Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

more tanks

yeah, i have a few tanks..

finally,the big tank

water is starting to warm up.. all the way up to 68 yesterday..
tilapia will be breeding again within a couple of weeks would be my guess..
i was able to lower 2 of my standpipes, water seemed to be flooding a little to high.. but i have to add media to the other two beds, as i couldn't get the standpipe out.... planted 1 of the beds out with asparagus and carrots, and put some sicilian garlic in one of the other beds.. hopefully it will be warm enough to rinse some of my gravel to add to the 2 beds, and i'll be able to get those planted
i still need to clean out my scud tanks and restart them, and my greenwater tanks..
oh, and the free (white) crayfish i got the other day escaped.. too much to do an not enough time to do it.. i really want to get plugs on those lights to start trying them out

yellow perch eggs were clogging my drain this am.. threw what i could into one of the crayfish tanks (more free food)
i hope i'm prepared for them next year!

one dead eggbound perch last night..
had one last year as well... took a few pics but didn't have time to put them up.. fed some more eggs to the crayfish
growbeds are in pretty good shape but i still have to add media to 2 of them.. hopefully it will be warm enough this weekend for my favorite activity, gravel washing

pic's didn't turn out to good, but here they are anyways.. the eggbound yp;

the weather is finally starting to turn (after some frosts around mothers day) so it was finally time to wash some gravel
added media to 3growbeds that were flooding to high (after initial gravel fill settled)
one bed is replanted with asparagus and carrots, both are sprouting already.. i have some garlic going in another bed, and a some chives that recovered after cleaning the third bed..
i think i'm going to re-do my growbed inlets though.. i have a 1.5" header with a 1" T to each gb, which then went to two 1/2" outlets.. i'm going to go with a single 1" outlet in each gb instead..
still got some electrical work to do too.. never enough time!

Have you eaten any marms yet Keith, been reading up on them today. Interesting creature.

marbles are relatively small crays. IMHO they are better suited for fish food than people food.


brian

my first marmokreb is probably close to 4" nose to tail.. this is the first year i've been able to add any quantities of larger crays to the big tank,(lots of small feeder size went in)
i expect that it will take 18 months or so before they're big enough for me..
but once i get them going, i should be able to get some any time
and they berry up quite readily with no assistance, i know most baby crays are being eaten by my fish which was kinda the point

i managed to do a little work, redid inlets on 2 of the growbeds, asparagus is sprouting as well as carrots and garlic..
2 growbeds left to fix the inlet on, then replanting.. i still have to get the lighting set up on one growbed..
i decided to use 4 light fixtures per bed, so thats 256 watts on each of 3 growbeds, i have a single 200watt light for the 4th gb
to much to do and not enough time to do it!

Keith, where did you originally get your tilapia from? Also, what temp/humidity does your basement run at? My basement thermometer reads 55-60 degrees. I'm thinking of framing the basement and adding plastic sheeting to the frames. I'm really worried about the winter here in PA and I haven't spent a winter in this new house. I was going to buy a propane tank heater adapter and get the tank off my grill during the winter to heat up the downstairs. I saw in some of your pics/schematics you had a furnace downstairs, does that provide your heat?

i got my blue tilapia from a fish farm in ohio, near columbus... i got nile tilapia from a guy in cleveland that was selling them on craigslist

My house is pretty old, one half of the basement has clay walls and seeps with any rain.. when it's really muggy outside, i do get a little humidity in the basement, but with 2 small fans going, it's generally not as humid as outside..
in the winter my temps were in the high 40's before i added a small space heater near the pool.. this kept my tilapia alive through the winter.. last summer i think the warmest my basement got was mid 70's
the furnace provides no heat to the basement (except where i removed a couple of cleanout plugs from the ductwork)
next year i'll add some insulation around the windows, and block off the doorway (better than last year) to a little room under theh porch that gets really cold
i have a propane heater that i tried, but a single 40 gallon propane tank didn't last all that long..(less than a week) but it got me through a cold snap

I googled tilapia distributors and found someone in Ohio who would ship them to PA. What would be the going rate for tilapia do you know? I guess it would all be subjective on the situation.

Your basement/house sounds a lot like mine. Old house that was falling apart and landlord bought it and renovated it. There is one door that leads to a space underneath the front porch that I use for storage but as for heat there is none as well. Thanks for the tip with the propane tank, didn't think it would go through it that fast. Maybe I'll just have it as a backup but it sounds like a space heater is on the list for when colder weather approaches.

I was thinking of using that heavy duty plastic and adding some card board along the walls to help insulate the space.