Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thought I'd start a place to start our ups and downs.

This is our start:




We're a lot further along now. The tanks are all planted. Some hiccups there. Our pH is running high and we have hard water so I think they're having difficulty accessing nutrients. The lettuce is starting to show some promise and my jalapenos are flowering so there's hope there. The watercress is small, but seems happy. The kale is yellow, basil hates it, my chocolate mint is spreading and dying at the same time, but the other herbs (especially the lemon balm) are doing very well.

I'm starting to have some hope for the fish. We put approximately 13 fish in each tank and have lost almost half. First was an ammonia spike, then the nitrite spike. We lost more than I would have liked to that, but it was maybe 10 fish in all. We lost almost half our fish, however, when they all came down with Ich.

That seems to be cleared now that the weather is getting hot.

One tank is doing well. It got high ammonia, high nitrites and the Ich like the others but I never lost a fish out of it. I was trying to figure out the difference and thought maybe it's just because the tank was set up with a couple of goldfish for almost two months longer than the others.

But then it occured to me that this tank is behind the door. The fish are either used to the traffic because we pass it every time we go in the garage (where all our animal feed is) or it is sheltered by the door itself and so doesn't see the motion from the side.

That's when it occured to me that the fish probably don't like the white sides and bottom that much. So I made a skirt out of a trash bag and put on the front of each tank.

Now the fish are swimming freely in three of the tanks and coming up to the surface as soon as I put the food in rather than waiting until I'm gone and the pellets sink to eat them.

When I can come up with a camera, I'll take some pictures of our five tanks with the mess of electrical cords for the pumps and lights.

Welcome to the addiction, photos are well received. Cheers

Yeah, my camera is broken at the moment and it is driving me crazy to not be able to take pictures of everything!

Here's our herb garden on one of our IBC tanks. The sage, thyme, lemon balm, chives, oregano, cilantro and globe basel are doing well. The Italian basil is curling. I had to take the chocolate mint out because it was dying. Hopig it will rejuvenate in my mint bed.



I also have water cress and swiss chard in this tank. They're just seedlings. The egg plants took off well to start, but aren't doing so well now.

Sorry to say, but my first all from the aquaponics system salad wasn't very good. That's what I get for pouring a cheap salad dressing all over it. I'll have to try again after I go to the grocery store. I enjoy the nibbles I sneak while feeding the fish!