Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Nope. Good idea. You might need to watch for reduced flow from clogging or set a timer to turn the pump off briefly each day so it will backwash itself. I have one system with no timer and every week or two I unplug it for a few seconds. Easy.

Cheers hydro :] I turn off the pump daily pretty much to feed them so I think will be ok. Also, solids will go through GB's before the pump in the ST, which has a filter pad that gets cleaned about weekly, so more worries about the SLO or distribution pipes clogging.

All plants a fisg doing fine. Now sure the crayfish can't swim up to the surface to get floating pellets, saw one trying. Have now started feeding them the turtle food which sinks, that and earthworms should be enough.

Refilled water to make up for the leak. Would've made and displayed the new SLO idea but the day was wasted in bed sadly, hopefully tomm will be better.

All nine fish still in the tank and feeding happily the little ones look quite larger from when I got them, as do the crayfish! Plants seem happy, though need to go have a look at the tomato seedlings still in the dirt pot to get a comparison on how the ones in the AP are doing. Vines all happy, as seems the mint, the Ivy cutting on the raft has a number of roots on it now, but I think the fish just might be chomping on them, lets see what happens in the next couple of days.

Chili seedlings doing well, really nice looking dirt planters they have become, dense in green seedlings

Removed the aquarium filter in the FT, but after gave it a bit of a squeeze clean into some dirt pots put just the filter can into the ST, no point in letting perfectly good bacteria go to waste.

Absolutely MUST go get some PVC glue, a couple of ball valves and some 3/4" PVC pipe so that can fix the leak on the SLO outlet and rebuild the SLO.

Oh and seems someone had dislodged the plug that powers everything in the AP, din't check it last night due to inebriation, this afternoon when went up it was off, no idea how long it had been, fish looked fine though as did the plants, some little chili seedlings had curled up but hopefully will come up again.

It seems as if you really need 24hr security up there!

Good to hear that all seems to be running smoothly despie the powerloss.

Keeping yabbys is interesting. I'm half considering installing a YT under my GB's.

omg... all i can say is keep drinkin. It helps smooth out the big issues. On the power issues use mouse traps it may help catch those unwanted fingers

Hey heyyy, thats great advice shaker, is pretty much my strategem ;] will see what I can do about mousetraps as well.

All is well still, have been told must keep pruning the mint plant or it will bolt to seed and stop growing, will start doing this tomorrow. All else looks good, might be my imagination but I think the tomato seedlings are looking happy

Fed the fish a bit as well, worried about the crayfish, will give them a big meal of earthworms tomorrow.

Also, was over at an aunts today, and she has an old fiberglass bathtub lying around that used to be her compost thing, then was going to be her potato growing potter, now she said I can have it its really big! Base dimensions are 43 inches by 31 inches, its 16 inches deep and the top tapers out so is larger than the base, has a drain hole and an overflow too Will pick it up as soon as possible, makings of the second system coming together.

Going to get the crushed river rock tomorrow as well I think. Replacing these current GBs on this system should be interesting, will get a look at the roots of the plants and how much filth/solids/earthworms have accumulated in them. Should also afford me a lot more surface area to plant.

Oh both the vines in there are absolutely loving it, the vine cutting in the floating raft already has a bunch of roots, and the alamanda/yellow flowered one had one flower that had drooped the first day but its already back up and happy, finally things looking well

I hope removing the filter aquarium doesn't come back to bite me in the bum.

Stupid child :[

All was well and good, fed everything checked everything, all good. Nephews were over took them to see the system, a niece once removed was also there and they insisted she also be shown the system, a year or two old she is. She was watching the fish, I was watching her smile, after which I noticed the GB in which she had managed to completely up root the oldest chili plant :facepalm:

Its roots were going down all the way to the bottom, no doubt they way it managed to suyrvive even when the GB was stuck in continous flow. Most of the length is gone now, also mucked up about half a dozen chili seedlings that were coming up, all has been delicately and lovingly replaced, I hope they manage to live through this trying ordeal

All seemed well in the afternoon when I went up, is dawn now, am going to take a look once theres light outside but everything looked fine then, even the recently uprooted seedlings seemed fine, other than one or two I think. Fish were fine and ate, din't feed the crayfish, if all goes to plan they will get some live earthworms tomorrow, a feast of them if I can catch that many.

Germinating seedlings coming up really nicely, have a feeling they'll need to be transplanted in the next few days. Sponge gourd also going mad in the dirt pot so going to put in a couple of those too.

Oh and scored some sweet basil, oregano and parsely seeds from a friend, they are also busy germinating in pots, they will go in too. Lots of plants in there, hopefully all will get built up now so that it survives my abscence for two weeks at the end of this month when I go to Lahore, also in Pakistan, to shoot a student movie very excited about that, especially considering did my first bit on tv, and although it was a small bit and I got paid peanuts and I did a potty job, it was on prime time and I know I can do better so yippee ka yay am now trucking along to feeding my AP addiction

If something has gone horribly wrong however, it will be posted in this space in about an hour or so, otherwise there will be silence till the afternoon when, hopefully, an exciting video update will appear

Nothing horrible happened, knock wood, but have sent Spartacus packing. Seeing as he could not co habitat with fish or the sleepy and swimmy, the smaller turtles, he was sent to my sister's university, where there is a pond in which many turtle reside, hopefully he will be happy there. The hatchligs will go into his tank, and the new one will be rigged up for some fishies, and till I can figure out a better GB arrangement, I don't think putting it on top of an aquarium would be safe, will only grow some vines in that in floating rafts, that even very little as am afraid it might reduce the air/water boundary and therefore be detrimental to aeration. Lets hope for the best. Any advice for what fish to get for a small 2 foot aquarium in my room?

a small one, maybe with some ornamental value..
who's gunna look after everything while you are away??

regards
Matt

LOL, yes thank you Matty, great input that thinking guppys, black moors, siamese fighter fish or frontosas, though it may be too small for frontosas, lets see what happens.

Am going to put the fish in after I come back, Spartacus is already gone, and my little sister will be in charge of feeding the AP and sleepy and swimmy while I'm gone, hopefully all will be well, no calamities in the past few days so hopefully all will be well. Also, am going to tell her to put up almost daily updates on Youtube so can keep looking at it from far away ;]

Sadly my promised update will have to wait till this night is over as the camera is out of battery :[ all seems well though, Though am planning will pull out the chili plants and all the chili seedlings as they really don't seem to be going anywhere, will replant with the seedlings from the dirt pot.

Tomatos looking taller, basil going mad, fish looking bigger, crayfish looking bigger.

Here is the promised video update. All looks fine as you can see. Have pruned off the leaf miner hurt leaves off the tomatoes, will be pulling all the chilis in the system tomorrow and replanting with the seedlings shown there. That will be of course if i can get my hands on the crushed river rock and another plastic crate, will do it tomorrow, must. Haven't pruned the sponge gourd seedlings, they're growing like mad, got that big from little itty bitty leaves, you can see in the older video, to this size in just 7 days! Going to prune them upon transplanting I think.

Got to get the yellow sticky cards as well, anyone got a good DIY solution for that?

picked up the new plastic chest and the crushed river rock, also got the depoxy steel, aquarium safe silicone and pvc glue and extra pipes and fittings. Would be setting up the new GB right now but sadly is raining cats and dogs at the moment so am help back. By tomm it should all be up. Any specific advice anyone have to impart about switching media and plants from three small GBs into one large one?

hey Abdul . Have you got onto the backyard farming forum if you have stuff growing in your garden (dirt)

what backyard farming forum?