Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

It should do the job with the bird netting. I'm lucky in that I've never had a problem, snails and slugs are my nemesis.

With the yellowing on the plants, looks more like magnesium deficiency to me. With green veins & yellow on the rest of the leaves.

Add some epsom salts, should fix it up pretty quickly.

Thanks Colum. I've added a couple of hand fulls of epsom salts over the last couple of weeks (3 total I think). I was giving it a chance to work. I may add another. I've also started adding some iron.

Yesterday while at Home Depot I saw this cool little wicking bed kit. I thought it was pretty cool and actually not a bad bargain for $30 if someone didn't want to rely on their DIY skills to have something that looked nice on the lanai.





The trip to Home Depot was fruitful and allowed the implementation of the "Nylon Dome" to thwart areal onslaughts into my GB's.





I connected 3 panels thus creating 1 huge panel which is simply draped over the frame. The netting is long enough to provide several feet of excess bunched on the ground to prevent ground troops from infiltrating. Further observation will be maintained before an escalation of force is determined to be required.

Mahallo! I sure miss that red "baseball clay" as I called it when I was stationed there. Thank you for the great example of how to prepare for inevitable flooding situations. Your preparation...

And then flooding as you expected on page 5 of your post! Along with excellent photos to help people like me relate instantly!

I realize with my research this is different for all of us depending on the soil where we live. I have been advised to use mobile home earth tie downs, basically a large cork screw. I am concerned that the sandy quality of Florida's soil may turn to soft muck much faster then people with more clay based earth. Anyway after reading your thread (especially enjoyed the photos, I was stationed at KRSOC Kunia) I am also adding your reinforced wall trick!

My final thought though is there must be a simple formula about displacement to weight ratios to determine exactly how much water needs to be inside the IBC to prevent it from flooding. I think we all agree that your IBC ST would not have popped out if the heavy rain had come after your build was complete enough to have at least some water in that ST.

Good luck really nice system and I enjoyed the read!

Thank you and I'm glad my experience was able to help you with your system.

I agree with you that there is probably some equation which would show how much water needs to be in the sump tank to keep it from rising out of the hole during a heavy rain storm. I'm unaware of such an equation but maybe Stuart will provide it for us. Granted, there is some wiggle room regarding the sump tank rising out of the hole but it isn't much. The problem is the rigid PVC pipe which connects to the pump exit is pointed straight up. If the tank begins to rise, the pump return pipe would be the first to contact the bottom of the GB. I even thought of replacing this section of pipe with some type of flexible hose to prevent such a problem.

Just a little update.

If you didn't know, I covered the entire system with bird netting. This seems to have helped. My sprouts now have a chance to grow without being attacked every morning.


The Manoa Lettuce is coming along. I also mixed in a greens mix in this patch. Once grown they should provide one-stop-shopping for salad greens. The beans continue to struggle. I'm not sure what the problem is. I think it may be lack of nutrient. I had hoped that the addition of more and larger fish would help but I'm sure the immaturity of the GB's also contributes. The back-left has kale sprouts and the back-right has some beefsteak tomato seedlings I've been transplanting into pots for future expansion into some earth beds or containers.


Here we have pak choi sprouting as well as some carrots along the front. The green squash plants have taken over the back of the GB and are on the verge of becoming belligerent. Strangely, I can't seem to get my watercress to grow. Not sure what I'm doing wrong here. I thought watercress loved AP?


The basil continues to dominate this bed. I think some pesto will be on the menu soon. The other herbs are coming along slowly. I'm not sure why but my cilantro has had problems. The thyme can't seem to make up its mind if it is going to thrive and die. It's weird, the plants will be doing fine and then suddenly one will sputter and die. There is malabar spinach along the back that I'm hoping will take off soon and start climbing. The leaves are a bit yellow. I've been adding a little iron but I'll probably give the system another dose of Maxigro and EM1A.


The new fish appear to have settled in. I only had one loss, one of the larger ones. There is one other that I thought was going to die. He seems to be paralyzed on one side. He swims like a corkscrew! It's funny to watch. He keeps eating and pooping so I've left him alone since he's fulfilling his obligation. I thought for sure they would eat my smaller fry but they appear uninterested and have left them alone.


Today's readings. Everything looks good. The nitrate seems a little low to me. I thought it would increase with the added fish but it seems to have dropped a little. The ph reading on the handheld was just under 7 while the test kit looks to be over 7.


Here are some seedlings waiting for a home. Cucumbers and squashes mostly. I was planning on putting them in some wicking containers but some may find a home in the AP system. There are also artichokes which are going into an earth bed. The tomato seedlings are in mini wicking pots made out of soda bottles.


And here is a wicking container I made the other day. I installed 2 beefsteak tomato seedlings which I have high hopes for. It seems like a lot of pot for two small plants but I'm hoping they really take off.


Thanks for looking. I would appreciate any regarding the plant deficiencies pictured above.
Aloha!

Hiya Squatch, great update, plants look good, water looks good, nice work.

This, that, you, your system, and the general vibe are all....'Da Kine' with the Hawaiian style going on. I hope you can force that green squash to climb the bird netting frame, it sure would look cool! You should be able to use that framing to support other climbing plants too and maybe produce a bit of a canopy look. I would personally add some peas (grow easily) around the sides of the GB close to the frame in the back and see if you can make that go vertical. I hope my system looks half this nice when I'm done, I would be thrilled. One day you're going to find tourists (me) sipping drinks in your back yard enjoying the view.

