Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

It has been three months since I started putting my little system together so perhaps an update is in order. When I began my ammonia was very high for a long time but even though I run continuous flood I started draining the beds once a day and did a couple of 20% topoffs and it came down to zero. It has held between there and o.25 so I introduced a dozen fingerling catfish. I know that is not enough for the growbeds that I have and I am expecting a dozen talapia to add to increase a bit. However the plants do continue to grow great and I'll try to put some pictures of the growbeds on here.

Nitrates and nitrites both consistently test out at zero or minimal which maybe shouldn't surprise me with as much as I have planted. I run a heater in the FT and so far even with freezing outside temps the temp in the greenhouse has never been lower than 64f.



Have white onions, red onions, and leeks growing here



shows the red onions, carrots and celery - tomato plants coming up from seed at the far end. Far too many and they will have to be thinned out. Not sure what to do with the extra although I'll plant a few elsewhere. Green pepper and red peppers in the center.



I'm growing some herbs in pots over the fish tank.

more pictures - these of the second grow bed





more tomatoes at the far end, brussel sprouts and squash





collard greens, Kale and lettuce




More lettuce - there are a half dozen types of salad greens in this area


They seem to be doing pretty well to me in spite of the small number of very small fish in the tank

Nice! There is a misconception that it takes a lot of fish to grow a lot of vegetables. The reality is that relatively few fish can grow a lot. The ratios you often hear are maximums. Staying below those maximums is not a bad idea.

Aww you are wrong about the fingerlings being not enough for the system. They will work it just fine and you can also use the new fish also. The addition of the new fish will give you some more ammonia. It will take a little while for the system to upgrade the bio stuff but it will come back into proper range pretty quick. You can probably get to see some NitrAtes too. I like to see some of them cause it makes the plants pop.

Thanks, you guys have been a big help

I'm pleased - it got down into the teens last night but with the heated water in the greenhouse and the addition of a small catalytic heater the greenhouse only got down to 69f - there's even a light dusting of snow.

Terry,
How about an update?

Update? Sure. This is one of the coldest spells we've been hit with - nine degrees - temp in the greenhouse is 74 degrees but the sending unit in the FT flaked out and has been giving screwy readings so I'm not sure about it. I did upgrade from a 100w in-tank heater to a 300 watt so I'm pretty sure it is ok but I can't say for sure. I have another wireless thermostat on the way.

No kidding it's cold. I've moved my system home from the farm. I'm learning that goldfish are tough critters. They just hang out on the bottom when it gets icy.

If the water starts getting cold my catfish go hide behind the pump. It's a little warmer there.

Cold as it was yesterday and it's 65 degrees out there now. But that bitter cold got my seedling tomato plants even with a heater in there. Guess they were too close to the unprotected side. Everything else seemed to have survived pretty well. The lettuce had already played out so I'll need to replant there anyway but it should be time to to get some spring plantings soon and get a jump on the growing season. More cold coming though as the roller coaster ride continues.

We are expecting 75F today. I'll leave the greenhouse door open today. I agree about the rollercoaster ride.

I'm eager to get some spring plantings in there to fill the growbeds in some - but not sure how strong the cold spells that we have left are going to be

Thought I'd do an update - greenhouse did very well all winter with a small heater in the extreme temps below freezing - ate salad all through the winter gut the lettuce was playing out so I just planted a whole new set of different kinds of lettuce (spring plants) and some green peppers and jalapeno. Everything else is growing fine. Now that it is warming up the tomato plants are really taking off. The catfish have about doubled in size from fingerling to about 4-5 inches. but I notice I am missing some. There have been no floaters so I think a couple of little guys got eaten. Even with my limited space I just added some outside grow beds and I will consider adding a bit more. These will be conventional growbeds and not AP. Next is building a opaque plastic shade over the new beds. By winter I will decide whether I want to enclose them along with my greenhouse. I started dosing with Maxi-grow with iron and the fish don't seem to mind and the plants love it.

Thanks for the update, I've been wondering about your system.