Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I decided to remove some of the strawberry plants (the ones i first planted) since they had way to many aphids and none of my organic sprays were stopping them and there were ants helping them so i thought leaving those particular towers empty for a couple of weeks might be a good idea... and I don't think I have enough nutrients from my 50 10-15cm Jade Perch.

Also my ammonia has made a sudden appearance at somewhere around 0.5-1 so feeding has been stopped and the new pump i bought added to increase the fish tank water turnover as it has been a bit low for a few weeks since adding the extra 6 towers )takes a bit of flow to lift the water to them)
Not sure where the ammonia spike came from I can't find any dead fish. They may have been overfed a bit since they have gone off the feed somewhat lately.. but that is my dads department as I am not out there on weekdays.. it has gotten cooler lately too so maybe that has affected their appetite?

Oh well no dead fish so far

Bah! Aphids...and slugs, my worst enemies in AP!

So do you find the green house helps any with reducing pest numbers? Or do you have enough gaps for them to get in easily...I was hoping a hoop house with minimal entry points would help guard against insects, but I will save my money if it doesn't work.

Hey, slugs can be very easily controlled by the Indian Runner Duck http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Runner_Duck and other ducks, but they have been proven successful in our garden at home. They taste quite nice as well, so added benefit and they don't eat to much of the plant we grow.

Gardening is all about circles, and I consider ap part of gardening.

What did you use against the lice (I can't spell that a word, sorry)? At my university (Kiel, Germany) they used lady bugs in greenhouse to control them. You can actually buy them online here in Germany, I bet you will find a supplier too.
There are some kind of spiders usable against them as well. And in Australia there should be a chemical spray available with a virus that will kill the lice. It is said it is even effective in broad acre application.

Hope I can help or give you knew ideas!

I have plenty of lady bugs and parasitic wasps in my garden, but when the aphids attack, nothing can stop them destroying a plant, since they work faster than the preditors, especially if ant get in the help out.

thats pretty cool!!!

Well they certainly help against the grasshoppers which can be a big problem in our outside garden areas and it also seems to keep away other larger insects..caterpillars for example and birds which can be a problem with strawberries... we have a big type of bird which likes to spend a lot of time walking around rather than flying and it loves berries etc. Also my greenhouse has plenty of gaps ( I could seal them but I like the extra ventilation high up in the corrugated roof since overheating is more of a problem where I am than the cold.

The problem I am having is that small pests like aphids take hold and there arn't the natural predators like ladybugs around because the greenhouse keeps them out. I like having a greenhouse and think it is way better than the outdoor option but it is also an expensive option... I built mine myself and it partly has a greenroof with succulents over the fish tank area and the cost of my greenhouse exceeded the cost of the AP system by a great deal... but it is also a matter of aesthetics to me and my AP system would be an eyesore in the garden if not for the greenhouse... ofcourse thats a matter of personal taste.

Yes ducks would be cool... we have chickens but they like to destroy everything so we keep them in the coup I built most of the time.

I used tomato leaves soaked in hot water over night and then sprayed it onto the plants on top and under leaves thoroughly and repeated this for a few days.... this did seem to slow them a bit but I think I tried to fight the problem a bit late as they had been on the plants for weeks before I sprayed (Im not out near the AP system during the weekdays and not every weekend) also the ants were helping the aphids which meant spraying them off the plant wasn't enough either because the ants would put them back.... also I have read that the ants can carry the aphids down to the roots which would be easier still in my system as the strawberry plants were in expanded clay so removing them seemed easier and may prevents them spreading to the new plants ( We also have an abundance of strawberry runners in the normal garden to replace them with. Now I am spraying the strawberry plants before they are attacked.

I also tried a spray made from tomato leaves, chillies and garlic all soaked overnight in hot water but after aging for a day it smelt so bad (like sh*t...literally) that I didn't want to use it and was concerned it would possibly burn the plants or hurt the fish in the long run.

I also believe that part of the reason I had problems is that my system is still quite new and my fish probably are not producing enough nutrients for the heavily planted grow beds, NFT and strawberry towers... this results in weaker plants, especially the fruiting type like strawberries and tomatoes... I have had no problem with lettuce which I believe doesnt use or need as much nutrients... I have now ordered a cheap nutrient meter from ebay for $17 so it will be interesting to see variations as the fish continue to grow.

