat06.pdf

I've had channel Catfish survive 32 F water. They of course don't eat and grow so much when water is cold but so long as they are big enough to survive without food for a time they are a great choice for an unheated system. I've gotten advanced fingerlings that were plenty ready to eat in a single season.

The idea water temp for them may be between say 74 F and 86 F but they survive a much wider range than many other choices.

As for covers on the ponds. Once you get past this initial bad bloom, you can probably get away with netting or shade cloth supporting some old fabric over the ponds. A little bit of light leaking in at the edges will probably not be a big problem once you kill off this first bloom. I keep my fish tanks between 60-90% blocked from light. The newer the system, the more problems the algae will cause. Large water changes or major changes in temperature can sometimes trigger blooms in an otherwise mature system but once the algae starts decaying in the grow beds, it will often inhibit future algae growth (much the same way that barley straw works.)

Does anyone know the difference between Iron Sulfate and Chelated Iron?

I seem to be finding a lot of products containing chelated iron and sulfur, chelated iron and chelated zinc, and chelated iron and manganese. Really hard to find a local source with just chelated iron.

I would suspect that the chelated zinc would be harmful to the fish, right?

Wow, what an amazing fish. A warm water fish that can survive freezing water. So while they may not grow as fast as trout, they're growth is still fast? How would you compare they're growth to Tilapia and Trout?

I love the way the catfish feed in the pond. Up and down, little ambush predators. Not like the goldfish, who just swarm.

Hydrophilia suggested they may be a better fish just on taste alone. It is true that they taste great. I love breaded catfish.

Decided to get serious about air. I found a thread by TCLynx that had a suggested amount of supplemental air. I figure I need 30L at 3 PSI for each pond. So I bought two air pumps that do 45L at 3.6 PSI giving me 50% more air than the suggested amount. I also bought an expensive air stone designed for DWC. If you look at the pictures, the bubbles from the DWC are much smaller. The bubbles don't rise in the water like the bubbles from the standard air stones. Instead they float around in the water like a mist of bubbles. The bubbles linger in the water for so long that at first I was afraid the bubbles would hurt the fish.

Look to the left of the bubble stream in the picture above. You can just barely make out tiny little bubbles that look like fizz and stick to the tubes and side of the aquarium. It really looks like bubble "mist" in the water. The packaging said normal airstone bubbles are 6mm and these are only .25mm.

Tinier bubbles sounds like more of a good thing to me. I want stones like that.


All my life I had thought of catfish as a junk fish. Don't know why. A year or so ago our favorite Mexican seafood grill ran out of Tilapia so we had catfish instead, the same way. Split down the long seam, grilled with head and tail on, pasted with extra spicy sauce.
Haven't ordered tilapia since. The catfish were so much easier to eat around the bones, bigger "bites" of meat, and way yummy.
As livestock, I can't say but trout:catfish seems to be kind of like dog:cat in that the cats don't exactly "run up to you wagging their tails." They are not an in-your-face feeder but you do see the food disappear! - from what I CAN see I think I have some one-pounders in there today, August 23rd after starting on June 1-ish with 4 to 6 inchers. That's fast enough for me right now. I can feed faster once I get to the 2:1 filter:FT ratio I really want.

My 2c, worth the price charged!

Rick

Been a while since I updated my thread... So I'm going to add some random pics I've been taking but have been to lazy to upload.



The pond plants growing in my fountain...



Pic of the sump pond running low with the water from the second pond pouring end... Just thought it might give some perspective. Also note how clear the water is. I've noticed the water in pond #2 isn't as clear as the water in the sump pond or the first pond. The bottom of it tends to be full of more fish crap. So I'm thinking of changing it at some point so that the pond #1 goes straight to the sump and pond #2 straight to sump. Then I will have the GBs split and drain separately into the two ponds...



My little AP buddy. Just had his first birthday on oct 1st. He's already had a swim with the fishes... I was watching him of course. I just didn't realize how much he wanted to grab the little fishies. Kinda scary really, for that brief moment watching him float below the surface of the water. More motivation for me to keep him away from it and get a cover that he can't fall through.

Fish pic. Added some lights, you can see them at the bottom (not on).



Coming up to feed... Will feed out of my hand if I hold some pellets underwater...



Eating time. Mostly goldfish in this picture but I did capture three of the catfish (look to lower right and center of ring, black looking fish). They don't always come out to eat, sometimes they just feed off the bottom.

Caught some pics of the catfish going in and out of their hiding hole.

Plant pics beginning of september



Broccoli and Eggplant



Lettuce, Okra and onion... and a mystery plant with large leaves and pink flowers...



Celery, bok choi, chives, and onions

plant pics continued



Peppers, cabbage, eggplant (hard to see, near tomato), and tomato (hanging over right side of GB).



Mystery plant a couple weeks later... I was going to ask if anyone could help me identify the plant. Then my buddy showed up at my house... So of course I showed him how my AP system was doing... As soon as he saw the mystery plant he said "hey, my tobacco plant is growing!" I guess he slipped in a few tobacco seeds... Pretty plant and flowers...

Plant pics mid september -- they grow fast



Broccoli and eggplant



Lettuce, okra, onion and tobacco. I let the lettuce go to seed.



Celery, bok choi, chives, onion

plants continued



Pepper, cabbage, eggplant, and tomato. Part of the challenge to doing AP is learning how to grow your own veggies. I've done landscaping for a long time but I am completely unfamiliar with vegetables. I'm often confused about when is the best time to harvest something. My first lettuce harvest was too late. The plants had started to go to seed and it was already mid summer. As a result my lettuce was really bitter. I still haven't harvested the cabbage that headed up. I may end up waiting too long, but it's hard to tell when it's done.



Large mother wolf spider I rescued from the pond. About the size of a quarter dollar. Spiders are good garden. There is a spider which is given no quarter should she be found. The black widow... Unfortunately they can be found hiding under any log or rock in my yard.



The bumps on the back of the wolf spider are tiny babies. Interesting that the young are carried by the mother.

System looks nice. I didn't realize that cabbage family would do so well this early; I guess I'd better plant some.

Black widows, eh? I've been in California for over 25 years and people often tell me they have a bunch of them, but have never been able to show me one. Very disappointing. If they are that common out there I'd worry about them and your junior AP partner, but I guess the kid's habit of swimming with the fish is enough worry.

Looking good!