Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ha! I can see that or taking it into a chef to have a tomato
Off or something like that.

Well, it took 2 days but the film is pretty much on. I need to undo one side and pull it tighter next weekend when I have a few extra pairs of hands. I started yesterday morning but 1/4 of the way through the wind picked up and all hell broke loose. My 100lb sister inlaw was getting flung around like a rag doll

a couple pics:

Looks good Ryan. Got a chuckle from the image of the sister in law. I've been pretty close to that a couple of times myself. Just a light breeze is all it takes with that much plastic.

Thanks scotty, it was awesome

Just finished the ground cover

Are you between Jax and Port Canaveral? My family and I will be traveling through Saturday morning. Plenty of hands can make a quick stop, pull and get out of your hair fast.

.... yep... doesn't take much wind for it turn into a big kite eh?

You did well to get it on if there was 4 of you... exceptionally well if it was just the two of you...

Jimbo- I'm actually about 1.5-2 hrs from port canavral. Pretty much northwest of Orlando. I appreciate the offer but don't worry about it. Im way out of the way and I should have it covered this weekend.

Rupe- yeah, there were 4 of us but I think 2 were small enough to only count as 1 real person
And thanks. You are completely right. It was a kite by 9:30 and extremely difficult to work with. On the bright side...it's heavy duty so no rips other than where I cut holes to attach ropes.


So... I'm starting to get some results from my Crenshaw melon experiments at work. I've got control melons that when ripe show a Brix reading of 16.5% which is awesome in and of itself...cantaloupes have 8-9% and store bought as low as 4% so try and picture that when I am speaking about sweetness levels(I know most have never seen a Crenshaw melon). The experimental melons are showing 20-21% brix which seems to be unheard of, especially in an Aquaponic raft system where melons are supposedly less sweet. They literally drip syrup out of them, they're that sweet! I dont usually like melons but these are like candy and i could eat them all day. I'm going to write a short paper with my trials, documentation, and results when I'm done. Just add it to the list I guess

Here is a pic of one of these awesome AP melons:

Well have fun sailing that kite again! Maybe I'll get to visit next spring when I head down for some baseball. By then you might have more of those record setting melons than you know what to do with.(Boy that could be taken out of context )

Definitely Jimbo, I'll be in full production by then and probably in the middle of some type of build.

It wasn't fun but it's done. I'm heading to Indiana next week for a RAS course so not much more head way but I did start buying the lumber for my fish barn (32' x 40') which I will start building next. I've got most of my bulkheads and expensive plumbing fittings bought, built aeration manifolds for my fish tanks, got my blower(still need a backup)...slowly knocking equipment off of the list.

After the barn I'm going to buy the tanks, build the troughs, set up the vining crop portion (already have 250' 1/4" SS airline cable), and get this puppy started up. I've got a little over 2000 gal of FT set up right now holding a bunch of koi, about 400 juvi tilapia and some of my older tilapia. I threw together a filtration system and just feed light to sustain. I'm going to set up a large tank of biomedia and get it cycled while I finish the build.

Here are a couple more pics:

My tilapia fingerlings

Koi

Hybrid striped bass at work:

Big ol whopper Tilapia at the rooftop greenhouse:

Sweet setup Ryan. Looks so neat and orderly.

Awesome melon Ryan!
I guess I have been stuck in the conforming mind-set about rafts being for leafy, light plants...definitely not melons!!
Is there anything that "shouldnt" be grown on a raft in your opinion?
Brian

Thx Scotty, it's an amazing greenhouse...walls moving up and down, roof shading, then unshading, rainwater collection tanks buried under the 3 story building...just crazy

Shoe- that's exactly the mindset I'm trying to break! The only thing I would rule out are large tubers and large trees etc that a raft won't support. If you can get it on a trellis to support the weight, your fine. Other then that, it just comes down to mass balancing of the nutrients in the system. Here is an orange centered watermelon that's coming along nicely (with a dragon fruit branch creeping into the shot):

incredible!! i wish i had the space to get a system a quarter of your systems

Like your work Ryan...

Damn thems big fish there.......