Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The new system is my third system

Chillidude That is a pretty big perch in your avatar picture. Where did you snag that one?
I wish I was a better gardener myself. I am just getting interested in it as the food prices keep going up and the taste keeps going down. Oh for a good time machine.

I have a few updates to add. For the last few days I have been having a pond dug on my place right out behind the garden and the chicken coop or Chook house. Ha. It is kinda hard to get a prospective of the size. I will try to explain in the pics but it is 10 feet deep at the deepest part. I walked around it sorta and counted 100 paces so I think it is about 100ft circle more or less. I spoke to the county extension agent and he advised me to apply lime to the area where the water will be and it would help clear the water when it gets full. I bought a ton of lime and shoveled it out today. Water is seeping in from several places in the bottom so I might have a pond that will stay full on its own. The brown and blue rock is shale and is considered here to be very good for a pond bottom. Hope it is true. The cat man had a friend who needed some shale so we sold him a few loads of shale. One of the pics show him hauling off some of the shale. 14 loads so far. It makes good road base and fill for building projects.

Something is screwy with the computer. it will hardly move through the pic adding process.
Any way there is a D6 Cat digging the hole. Big machine big mess I mean hole. He pushed the topsoil off to the far end behind the cat in the picture and started digging. The soil is kinda wet now because of the recent rains. Only got the cat stuck once and had to wench it out. That was scary. I did not want to have cat stuck in my yard for a week or two while the mud dried out enough to get it out.

Lost track of which was which. here they are.

I know I'm confused at the moment. I tested the Ph and found it to be just under 6.0. I plan to put in Channel Cats and minnows in the pond. I was told It might take a long while like 6 months to a year to get the thing to cycle enough to put in the fish. Disappointing. I'm in a hurry already and it is not even full yet. This morning it was already up to around 26 inches deep from the seepage. I will wait to see if it will completely fill itself. That would be great. My river is almost dried up so I would not be able to get water from there to fill it with for long.
I spoke to another guy who has two ponds on his place and he just rolled in a round bale of hay in each of his ponds to fertilize them.
Also I got a good book on Pond Maintenance from the County Extension Agent. Tells about how to do it and what kind of fish go together and which do not. It also tells what to do when it goes wrong. When it gets full I will have to measure it for actual size and check the info on what and when to do stuff.

I'd love to see a pic of the shale, Don. (I have a background in geology )

HI Swanburg
What kind of shale do you want to see? The rotten shale or the good shale? I might be able to find some good shale but there is a lot of rotten shale.

I had to back up to see where your are located. Minn Ok. Not much shale there as I remember. I was up there for a radio class a few years ago but it was winter then. I also like to look at the Rocks. I sometimes wish to know about rockology to. I know it is suppose to tell the past if you are able to read it. I did a contract in arizonia a while back and it was in an open pit copper mine so the rocks are uncovered there. And lots more of the rocks all over the country side, Arizonia has lots of kinds of rocks to look at. I brough two five gallon buckets of rocks back with me. Kinda neet to have a bunch of strange rocks to look at from time to time. I think I even have a piece of gold among the rocks. Wish it was a big chunk.

Good shale, if it's not too hard. Don't go crazy, though.

I could send you full size pictures if you have an email that will take large pics. 6.1 magapixls.

I could send you full size pictures if you have an email that will take large pics. 6.1 magapixls.

SB
Well this is not the good shale but I was out looking for the piece I tried to save from being hauled off. It is not there or it is covered up. I will keep a watch out for another though.


These pics are of rotten shale. First one #69 is the wall of the hole almost at the water line. The second #70 is of some of the shale on the haul pile.

It rained about an inch last night and it is muddy muddy muddy on the fresh dirt. I need to sprinkle the grass seed quick but I do not have it yet.

AAhhh for SB
I found a piece of good shale that was in the bottom of the pond. 3 more pics.