Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

If you can figure out how to float the pads just at the surface of the water and support the plants enough that they don't sink as they grow, you can definitely grow stuff directly in filter pads.

Did it once before five years ago, but now I'm thinking to try very minimal and with something like lettuce:
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... 260#p27260

$20 worth of bluegill! When transferring bluegill, do not try to empty the bag water out into a bucket (trying to leave the fish in the bag), because you may dump all the fish and water onto the garage floor, and have to quickly try to pick them up and put them back in the bucket! Only one perished from this and I think it may have been picked up somewhat gently by our dog Riley.

Put them into a bucket of lightly salted pond water then unsalted water then the pond.

Parameters:
7.6+ 0 0 0

I also got some food from the hatchery, put a handful in before the bluegill went in and I got to see the two koi I put in a long time ago, which have been very scarce. The big one for lack of a better word went omnomnom and took out half a dozen pellets. I am thinking maybe they have been scarce because the old tilapia food I have been giving them is not that great anymore.

I'm happy the parameters are all good, seems the little I have been feeding them so far has been processed. Plan to ramp up the food and continue measuring parameters regularly now.

good to see you got the toes in there for scale

Wow, amazing job, this is right up my alley...and my dad's...if he ever comes to like my aquaponics idea.

Thanks for sharing all your hard work and the photos...I feel like this is a documentary in the making!

Just keep swimming,

jeff c

Hi dave, did you check the pH reading in your aquarium? Is your grow bed 100% charcoal?
Can i see some photos of it.
Thanks

Wow, thats $20 worth...?

Thats a bargain.......

Bodged up a shade for the fish pond, the water is very green in this 100 degree weather we're having. Plant growth is lackluster/stagnant. I have started feeding the bluegill double feedings, i.e. feed them wait until it's gone then feed them some more. Moved the raft to the sump, about 50 wasps were buzzing around whilst doing this, they use the raft for drinking water. Tempted to put some Plant-Tone in the net pots at the start of the troughs, until the nitrate levels go up.

Never did put Plant Tone into a net pot. The plants seem to have picked up a bit this week. The strawberries however are way pale, and I'm no longer sure this is because of nitrate deficiency, because the other plants don't look as bad and many look just fine.

The shade has done wonders for visibility, you can actually see the fish! You can see the koi on the bottom and the bluegill (which are pretty hard to see) when the koi goes under them.

I put the 70 gallon Rubbermaid next to the sump with gravel in it, but have resisted using it because my goal is to try running without any gravel. So it's not being used but it's ready.

I have a plan for the Winter, the rail troughs will be moved to run across the top of the pond, and I'll put a greenhouse over the rails and the pond. This will only have to come out from the garage about 5' so should be pretty affordable.

Have been thinking a lot about the solids digester, I'm not convinced the solids stay in there and from emptying it today it seems to not be settling much. This is probably because it has air stones in it for oxygen. I had then considered making it a swirl filter then draining into the sump which has the pads for a biofilter.

Instead I broke up about four bags of charcoal and put this into the top of the trash can with a slotted pipe for a drain at the top, and the pump pumping to the bottom. The charcoal floats at the top, and an area of water is at the bottom, where the water comes in. There are three air stones in the bottom. So air keeps it from going anaerobic, and the bubbles work their way up through the floating charcoal. The larger pieces float higher at the top because they are more buoyant. The little pieces are more neutrally buoyant and these will be moving around at the midlevel and below. I call this a charcoal slurry filter. It's a form of floating bed. We'll see how it goes.

The water after the trash can has solids filtered out by the charcoal, which is what I'll want for the winter setup, to then pump the clean water up to the troughs.

I'd post pictures but the camera is out of state ATM. That is all for now!

I've had AP insomnia day and night this week, during work meetings and family time, LOL. Hope to get some things moved forward today. Plants are growing great now, pictures forthcoming.

Hey DD, can you get the approval to have the greenhouse over the stands as they are? Would make it more practicle for year round access...

Hey BB! Yes I thought about maybe making an A-frame shape or something - there is plenty of support with the posts in the ground and the water weight in the channels. Maybe have cross pieces like Tees on the top of the posts and mount a roof and walls from it. I absolutely love the Stimson bow roof shed/greenhouse shape and this could be done on one of these as well because it can be enclosed by an A-frame shape like that. Not sure how to access the plants except maybe have enough of a walkway to get around the edges. http://www.farreachvoyages.com/bowroofshed.html http://www.by-the-sea.com/stimsonmarine/bowroof.html

My plan for now is to use the existing footprint of the pond, and to build from the bottom up, filling in the real estate at the water's surface first, then maybe considering rails above. The hitch that I'm avoiding is to make the structure big enough to walk around in. If I can get it done as a structure similar to the flood table thing where it just has a lid on a hinge then that may work through the Winter. Trying to keep as mush as possible in the water and low profile may help things survive when the rest of everything is frozen. My plan if I go with walking around in it is to put a boardwalk over the pond, with the UTU rails on either side, entering it from a door in the side. I read about making I-Beams from three 2x4s and that would be how it could support a person's weight I think and still be low profile.

Back in my 2008 thread are pictures of a box, and the rail structure could be made into a covered box similarly. viewtopic.php?p=115641#p115641

Scored several rolls of used greenhouse plastic from the free pile outside the local greenhouse on my way home from work the other day, so I can at least use that for covering and it was free!

Here are some pictures from today. Not done yet for this weekend, but I got too much sun today and started feeling sick.

This system is now decidedly gravel free for good! The gravel bed that was ready to be connected never was, and since the plants are finally going now and because the charcoal floating media trash can filter seems to be doing a good job I used the gravel as mulch around our trees. So long AP gravel!!

The plants have finally started growing well. I did put a bit of Plant Tone in the net pots at the beginning of the troughs, in a bit of polyester batting. I'm ordering Maxi Crop though so those will be removed then.

On the top row is a green pepper, the parsley plant from the Rendezvous system that was started last Fall which has gone completely nuts this week, the sage plant from the Rendezvous system which has been a trooper all these months, and a green bean plants which is doing well. It is supposed to be a bush plant but they are very long.

Little beans forming on the plant!