Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Go the wicking pots beds ect

Looking good Skeg. Thanks for the update.

Hey Skeggly, What's the configuration of your wicking tubs. I like the idea of growing spuds in them. I put some spuds in the ground before I went to NZ. They grew about 30cm high then the snails eliminated them. Not a trace of them left. I think I can control snails in tubs.

Hiya guys, I'll reserve my judgement on the wps until summer.
dr bee, I cut a milk crate off at the first lateral web about 150mm from the base and cut a hole for some poly drainage pipe then cut a bb in half and put a 25mm uniseal (thanks robbob bits out back) as low as possible placed the crate in and and poked 25mm pipe thru the uniseal into the centre of the crate with a 90° elbow on each end at right angles to each other and added an off cut into the elbow on the outside to set the height. The inside elbow is to draw water from the bottom when emptying the reservoir then poked the drainage pipe into the top of the crate. I them covered the crate with some off cut shade cloth cable tying around the pipe work. In one I filled to the top of the crate with pea gravel then compost, straw, manure and lime, the other solely the compost mix. After about 50mm of compost mix above the crate the kids plonked the spuds down and then covered with more mix. Once they started shooting we just kept adding the compost mix until we reached the top of the pot. Make sure you mark where the top of the crate is so you can keep an air gap at the top of the reservoir and that's about it, simple really, 1/2 hr to knock it together all with scrap from around my hoarding yard.
I can dig my hand into the mix and feel heaps of spuds so am really happy with the progress.
Considering potato leaves are poisonous the snails sure love them so I'm adding pellets weekly as the seem to break down quickly in the compost.
Originally I was draining from one barrel and pouring it into the other and can see the benefits of linking them together and using a pump and sump as per F&F setup, now I'm finding I need to add water even with all this rain which is why I'm reserving my judgement until summer as after having the AP set up for a few years now I've forgotten how to water.
Hopefully this wasn't too long winded or confusing. When I make the next 2 I'll try and take some build pics.
Till next time,

This is so beautiful Skeg. Paradise it is.

Thanks Skeggley one.

No, thats not confusing at all. I don't have any uniseals, but have all the other components. Will try the local Big B and give it a shot. Any thoughts on which one is working best, or too early to say?

Hearing you on watering. Missus had a flower pot under the eaves, but last weeks rain never made it under the eaves and yesterdays 29 degrees made the plant a bit limp. Hopefully it recovers, but first thoughts are that it has karked it. All the leaves fell off when I brushed against it when giving it a drink.

Snails

I had thought potato leaves were poisonous, but snails don't seem to think so.

Sometimes I'm left with a vacant patch in my garden bed where there used to be potatoes planted. It can be a pleasant surprise when I dig through the garden and find some spuds buried when I wasn't expecting any.

I feel your pain.

Hey Skeggley
The Trout have a lot more colour in them this year, both in the skin & the flesh ! It wood seem the special spectra feed does make a difference.
They have all been harvested now, look forward to getting more next year.

Hiya peeps.
I heard my system water fluctuating earlier in the week and added water thinking the sump was too low and then again yesterday and then today.The system has just ticked along with minimal input from me for the last year or so as I admit I have neglected it due to my new bee interest. I thought I should investigate..... I found the 90mm storm water pipe buried under ground totally full of roots stopping the water returning to the sump......
I tried to hook it out with a piece of wire. And the wire got stuck..... I went to the hardware store and bought one of those cheap drain rodding things and gave it a go..... Yeah great, a pinch if roots each time. Took me an hour to get the rod 1metre down the 7 metre drain..... Damned if I'm going to dig it up so am looking for an easy alternative.... I like easy.
I don't know where the roots are coming from, all the gb drains are clear.
Can roots just grow as roots?
Looks like I'm going to need to make some pipe work adjustments and add an inspection junction at the far side of the drain like I had planned 2 years ago......
Hopefully the fish are OK after I stirred the root mass up trying to clean it out, unsuccessfully... I can't check for ammonia/nitrite spikes as the test kit is well and truely expired and as I haven't tested for close to a year if I bought one it'd probably be expired by the time I use it again...

More work, great......

Jup that's what roots do. I had the same problem wit the sewer pipe, plastic, at my house. It had a very, very small crack. When I dug it up, I had a 20 cm layer of roots around the pipe and the pipe inside full of them.

They look like roots, but might actually be a plant.

It's a bastard of a job and like you I'd do nearly anything to avoid digging it up.
I found roots in my AP systems were softer and more layered onto each other unlike the bastards in the sewer which had sprawled in a much less uniformed direction, tougher and tended to push out to the edges of the pipe.
Some things I've done after the plumbers ideas were exhausted is push a length of fencing wire all the way through then attach a metal cutting plate or tube or plug depending on how much resistance will let you pull it out. Attach another draw wire so you can pull it back. Dig and fit an access pit in the middle and each end. Use one of those spiral anchors to screw and pull out thick stuff. Dry out the pipe for a couple of weeks before trying to remove looser roots. Push it out with blocks of wood and a jack.

Be safe and try not to think about the other things you could be doing instead of doing this.

The thing is that it's still in operation and there are 70 odd fish swimming about so I can't put it out of action for more than a couple of hours.
I tried putting some wire down the pipe but it bent when it hit the mass so I tried something more rigid and it got stuck..... Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I was thinking of pouring boiling water down to kill the roots. Or salt. 5kgs down the pipe bringing my system to 1ppt ish.
Digging here in summertime is about as much fun as washing gravel......