Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'd hate to see your bill for pipe and fittings TC....

Nice looking duck bath though...

Well, at least on the duck system, most of the parts were already on hand and probably only bought 1 piece of pipe and 1, 3" rubber coupler specifically for this system. Then I needed to go get a more efficient pump since the utility pump was using lots of electricity for what it was worth.

Hi TC

is this part of the 300 gal system, or separate? What are the two standing cylinders? Or what were they before the system?

I dont know if I ever saw your numbers on the run in on the 300 gallon system, it has expanded quite a bit hasnt it?

The duck system is separate from the 300 gallon system.

The two big standing cylinders are water tanks. I had been using them as rain water tanks when I had the roof over my outdoor kitchen area but since code enforcement made me take it down, they were not doing much so I've hooked them up with the duck system. They are simply acting kinda like flush tanks since the pump is actually down in an on the ground grow bed, if I want the grow bed to drain a bit, I need to have the water go some where other than straight into the pond when it then flows back into the grow bed. So as the pump runs the tanks fill allowing the grow bed to drain down and the one tank slowly trickles directly through a waterfall tub and into the pond while the other tank has a siphon that will drain it into a "worm bed" which then drains through the pond.

The water is a nice reddish tea color now from the wood chips and leaves in the worm bed but it isn't like I need to see fish hiding on the bottom so it's ok with me for now.

So far only 3 of the ducks seem to be regularly using the system. The other three ducks are too busy with babies or sitting on eggs to have ventured up to check out the system yet.

All the birds have been happily eating of the plants in the grow bed though.

I think EB might enjoy this.

I'm gonna call it PLART (Plumbing Art) or more accurately what happens when you want to slap something together with what plumbing bits you have around, without doing any cutting. And lets face it, since I've done some major modifications to my big system, I've pulled out a far bit of odd plumbing from around that and then there is always the bits of plumbing I get from people who would otherwise be throwing it away, and then there is those water tanks that were literally pulled out of a dumpster.

anyway here are some pictures of the Duck system PLART. Nothing is glued since I haven't settled on a layout for this system yet.



Here is a picture of the pond before the ducks discovered they like eating pond plants.

And some more duck pictures to go with the duck system

Now I would have expected this system to have shown some levels on the tests but I guess the nature of how this tank is set up must reduce the amount of duck poop that gets into the tank.

Much of the media was well cycled up since it came out of the old quarantine system that had a heavy load until shortly before we moved the gravel to the duck system. We topped off the bed with some new gravel and then wood chips in the far end since I figure the brown water won't bother the ducks.

I was kinda surprised when I did some tests after the ducks discovered the system. Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0 (or maybe as high as 5 with the brown water it is hard to tell but definitely 5 or below.) Now I know many pond plants use up nutrients pretty quickly but then the ducks are using up the pond plants pretty quickly too.

I gave it a little hummonia dose yesterday to make sure the bananas and other plants have something to grow with. Water is clearing but still rather orange. Especially since we have installed one of the old leaky lumber/liner grow beds as a vermiponic bed with wood chips and leaves. I'll be letting everyone know how that goes.

Well, I've not been good at taking snapshots of the duck system but I have now added some videos to my youtube.


Let me try this and see if I remember how

I'll try to get a copy up onto my site soon for those who hate to wait on youtube to buffer.


Oh, and there is currently DUCK TV http://www.aquaponiclynx.com/duck-tv available on my blog

Ok I've done a little updating to my site with the live web cams so this will be a better page to go to since I'll be adding more cams to it soon I hope. Currently the Duck TV is the only live one and at the moment it is dark so I've also added a video clip that was recoded today from it.
http://www.aquaponiclynx.com/aquaponic-lynx-live-garden-cameras

and I have the Funny Ducks video on my site now as well for those who hate waiting for youtube to load (is it only slow for me or is it for everyone?)
http://www.aquaponiclynx.com/funny-ducks


Hay who knows how to properly use the FLASH tag on here?

TC, your resourcefulness and ingenuity never ceases to amaze me.

Ate the ducks worth the trouble? Would your recommend them over chickens, why or why not?

Thanks

Brilliant as always TC...... Have donated, and I hope you get enough to set up a fish cam....

Bloody funny ducks, and good music choice, ducks have so much more character than chooks...

The Muscovy ducks are for meat mostly, the chickens are better at providing eggs so they both suite their purposes. The ducks are lots of fun to watch, especially when they are young. We should have lots of baby ducks soon too. Two of the moma ducks have been sitting on nests for a while (since I added the electric chicken netting fence they haven't been attacked.)

Thank you Joel for the donation. Hope to make the fish cams happen soon.

Ok I'm about to go give some treats to the ducks and chickens for anyone online now wanting to watch.
http://www.aquaponiclynx.com/aquaponic-lynx-live-garden-cameras/duck-tv
Give me a few minutes to make an announcement a few other places and then I'll go give them a bunch of treats in front of the camera.

How far from the computer to the fish tank for the cams?
Wireless router in the house, wireless cam at tank?

And no wonder you don't have any Ites/Ates in your system. One duck is biting them as they come out the spout, the other is skimming them off the surface. lol.

I think I'll go with some wired, underwater CCTV cameras for the fish tanks. I'm having trouble with the wireless weather station and the floating sensors so I don't want to mess with wireless cameras which would need power in the tank.

as to the ducks eating the nuts LOL