Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

That is a cute looking bathtub that you have there, I have never seen one that small here. Just wondering if the picture is deceiving or is it a special type? Nice setup by the way.

faye, it's a pretty common size around here, and I have another one just like it. Outside dimensions are 60" long, 31" wide, and 15.5" tall. I fits in a standard space with walls on 3 sides. Inside it measures 54" long, 23" wide, and 13" deep. Maybe we're just smaller over here than you folks are

Surely bath tubs would be bigger .. (and better).... in Texas..... ship one in....

We dont need to make room for cowboy hats and spurs

Sounds like you 2 do know your Texans

Time for a quick update here. I added 50+ blue tilapia fingerings from White Brook Tilapia Farm on 10JAN2013 and they seem to be doing well. I lost 4 in the first 12 hours and that has been it. They seem to be happy and growing.


My plants seem to be struggling but there are probably some legit reasons for that. I lot of what I have growing (spinach mainly) is from my fall garden so some of those plants are 6 months old. I planted quite a few seeds in the GB but germination and growth has been poor. I'm starting a lot of seeds in flats now so I can put in transplants instead. They start great when sitting on the GB due to the constant warmth - I have the water heaters set at 80F. I'm also challenged for light and am using fluorescents to help out.


I've added a second 264 gph pump and am running one for each GB. The IBC bed is on F&D and the bathtub is on CF. I also added a second 500 watt heater to be able to maintain 80F+ since my shop is only heated to about 50F. One heater will maintain it at about 72F so 2 heaters provide some redundancy as well as the heat I need. I have 2 separate electrical circuits coming into my shop so I have 1 pump and 1 heater on each circuit. I also have the battery back-up system with a 12 volt pump, so hopefully I have a decent mount of insurance.

There are 2 weaknesses I see in my insurance policy at this point; 1) A power outage of 15+ hours when I'm not around since the battery would be drained. 2) A clog in the drain of the tub GB would mean that the pump would continue to run and drain the FT. Don't see that as being too likely but it's possible. I'm thinking of adding a low level sensor in the FT that would shut off the pumps but keep the air pump running. Looking for a cost effective way of doing that though.

I have been adding some pH down to get the pH lower than the 8.0 - 8.2 it was originally at. The plants look like they need iron but at that pH it is essentially locked out according to what I've researched. It's in the 7.4 - 7.6 range now so I think I'll leave it alone for a bit. Ammonia remains at .25, trites are at 0, and trates have been 80 - 100. I was gone for 2 days and the fish went hungry. I fed them when I came back and the next day ammonia and trites were up but they dropped to normal by the next day. Things seem to be working ok for this noob.

Terry,

I'm also from Iowa and would be curious where you found an IBC for $50. I have found several for in excess of $100.

You can PM me if you like.

Thanks

Hi, curious where you are on this system since your last post.

I'm also using fluorescent lighting and noticing problems with my seedlings.

For your back up plan, why not just have the battery run an aeration device and keep the pumps off. I think the plants would survive without the flood and drain and just use the back up to keep the fish happy.

That's how I have my back up system. If the power goes out, I shut down everything except for a car battery that runs my air pump.

Looks like it's been way to long since I updated this thread but things are going very well. I am in the midst of re-thinking my back-up system (although it's worked well for a couple of short outages), and will keep your suggestion in mind.

I've spent the majority of my time in the dirt garden over the past months but that is coming to an end and the AP will get more attention. I'm planning to harvest the rest of the tilapia and replace them with yellow perch in the next few weeks.

Here are a few more recent pics:

Overall shot from 1MAY2013:



First harvest of 10 fish, 14SEP2013:


A dark photo taken 11OCT2013. I have a pot (alpine strawberry and basil), and a bucket (datil pepper) sharing space since it's starting to get cool outside.

Wow, nice to see T5 lighting can actually work. Really jealous of your growth. I believe my issue is now the temperature in my basement where the system lives. It hovers around 60, what is your room temp?

The T5s work but they wouldn't be my first choice. In the last photo above, you can see my hodge-podge of lighting at present. The bathtub bed on the right has a 500 watt metal halide above it and there's a 2' long 4 bulb T5 leaning against the wall behind the big jalapeno plant in the middle. It normally has 20+ peppers on it and has had for a couple of months.

The IBC bed on the left has a 4' long 4 bulb T5 towards the rear and a homemade 4 bulb T12 shop light fixture towards the front.

The fluorescents work ok but you need to keep them almost touching the top of the plants. That's hard to do when your plants vary in size. It also makes it hard to see your plants without constantly raising and lowering them. The MH and HPS lights can be a couple of feet away from the plants and that gives a lot more flexibility.

My system is out in my shop building so in the summer it gets quite warm on a hot sunny day. The cooler nights moderate that though. My FT temps over the summer were usually in the high 70sF to low 80sF. I heat the building during the winter so the air temps are generally 45-50F. Last winter I heated the water to 84F for the tilapia so the plants benefited some from that warmth. Growth has been good since the system was up and running. I will have yellow perch this winter so will probably keep the temps lower. I expect the plants to still do well, especially the cold loving ones - lettuce, kale, chard, herbs, radishes, etc.