Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

That's the new thing for me this year that I learned from one of the master gardeners, to consider Fall as a reverse of the Spring season. It's not too late yet for Fall planting!

So I had a puncture in one of the troughs, maybe an undercooked piece of charcoal did it. It dripped less than once per second. I mashed some silicone around the hole which didn't help a lot but it has slowed down considerably, maybe the water level is lower now or something.

Waiting for seeds to come up in the troughs (using the P-word), transplanting would be faster but I don't have any seedlings to do that. I've been watering them with the hose twice a day to keep the charcoal moist for the seeds. From what I've seen there are some that are coming up.

Looking very good...

Looking good!

If the leak is small enough, the biofilm can sometimes stop the leak!

I agree with Colum.. a small leak as that can be easily plugged by biofilm eventually.... great looking concept system.

Wow DD. I would of never thought of that. I was wondering what you were building the troughs for, but now I see. VERY ingenious indeed.

Now I want to build an arbor.... but without the troughs though, unless yours really proves to work well.

We'll be interested in it's progress.

Have you had any major issues to solve with this setup?

I see you're probably using a second pump to push the water up from that small bucket. Seems like it works well.

Hey bits45, main issue is getting the plastic to seal at the ends. Construction plastic does not stick to silicone and the ends are using thin pieces of wood. On the next try I will be trying canvas and 2x4s on the ends for more sturdy clamping there.

I'm only using one pump, the one I had luckily makes it all the way up there so I have a tee and valve to send almost all the water to the FT and only a trickle to the troughs then it goes back into the sump (with the koi in it).

Need more plants, more fish, and more air. Trying to decide whether to do trout this Winter or not. If I lose power for more than half a day my battery backup would not handle that and all the trout could die. I don't have money to get a generator. Bluegill are cheap and hardy but they basically don't grow when compared to other kind of fish. I don't like having fish that don't grow. My air pump flows OK but is not pumping down very far at all anymore. I need to get some more airstones and just make a ring of them about a foot deep all around the FT. I have one of the two stones at the SLO inlet to get circulation to the SLO but the air is not nearly enough. It's not even two feet deep so that's a bummer. Anyway need more plants more fish more air.

Got a haul of beans, enough to finally make a pot of beans and potatoes and bacon, which I love!

Troughs are leaking at the ends a lot, not all of them but one drips enough to have to top off the water a couple times per week. I'll deal with that when the configuration changes going into late Fall.

Another Sunday another pile of beans for dinner!

I'm so proud tonight, providing dinner through alchemy.

Nice beans - I just bought a heap of interesting varieties from here www.vegetableseeds.net.au

Thanks jayendra, I will be paying more attention to stringless variety next time. There are three different ones I'm using and the biggest have tough strings in them which are kind of annoying. Taste great though!

Lazy housewife is my favourite - read up on that one it's really interesting

Cool info thanks!

I've been hanging to see it flowing with greens, looks great DD