As far as ladybugs are concerned... I often walk around the garden and catch them to put them in the greenhouse (one downside of a greenhouse is it keeps out both beneficial predators and the not so beneficial ) ofcourse there are ladybugs which eat the plants to so I have to be somewhat selective about the ones I catch because I have seen both. They do sell those ladybugs in a box here too and I have considered it but I would like to try and do it with local home made solutions if I can. If I could only make a suitable fish food replacement I would be closing the gap for outside input further... hence the reason for the black fly larvae box I built (slthough that will only supplement the fish diet and be a treat for the chickens too..

Thanks Iceman

excuse my probably obvious question but are the lower, larger ibc tanks under the gb's your water catch or contain fish as well?

Hi Katie,

The chopped IBCs under the GBs are for water (sumps) like you said, however they also function as stands for my GBs which saved a lot of effort building something to support the weight of the GBs and add a lot of reserve water capacity and act to dampen sudden changes in water quality and temperature.

I can isolate the GBs and sump directly underneath each one so that I can for example salt the fish if there is health problems by moving them from the main FT to one of the sumps... I havn't had to do that yet though. The reason I would isolate the fish in one sump to salt is that I have a lot of strawberry towers and they do not tolerate salt very well (or so I have read).

I have considered putting the new fingerlings next time in one of the sumps but wish to avoid it since I use the water from the sumps to pump to the NFT and towers and they need water without particles to avoid clogging them up. So instead I will probably be getting a 200L blue barrel (with an opening cut in the side) and placing it sideways on top of my current FT and using it as a fingerling tank and allow the water from it to overflow into my main FT.

Hey Tom,

I have had luck keeping the slugs off my plants by using a small plate of beer (any brand will do) I learnt about the idea from the "IBC of Aquaponics" mag that backyard aquaponics released.
But basically just a plate of beer in each GB and the slugs tend to head straight for the beer rather than the plants and once they get in to it they just tend to drown in it. then its just a matter of cleaning out the dead slugs every now and then.

As for aphid I have had some success using a spray bottle with some molasses and worm tea in it to foliar feed my stricken plants.

Worm tea which is just made up of 500 grams of worm castings which i get from my local organic gardening lady and two table spoons of molasses into a 20ltr container (preferably opaque as sun causes clear containers to grow algae like crazy) then give your container a stir and add an aerator to it for 24hrs, after the 24hrs just pour the mix through a strainer of some description and then spray on to the leaves of your aphid infested plants and you should start to see them decrease in numbers untill they are pretty much all dead.

the wonders of the worm tea mix is its totally organic and does NO harm to your fish or plants, its also high in nutrient so you could in theory use it as a home made substitute for Seasol etc to start new aquaponics systems.

If worm tea doesnt strike your fancy then you could just try mix some molasses into your spray bottle and just spray with that as aphid tend to attack sugar deficient plants before healthy ones for some reason.

The worm tea you make can also be used to feed your earthen gardens too as its a magic organic fertilizer.
and if you get plenty of worm castings (I buy in 20KG Bags) you can use it as a seedling mix to grow your seedlings in.

Hi Rob,

Yes the worm tea is a great thing, we actually have a few worm farms and use the castings and liquids for the normal dirt garden. I also forgot to mention that I have tried worm tea to spray onto the plants both non infested and infested with aphids as I had read that it helps (however I have not tried it with molasses and will give that a go as well! ) I also tend to add Chelated Iron to the worm tea as the strawberry plants are supposed to be able to take it up better than other plants as a foliar spray especially in the early growth stage.

I will certainly try your spray idea though... and I think I will spray regularly as a preventative measure and not just when the aphids appear since i have those ants helping them too

As far as slugs go, I havn't seen any yet but I do look forward to drowning a few in beer when the opportunity arises... not a bad way to go if your a slug i suppose!

Well my Ammonia readings are back to zero and the Jades are feeding fine (although a bit less now that it's cooler).

Although the aphids are now attacking the next series of strawberry towers... they are a pain in the a**... I am going to look into buying some ladybugs!

Hey Tom, have you tried lacewings? You can get them from bugs4bugs

Hi Charlie,

I havn't considered the lacewings before but I might give that a try... thanks