Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

First off, I apologize for three posts of the same type last time I posted,I think my phone was having issues connecting to wifi and data that day.

For this weeks update, all the basil died off that I had planted in I'm not entirely sure why, my guess is because it was still too cold at night here in Utah for them to have survived. So if I try basil again, it will be from seed.

The corn that I planted seems to be doing ok, but I can't really tell as I've never really worked with corn before. The leaves of the plants are kind of a dark green/dark bronze kind of color, and aren't really stiff to the touch like I would expect corn to be. Rather the leaves almost have a soft mushy feel to them. Here is a pic:



Any thoughts?

And to answer any questions about nutrients, they are doing quite well! The ammonia is finally down to around 4-8 ppm, the nitrites are 5+, and the nitrates are 80-160:



And with regard to the water flow issues I was having earlier this month, it turned out all I needed to do was to remove one of the cross boards that I had under the barrel halves, and redo the one siphon. So now this is what the GB's look like from the side:



And that's where I'm at for the week. Enjoy!

Will


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Ok keep up the good times .Looks like the cycling is still working.Don't put any thing else in there till the ammonia goes down an then you should be good to go. I love to see lots of nitrates too. That is fish food.

In my experience corn does not do well in AP. It stays too skinny to hardly stand up and is too wet. My several attempts only got 2 foot tall while more of the same seeds did well in the dirt.

Thanks for the heads up, I'll keep watch on the current corn plants and keep updates on them


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Quick update for today:

I got solid evidence that my families dog has been drinking my system water -_- which means that I just need to be watching the water levels that much closer. Especially once I've got my goldfish in there. But on a positive note, I got my seedlings in! Though not without an argument with my dad's bees.... They didn't like the fact that I was planting strawberries, and assorted seedlings. Though they didn't seem to mind the gooseberry plant being put in right next to where they drink their water.... Sometimes bees make no sense.

Anyway, here's a few pics from today and yesterday:







pH is sitting around 8 currently. I'll be getting some muriatic acid in probably tomorrow to try and bring down the pH, in preparation for the fish and to try and prevent pH lockout. I also found that my corn seedlings didn't like the cold night we had a few days ago... But they still have some green, so hopefully they pull through.

Anyway, that's all for today. Enjoy!

Will


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Hello again everyone, this is gonna be kind of a largish update as I've been gone a while. So to begin:

1) my plants are doing well since the last update, with the exception of a few. Most of my tomatoes were killed off by some late frost we got, the red romain was killed off, the corn was killed, the cantaloupe was killed, and the gooseberry was also killed off by the frost. The peas, bok-choy, kholrabi, cabbage, and strawberries are all doing well! As a matter of fact, some of my strawberry plants are even starting to flower! Then my dad also apparently stuck in a half of a potato for kicks to see what would happen, and it's absolutely taken off! Though I can't say the same for my pea plants.... The leaves on one section of both plants have turned yellow for some reason, but the rest of the plant is perfectly green and healthy. So that's kind of weird.

Update 2) I got fish!!!!! Two batches specifically. The first batch I got 30 fish, only to find two days later that about 3-6 of them died from the shock of being transplanted into the system. So today I got another 30, bringing my total up to around 45-55 goldfish.



Update 3) as mentioned, I got the greenhouse this week, and started assembly yesterday! It is a cheapie, but it works as a first greenhouse. It is 6'x8', and the walls I'd say are about 4-4.5 feet tall (on the 12" foundation though it is a much nicer 5 or so feet). For anyone curious, here is the link:

http://m.harborfreight.com/6-ft-x-8-ft- ... 47712.html

And here is the first progress pic (I didn't take very many photos, because I've been focusing on not getting confused building this):



And two from today:





Tomorrow I will be getting the rest of the panels on (rain or not), and probably next week I'll be getting the addition to the system built. Which should be interestingly fun trying to build growbed stands in the small area of room that I've got to work with. Also in the works are more varieties of lettuce plants, some fresh tomato plants to replace my lost ones, some more cantaloupe plants, and perhaps some pepper plants for salsa later this year!

I'll try to be better about updating the thread more regularly since I'm done with school for the semester. And speaking of which, I've graduated from paramedic school with my associates degree in emergency medicine! I've only got one year of school left before graduation with my bachelors degree, and it will be all debt free too (2 pell grants with everything else coming out of my pocket)! And the next thing for me to do school and education wise is to pass my paramedic national test. I'll be doing that in the coming weeks after more studies to make sure I've got everything good to go.

Well, that's all I've got for today. Cheers!



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Great work on the greenhouse and even better on graduating! Well done. Also good luck for finishing the Bachelor's degree, you're on a roll!

Greenhouse is done!!!!



The plastic window panes went in a lot easier than I thought they would (except for one or two here and there that decided to make my life less boring), and the snaps that hold them in place seem like they'll do a decent enough of a job holding everything together. Now to see if my dads bees will be smart enough to figure out how to get in and out.....

Anyway, here are some up close pics of how the plants are doing, as well as a pic of how I'm going to be setting up the two new growbeds.











The mint in the photo above was planted in last year by my dad and somehow survived the winter. So now I think that this particular growbed will be taken over by the strawberries and mint.... Which I'm fine with!



And that is all I have for today. Hopefully in the coming days I'll be able to get started on the growbeds, and start mapping out how I'm going to run the plumbing.

Cheers!


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Nice one, thanks for the update.

Great looking system!

I just saw I posted before that I said that the Nitrates is fish food. My appologies Of course that is wrong, it is the PLANT food. I really do like to see the red in the tube when testing. It really makes the plants grow great. I hate fighting the PH though. Mine is always about 8.6 and really hurts the system performance.

Yeah, I've found that trying to constantly adjust the ph has had negative effect on my fish and plants. So I'm content just letting the system go as is. Though I will have to figure out how to control the algae that is starting to populate the inlet of the water to my growbed.....


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There is two things you can do for that. One is to put the inlet pipe down into the gravel. Two is to put a sponge or something right under the water inlet so you can clean it easily. Dont let the water splash all around because it helps algae grow better.

I didn't think of that. Thanks for the tip donone!


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Great to see the greenhouse up and running. Good work!