Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

my phosphates are at the extremes of my chart (10ppm) , but have been from the start. The water report only shows 0.75 ppm for total phosphates. The water is still fairly clear.

I bought a 50 lb sack of Lone Star Feed's Fingerling Catfish Food. My two dozen Channel Cats like it juuust fine. The goldfish like it too (a few of the smaller goldies had to just nibble it at first, but they all scarf it now).
I was looking for the Purina Aquamax but the Lone Star was easier to source here, and appears to be equivalent.
Lone Star Fish Foods

Rick

About the pre filter. What is its operating principal? Is it a vortex or just hoping that the solids settle downward?

By spinning it and making a vortex (assuming, cant see in), Im hoping the sollids make a cone of sorts at the bottom directly over the ball valve. In actuality, it seems that it doesnt collect all that much of the solids, but some solids do settle to some degree; I can open the valve and some dark water comes out for about 1/2 second, then it is "clean" looking.

Update:

So it got really hot here over the last month (~38-40°C everyday). I (or my lack or fixing the problem) killed off about 10 of my catfish over the course of about 5 days; at least Im at my stocking ratio now! I do believe it was the direct sun on the tank and little to no shade, and the water temp got too hot for them. I just blocked the sun with some Styrofoam insulation for the remainder of the summer; tacky, but it works and no more dead fish (that I can see)..

therein lies another problem.. during those 10 days, I got mega algae bloom and it is hard to see in.. I can see my three Koi, but dont see the cats till I toss in the floating pellets and they come up. I still need to get some new GB up; got the barrels cut, but havent made the siphons or build the stand yet.. too hot and no shade.

The veggies seem to be doing real well; lettuce is going good, as are the peas and the yellow summer squash and one fat radish; everything from seed. Ive been picking off caterpillars that have been hosing my leaves, and see woolly aphids, but nothing looks horrible. I need to get some Bt from the organic gardening store. The squash has a ridiculous amount of buds on it. I need to figure out the right time to harvest these things!

So it is sort of getting under 100°F around here.... and my lettuce is getting huge. I hadnt tried too much of it yet, but today I had a few pieces and WOW. Quite bitter. Bibb, Romaine and most all of the Mesclun mix lettuce; the Bibb was probably the least bitter. Is this a heat related issue, because I know Romaine doesnt taste like that from the grocery store....

that bitter taste is pretty strange, haven't read anything anywhere about AP veggies tasting off, i suggest you start a thread in the plants section to discuss this, will be sure to get some input ont it.

Make sure no direct sun is getting onto the water, in the GB due to high flooding or in the fish tank, transparent pipes also tend to clog up over time.

veggies look amazing by they way

Your system looks great! I especially like the decking on the FT. Is that a production design or DIY?

From what I read I think the solids are better off in the GB's rather than in the pre-filter.
Having said that though the plants don't seem to be lacking nutrients!

Good job!

The filter doesnt really collect all that much in solids, so most of it is going back in the fish bed. As for the decking, it was all DIY (landscaping timbers), and it was a royal pain to get them straight with each other as I bolted them on the the round sides.. lots of warp. I was able to design the system in CAD (Solidworks), so that helped a bunch. As for the nutrients, everything is doing well, and my fish are alive getting some summer crookneck squash growing now, the biggest at about 2.5cm/1in.

Lettuce getting any sweeter? Should be coming into the good lettuce flavor (cooler) season.
I started some Romaine (and a few other assorted) a few days ago. They're coming up under the shade of the monster okra...

Regards,
Rick

I pulled all the old lettuce... and started some about 2 weeks ago... "sweet" mesclun... I had one head of broccoli that was great, some kale that was great... the summer squash had really poor yield and the fruit was damaged by bugs...soybeans did great. I have one Roma tomato plant that is HUGE.... the snap peas I started in the summer grew, but it look like they are hurting as the only line to the water is about the half of the diameter of the stuff that has been growing while it is cooler.. just now starting to get some peas. the cauliflower is coming around as is the artichoke.

however, I am dealing with roots in my siphon system. they arent cycling consistently and i get flooding in a couple of the beds. An they are a pain to clear out. and my water turbidity is ridiculously dark.. inky even. too much direct sunlight and phosphates in the water. havent seen the fish in a while, but they eat the food, and no floaters...

Bitter lettuce is caused by too much heat, stress, and maturity (going to seed). Lettuce is a spring and fall crop that should be picked before it starts producing flowers.

The algae might be mitigated by completely covering your tanks for 2 weeks. I did it to my system and it worked like a charm. Someone told me the dying algae works to kill the algae (like barley does). Watch your ammonia though the dying algae can cause a spike.

Something that has worked well in my system to clear the water; Remove the bell siphons and leave the beds completely flooded for a couple weeks. If there is any bleed off ball valve from the pump turn it off and open the ball valves to the GBs. This has the effect of turning the GBs into settling tanks. It won't hurt the plants any, in fact they thrive in it and I like to do this on extremely hot days anyway.

That's a good looking system layout. How'd you fare over the winter?

Not bad. All the fish survived, even with 1 inch of ice on the tank. One of the siphon tubes froze over and caused to GB to overflow and froze everything growing in it. I need more gravel in those GBs; everything got root bound. I did build another set of four half barrels and a stand and will try to grow some things vertically (a la Nate) in nylon gutter downspouts with some reticulated foam. Ill get more pictures of the fall yield. I still have problems with the Affnan siphons acting up, but I think my pump is right at the edge of being able to provide the proper flowrate at that much head.