Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well, it's been a big two days, and I'm very tired! Got the other two grow beds made yesterday and ran them through a separate sump to clear some of the sand (couldn't rinse the stuff as the hose is frozen outside). Then it took some time to heat the grow beds up to temp. Everything is hooked up and the area cleaned up too! Checked ammonia and nitrite and they are still both zero. Fish still very hungry and happy. It is good to have more gravel running. All four siphons were going at the same time tonight at one point, and the water gets pretty high, almost overtopping the drain pipe but I think as long as the screen doesn't get blocked it will be fine. For some reason about five more fish were in the sump today, maybe from messing with the new sump yesterday. I dug some rocks out of the snow and those are holding the screen down now instead of just the shot glass. The grow light will be plenty strong enough, with the reflective foam surrounding the beds and keeping the light in. Still need to mount the foam somehow and make a nice lid for the new sump. I planted some mesclun seeds as they should take off pretty fast and start helping with the high nitrates.

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Yep they certainly should.... LOL

Looking great DD

Geez those tilapia look like they are going full steam ahead

You got your fish great, all looks good.

hey John Welcome back

Looking great, Dave. I'm so happy to get a look at the 'babies'. I miss them, but the remaining tilapia are doing great, too.

Lookin good Dave - no probs with your loop siphons?

Hi VB:
Nope, no problems, except the thrid one has a small leak near the fitting; I'm going to see if the biofilm closes it up in the next week. It drips into the tub so no worries. Autosiphons have been trouble free so far, but then again I only have gravel. We'll see what happens when I have roots in the beds...

haha another tilapia grower, your fish look good and the water is very clear allso, just how i like it.

What is it your growing?

Not much new, tests are still all zeroes. I am feeding them twice what I was and they still act hungry afterwards. The flakes and cichlid food are both gone so they are only getting the Zeigler Bronze pellets now I guess, unless I get some duckweed and BSF larvae production going too in the Spring. The lettuce seeds are going along pretty good and more will get planted tomorrow to have a staggered salad production going.

I signed up with a local CSA (community-supported agriculture) outfit today. The farmer says they might join up three farms into a county-wide co-op next year. He also said they would distribute any fish I might produce if I wanted to do that. (One of the things you can sign up for is the "Carnivore's Co-op") Maybe next year I should plan to produce more than we can eat?

http://www.broadvalleyorchard.com/

Sounds promising Dave, do I see a green house going up this spring?

Hi GF,
Yes, I need to move the plants upstairs into the sun and still keep the water warm. I don't have much of a budget for it though, the current thinking is probably the galvanized pipe with plastic, because it gets too windy here for PVC.

Doing the thru the basement wall idea then?

Yep, as it will be too cold for the fish to reside outside.