Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I wonder how long those bottle caps will last, they say those plastic bottles definately have a limited life, hope they don't start leeching into your plants :/

Everything has dangers or possible dangers. I'll keep testing and trying new things and sharing the results.

And the results of my week away with constantly flooded beds, not too bad. Only one plant suffered from the experience. A pepper plant that was right under the water inlet to one bed, seems to have drown. I did have a papaya leaning over but that was probably due to a terrible storm we had while we were gone as was a broken branch on one of the big okra plants. The papaya still seems happy, was just leaning over, now it is leaning in another direction since it was blocking the path when I got home.

Anyway, got the part to fix the low pressure valve and it is back up and running and the indexing valve is back in operation sequencing the beds.

This experiment may have gone even better had I not also been suffereing from an air pump in bad need of a diaphragm replacement. I was running on less than half the capacity of my air pump while I was gone. Note to self, keep a spare airpump rebuild kit on hand from now on. It was unfortunately a holiday weekend when I discovered that the air pump was not running up to spec and we were leaving before I would have a chance to get the parts and fix the pump. Well now I have a spare kit on hand and the pump is fixed and all is well. Everything but the one Pepper plant survived anyway!

How'd you feed your fish while you were away TCL?

I feed my fish with an autopetfeeder

http://www.aquaponiclynx.com/

I just want to report that I finally implemented Novaris mod to the car door actuators with the spring ball and I'm happy to share that it is working well.

Thats a neat gadget, how many days feed does it hold at your feed rate?

what novaris mod?

I've got a feeder with a large hopper on my Large system tank (700 gallons with about 87 catfish of various sizes) That needs to be re-filled about once a week. The medium hoppers on the smaller tanks can hold like a month worth of feed with the smaller pellets I have in there now.

And the Novaris Mod. Well last year some time I was having some difficulty with my car door actuator automated valve "bouncing" so I was using rubber bands to keep that bounce from happening but rubber bands have a limited life span and need to be replaced every couple months. Novaris came up with a way to install a spring ball plunger in the car door actuator to kinda latch it open and then latch it closed since the actuator itself won't hold only push or pull. The picture he posted is back in my thread some where like October last year I think, maybe.

Anyway, perhaps I'll take pictures when I modify the second actuator to have a spare on hand.

Ah

Hey TC, there's a lady about 30kms from me saving me some muscovi duck eggs. Thought you'd like to know considering you where the one who inspired me

Cool, Muscovy ducks are pretty fun.

+1 TCL in regards to the Muscovies and prolific breeders as well

Some times too prolific

Nothing wrong with that

Bananas like Aquaponics

OMG that is massive. Those catfish sure provide some nutrients eh