Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

We have been having a bit of bad weather here. Somewhere between 5 and 9 inches of rain depending on who you talk to. My new pond is about 2 foot deeper and over flowing now. I have some pics too. Should be about 10 foot deep and has about 130 Channel Cats in there. Afraid it is a bit cool for a swim already.

Before I took my trip to Houston I changed my piping from my pump again. I bought a 3 way valve and controller. About $150 for the parts and power supply and a relay. The operator is a Goldline product that needs a 24 volt power supply and needs a relay to control the voltage to the operator. I used the old timer to operate the relay. This switches the position of the valve. It is very easy to set up and plumb in. I now run my pump 24/7 and flood the beds 15 minutes out of the hour. The other 45 min there is a great whorl pool effect. The fish love it as they swim up stream and all over the place. There is no restriction at all so now I can flood all my beds at once not just half of them. I am thinking of putting more holes in my filter though.

Don... I wonder if its the algae in the return drain gutters messing with your pH. Your fish tank is also uncovered I see. Could be lots of algae in there causing high pH in the later parts of the day. Have you tested the water in the early morning and late afternoon to see if there is a pH swing?

When I got home I found the water was not flowing good. I saw the filter covered in leaves but could not get them off so I pulled the pump out of the tank. I found the lid sucked in and broken and the filter smashed by the suction of the pump. When I got the filter open I found leaves and fish in the pump again.

I built a new filter and put more holes in the filter so they would not plug up so easy. They are still around the bottom so it will suck up the stuff in the bottom. Works a treat as you say down there. I really need to finish the Hoop House. That would stop the leaves in the tank.

I did not know that Algae could cause the Ph to climb like that. Yes my Ft is open and does have Algae in it as does the return gutters. I clean the gutters periodically but it does not stop the Algae. In the summer I did notice that the green bloom died like it was supposed to but the string Algae never did die. Now I have lost too much water to have the good stuff to inoculate the water for Green Bloom. I am seeing the green mossy stuff in the bottom of the tank and brushed it up some but it returns fast.

Today I cut in and framed the door in the East end of the Hoop House. I am prepping for putting on the top. I really wish I had finished it sooner. Most of my plants are dead and I am not being able to get new ones started very well. Starting new seeds again. Hope to get some in the garden this time.

Also I forgot to shoot the new filter bucket before I put it over the pump. I put two rows of 1/2" holes around the bottom this time. I really do not like taking out dead fish out of my pump. Besides they really impede the water flow.

Here is a shot of the whorl pool effect but it does not show too well how much it is moving. As you can see I am still having a problem with too much rain as the tank is still over flowing.

Don... Replace the gutters with 110mm pipe and drill holes for each bed then you will solve the problem of algae there. I remember you had a cover for the FT before. What happened to that? Running the water down the algae lined gutters is going to raise your pH. Try to eliminate all your algae covered areas and see what happens to your pH.

You do what you can do, Don. It will produce even more next year now that you have an established system, have made a few mistakes and learned alot from those mistakes. Keep going, even through the winter, and you'll come out on the other side running strong.

Well in the last week or so I have done some work on the hoop house and it looks better now. My daughter and wife helped put the cover on the top. I was concerned about not getting it tight enough when we were trying to get it even. Now we wait but I think it could have been tighter. I put in the inflation kit also. After the inflation motor was run a while at full blast it really puffed out the plastic, so I reduced the input a lot, and it is still pumped up. It really makes a difference when the outside temp was freezing it was still nice inside. I don't have my double doors on the east end put up yet . The inside temp is still higher than the outside temp.

The freezing weather had killed almost all of my plants. I took pics of the ones that are left except for the garlic this is all there is now. 2 Brockley, 2 White Kayle, 2 Red Kayle, 4 small cabbages. I have barely been feeding once a week for a couple of months and worrying about the water quality so I finally did a test today.
Water 50 degF
Ammo > 0.25
Rites 0
Rates 10

Here is the picture of my last Great Grand Daughter Aubree just a few hours after she was born. She is number 12 of the Great Grand Kids.

Here is the other weed in my garden.
Edit: Oh it is the cabbage. Ought to taste good in a month or so.
I will be planting more stuff in a few days. Im going on a trip to Myrtle Beach Gorgia for the next 4 or 5 days. Will be starting seeds when I return and will be setting up the half barrel circuit for the dwarf fruit trees also.

Really nice covering Don, and the inflation will make the whole thing really strong. My water is also around 48, means we need to be patient this time of year. +1 on the doing things whenever we can, it's really important to get a jump on Spring so the system performs as well as it can in the good months.

...and cute baby girl, she looks just like her grandpa!

Naa dont wish that on the poor child. I hope she is prettier than that.

Congrats on the granddaughter Donone... and the hoophouse looks great...