Thanks for the kind words. I really appreciate it.
I was of the same mind as you regarding peas. I had some along the edges of the GB's but they didn't make it. I read online that peas don't like to have too much water so maybe that's why? It's also been really hot and humid here. All of the greens were suffering through our recent heatwave. Not sure why but I really wanted some fresh snow peas.

Regarding the heat, I was also strongly considering putting a green shade cloth over the frame. I wasn't sure if some of the plants really needed to have direct sun. We get so much sun here in Hawaii it can sometimes be too much. The shade cloth would make it much more comfortable for the farmer as well.

I am happy to report that the rain storm yesterday has produced flooding in my back yard. This is a common occurrence. However, I was concerned about this flooding since it may cause another flotation of my sump tank as the ground becomes saturated and the sump hole fills with water. Well, I looked outside and saw that I had standing water in my yard. This told me that the ground was saturated which means the sump tank hole was also saturated and filled to capacity. I went outside and opened the panel under GB-2 to examine the situation. I found the water level maxed in the sump hole and the sump tank nearly full of water with no apparent floating of the sump tank.

I am guessing that the downpour of rain caused the GB's to fill more rapidly thus causing the siphons to trigger more often. This action kept the water level in my sump tank high which prevented it from becoming buoyant. I did recently add snorkels to my bell siphons which helps them shut off faster. I'm guessing this quicker turn-around may help but I'm not sure.

Anyway, the sump tank is still in the ground where it's suppose to be. I may not even bother with an additional sump pump as I had been planning.

Today I added a shade cloth to the top of the "Nylon Dome" which should greatly reduce the heat and severity of the sun during the hottest part of the day. I expect the greens to really take off given they're new level of protection.


Next, I'll do a little clean up and add more plants.


I had to pull all of the beans from the system because they were just struggling too much. I replaced most of the beans with squash or cucumbers which seem to really enjoy the aquaponic environment. I have to keep reminding myself that this system has been operational for less than two months and my expectations should reflect the newness of the system.

Very nice build. I had a small barrel-ponics system when living in Tampa. I recently moved further south in Florida and to an even hotter/tropical zone. The shade cover I had in Tampa worked great and I will be reincorporating this here, you should see some immediate benefits from it.

What were the dimensions of the beds? What size wood did you use? I want to do the same style 3 bed, 1 FT, 1 ST this time around. You haven't yet incorporated the swirl filter and catchment tanks yet, have you? I don't seem them in the picture, so didn't assume so.

Disregard the dimensions of the bed question, I found some of the info on the first page. It looks like you used 2"x12" boards with the plywood as the base, I can't imagine the nails would be enough to keep the boards from flexing out, but clearly it seems to be working. How far apart did you put the nails?

Any thing you'd change on them?

I used full 4'x8' sheets of 3/4" treated ply for the bottom. I wanted to eliminate as much sag as I could. I used 3 1/2" (I think) deck screws spaced about 8"-10" apart to attach the bottom to the 2" x 12" sides. Pre-drilling helped to keep them straight and not straying off while screwing them in.

With my design, there isn't really any stress pulling the plywood from the side walls. Since the bottom plywood extends to the very edge of the bed and the side boards are placed on top of them, there isn't any sheer on that connection. The 2" x 4" framing under the bottom ply (you can see pics of the framing earlier in this thread) further distributes the load and should greatly aid in preventing bowing and sagging of the bottom ply as they age.

If I were to do it again... I think I would only change the location of the drain. Instead of putting it in the center I would place it nearer the far end away from the fill pipe. The side of the bed away from the fill pipe is drier than the fill side and I think if the drain more to that side it would better equalize the wetness of the media.

I also need to add some kind of support to the top trim pieces that frame the bed. Right now they are only held on with screws and aren't very stable under any weight. I even broke one when stepping on it by accident. Some little shelf supports would do the job but I just haven't gotten around to it.

Probably overkill, but I would use joist hangers on the 2" x 4" framing under the grow bed (just to be safer).

Oh... also... I WOULD NOT PUT MY SUMP TANK UNDER MY GROW BED. Instead, I would have it somewhere more accessible and just build a deck or something over it. If the sump tank was not under my grow bed I could install a float indicator to show the water level in the sump without having to open the access panel and stick my head inside. Also, pump access would be easier. Live and learn.

Just a little update...

I've added two truck loads of wood chips/mulch in the AP area for two reasons, 1) to kill and keep the grass down so I don't have to mow it, 2) to raise the level of the ground so I can hopefully avoid walking in puddles of water during heavy rains.


The added mulch seems to have reduced the amount of annoying flies that would also hover around my ankles when I was out in the AP area. I'm guessing they were living in the grass and I was disturbing them or ringing the dinner bell when I walked through. Also, the area smells like a forest floor now and I really like that.


These are my two green long squash plants. They are doing quite well and I am continually needing to reroute their vines to keep them away from my bird netting. They've done so well that their roots have started to cause problems.



I made the mistake of placing these squash plants near the water inlet of this grow bed (you can see the start of the vines to the left of the inlet in the picture below). The roots have choked the water flow so much that the water pools at the fill point. I've dug around and loosened the gravel at that area many times but the neighboring plants usually suffer a little bit of damage every time I do. Do any of you have any advice on how I can solve this problem without damaging or removing plants?


And here are the three Williams Banana trees I bought yesterday. They're going to be planted in an earth bed on the perimeter of the yard. My wife goes through bananas like crazy when making smoothies so we're looking forward to having homegrown fruit for that purpose.