Backyard Aquaponics
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Week 9, 6 weeks since planting lettuce seeds in grow bed

Once the get going, they go like a cracker.

Week 10, 7 weeks since planting lettuce seeds in grow bed

We have been picking the outer leaves of the lettuce for the last week, it is nice to start getting something back from the system.

And patience pays off.

Been a long time since I posted, my system has been running well for the last 18 months. I have grown lettuce, basil ,spring onions and tomatoes successfully, now I want to step up to strawberry's.

I have lowered my PH to 6.5 by removing the shells and replacing the guppies with higher waste producing goldfish, 12 of the little buggers. The system has been running well like this for about 3 months and a strawberry bush I had in there was really starting to take off but it wasn't fruiting the way my ones planted in the dirt were

I figured the big difference other than soil vs aquaponics was the location and total sunlight they received, my poo-ponics garden was only receiving 4hrs max of direct sunlight each day.

I decided to move the system chasing more sun. Nat pointed out in an earlier post that small barrel systems with their low water mass can easily overheat, I already had to chill water to add to the system during summer.

I went ahead with the move over the weekend and built a timber enclosure to protect the fishes water from overheating. Although it is not totally finished (I still need to fill in the corner gaps around the grow bed) I think the results are quite good.





While I had the system stripped down I added two more viewing holes into the fish tank so more light can get in now it is enclosed. I also changed the water spout to a bulkhead through the grow bed style.






Fingers crossed it will be full of juicy red berries in 3 months time.

Nice work with the timber enclosure. How does it look now any updates

Really well done

Yeah. Nice wood work.!! How are those strawberries?

I was searching, looking for a way to make the barrels look more attractive! Your's looks great!

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

The strawberries went well, I didn't turn them around again as they are actually very cheap to buy here.

At the moment the system looks a bit sad with just a parsley plant and some shallots, I will give an update next time I plant it up.