Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Were those red wigglers really dead or just cold? I know they keep them refridgerated so it may take them a while to recover and start moving.
+1 on the "picked" sunshade

What if you hooked the BSF container up so that the larve just dropped straight into the fish tank? I was thinking about a way to do them without my wife shutting down my whole project , and that seems like a way to go. That way the fish know that if something drops in the water from that area go get it.

Or do they produce way too many for the fish to eat? I suppose that would be a balancing act. Maybe you could teach the fish to pull a string that let out a few when they're hungry .

having them empty into a container of some sort seems to be best, that way you can freeze some, just tell the mrs it's fish food when you put those ziplock bags in there

When production is really rolling, you might get 50 or 100 a day, my fish eat about 25 at a sitting.

Also, when the level in mine was high, and it began overheating, they were climbing over each other to get out, and there was some really nasty, poo like stuff that was slopping out with them. For sure not what you want in your pond. Its best to regulate them. When things are going well, they are clean, dry, and mostly just maggo's coming into the collection jar. I transfer them to a 5 gallon bucket that is full of dried, chopped up leaves. they seem comfy there.

Are they pupating in the 5gal bucket? That's what I wonder... if I want to keep a population in an enclosed space (like a GH), where do they pupate? I have the rest of the info already. =)

Yes, that's brings up a funny subject (funny to me...)

So, I have them in this five gallon bucket. No lid. It hasn't rained here in forever, but it was forecast to rain a lot, so I placed a flat cover over the container.

After the rain, I lifted the lid and noticed that a lot of them were trying to scale the walls, which they can do when its wet. There was also a single adult clingin to the wall. I thought .... "how'd he get in there.?" Then it struck me, he had pupated into an adult.

Later I though about it and figured that he must have been super pissed off at me. he was likely thinking... "I have spend 21 days in that compost heap and I only have 4 days to mate..... and you just wasted one of them ...."

Over time, I have dug thru the leaves and scooped up bunches of them. Recently, an increasing proportion of them have been empty husks that they have emerged from. That part really doesn't bother me, I guess. I had hundreds... It seems fair.

Oh, and one cool thing today. A neighbor was tossing a perfectly good garden hose, so I scored it for my rain barrel outlet. My rain barrel is full of rain, wooohooo. I also had a kiddy pool on my patio that I had tried to grow duckweed in. It had about 2" of standing water in it. Lots of mosquito wigglers growing now too. I started thinking about my rain barrel, as its not sealed off.

I stuck a net into my sump and on the first try caught a big mosquito fish (minnow) and transferred him to the rainwater tank. Hopefully he'll keep it policed.

My cucumbers have a couple tiny cukes starting. Lots of new tomatos and tons of growth on them. I stuck some green onion heads in there and they've grown quite a bit too. pH is still high, I am dosing with Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) to see if it'll knock it down at all.

Everything seemed very happy after that big hard rain we had. I swear, it seems like my pepper grew a couple inches overnight. No fruit yet.

BTW, last Friday I went fishing with a friend at his farm in Ellinger Texas. There is a place on hwy. 71, just north of Columbus TX that is called the Industrial Country Market. It is awesome.

They have at least three solar arrays, at least one of which tracks the sun. They have big battery banks and back up diesel generators that run off of Waste veg oil. They have green houses and a fish pond. They are hydroponically growing tomatoes and the like, but had not heard of aquaponics. I sent the guy a link. We may see him on here sometime in the future. His pond set up is quite large, but very shallow. There are a lot of koi and some big perch. They also have composting toilets and wind turbines. Its a very interesting place... I highly recommend a visit for anyone in central TX.

http://www.icm71.com

I finally built a new and improved black soldier fly container. Its water cooled. Most of my issues with it seemed to be either ants or heat, and this should fix both of them. I'll post a new thread for it.

Here is a current pic of my system.. The red flowers in the forground are some zinias. You can see the yellow flowers of my cucumber.

Lots of cool plants going on MM!

I thought they WERE an aquaponics outfit the first times I drove by. I stopped in and the owner recognized me as an electronic parts customer... I had bought reed switches from him for my FLOUT tank...

I am trying to create some moving "Aquaponic Art Pieces" for them to put wherever they 'll fit (or dare we hope, sell?).

Very very cool place. Recycled Art Garden. A gallery. An outdoor classroom alongside a huge wide fish pond under a constructed wetlands.

Again, it's http://www.icm71.com/.

Rick

Been dealing with some irksome ant depradations. I went to stir the bucket today and found that I again have literally thousands of these dudes on the way.

I had some new neighbors over and gave them the tour, then my wife asked if I had mentioned the bsf.... ?.... "Uh no, honey, I hadn't got to that yet...." The guests then had to ask, and the seedy underside of the aquaponics then became the topic for the next 20 minutes.. Surprisingly, they were not totally revolted.

Great postings and nice system. I'm also in Houston and I hope that we may be able to trade some brainstorming ideas and so forth. I've grown very successfully, hydroponically and raised freshwater fish for years and am now moving into AP. I'd like to begin my backyard system but I don't know if the time of year would be bad for here in Houston or if I should wait until spring. I'd like to grow fish that will over-winter with minimum or no heating. Will my BSFL colony survive the winter here? What happened with your duckweed venture, any success? Any thoughts or ideas for me? I'm going to be building the Murray Hallam version of the IBC tote container system. I have all of their AP videos on DVD, in case anyone in Houston is interested in checking them out. They are a wealth of awesome info.

Last weekend, I went out to the Last Organic Outpost http://www.lastorganicoutpost.com
on the east side off of I-10 and Waco. I am going to be volutneering on the weekends to help them build a huge aquaponic system with their fish tank being an old, in-ground, loading dock. They plan on growing blue crab...should be interesting to see how the adapt the saltwater creatures to freshwater and to see everything develop. I hope to learn a lot to apply to my own system. Here's a blog with some specifics http://intotheborderlands.blogspot.com/2011/07/building-life-aquatic-rainwater.html. I look forward to talking with everyone.

Paul

Hi,

I dunno if there is a bad time to start the AquaPonics setup, but I bet other than winter, it would be fine. Actually, a bunch of plants may do fine in the winter, I just don't know.

Catfish and Bluegil should overwinter just fine. They slow down their eating, but then your palnt growth is slowed down as well. Tilapia will require special care here in the winter. They don't like it below 55°F or so. Kind of nervewracking constantly watching the weather. I have some Tilapia, but they will all be cooked before Thanksgiving, I'd think.

My duckweed was a failure, but we had no rain for a long time, as you probably are aware. I had a kiddy pool set up with duckweed in it, but I placed it on my red brick paver patio, and it gets too hot to stand on in the summer. I think that the heat conducted thru the bricks from the surrounding sunbathed areas really heated the water and evaporated it. I'll need to place it where it gets more sun, but less heat. The side of my house would likely be fine. It may be a project for the fall. I had too much evaporation, and no Tilapia at the time. The stuff grows in a local pond, so I may try again in a few weeks.

Whereabouts do you live ?

Richard

I'm at Beltway8 and I-10W - spring Branch area.

I've seen the messages about the potential Houston meetup and I think that would be a great idea.

I hope to be talk ing to you more.

Paul