Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

While I was putting tarps up on the roof I decided to take some pictures of the yard...

looking at the greenhouse from the house...




pole barn / chicken coop


front yard




I also took a walk around the field yesterday to check out my pine trees. My Norway spruces are getting pretty good size, they should be visible over the weeds this summer. To my surprise my Colorado Blue spruce trees are getting pretty decent size... they are going in to their third year and have tripled in size from about 12" to about 36" so they grow faster than I was led to believe. Now that they are going on 3 years in this location the roots should be established and they should grow even faster.

Gorgeous property. Greenhouse looks great too. I'm considering growing Christmas trees on irrigated land down here. I'll need to fence the planted tree area. I'm way behind on fence fixing now that my brother is gone, it's just me. Semi-retirement means I should have time for these things, right? Your trees look awesome, very inspirational!

if you look at the pictures looking at the greenhouse from the house you can see all the dark brown dead weeds, that is the field that I took back from the farmer who owns the fields on either side of me... so at first I was mowing it but after I broke my brand new zero turn mower the second or third time in the first season from hitting rocks I quit mowing out there. I've planted 200+ trees on our little 3.77 acres, so my goal is to 1) make a little patch of wooded area for improved hunting, 2) use trees to dry up the ground because there is standing water in areas year round. 3) make it so I can't see any of the neighbors houses around me... so I planted a large variety of trees but most of them started out as little 12" twigs so I'm not sure how many of them are still alive now that the weeds are taller than the trees. It doesn't help that I didn't mark all of them, some of them I only marked the edge of where trees began so I knew not to drive past that area when I was driving in the field. So now I need to wait until the trees grow taller than the weeds to know how much space I have left for adding more trees. The spruces are really the only trees I can see if they are actually growing or not.

My dad had a way of sort of standing on the rider mower so he could stop for rocks and he'd throw them in the little trailer attached to the mower. Also he used the lowest gear the mower had. That is way more patience than I have. I already broke and repaired the mower on the one he left me. I'm in at least second gear the whole time I'm mowing. For me it is more like a slalom race.

LOL... what is first and second gear? I have too much other work to do to spend the entire day mowing, my mower only knows one speed, full speed ahead! Actually I'm mowing with a zero turn now, so it's all hydrostatic depending on how far forward you press the levers, but my arms are too long to hold the levers half way forward...

I didn't do much for the greenhouse or AP system this weekend. I did mix up some additives so I could start dosing some good stuff for the system. So I'm now dosing a little bit of the seaweed extract daily, plus I added chelated iron that I'm trying to add just a tiny little bit every day (it's mixed at 10x strength because they said to mix 1/2 tsp to 10 gallons of water... well I don't want to carry 10 gallons of water around and I can't measure accurately much less than 1/2 tsp so I mixed 1/2 tsp to 1 gallon and just add a very little bit every time I add it). Plus I mixed up a very weak (1 tsp / gal) calcium carbonate and potassium bicarbonate that I've started dosing a little bit to try and increase my nutrients level. I think I hurt the system by draining 200 gallons of nasty good water out of the fish tank and replacing it with 330 gallons of clean fresh water, so my nutrients need to build back up because my plants have started really lightening their green color.

I bought a dozen goldfish last night and tossed them in my second fish tank in the greenhouse so I can build up the nutrient level in that tank before I plumb it back in to the entire system so I don't cause a huge drop in nutrient levels again when I add another 200 gallons in to the system.

Most of my seeds have sprouted other than tomatoes and peppers which don't seem to be warm enough for them yet. Everything else seems to be growing now albeit still slow. I have the first greenhouse grown broccoli starting to produce in the wicking bed. I grew a few of the broccoli plants in the test system and then I moved them in to different medias when I set up the new beds. I put one in the dirt wicking bed. I put a couple in the DWC raft bed and I put one in the hydroton bed. The one in the wicking bed is growing the broccoli head, one of the ones in the DWC has probably doubled in size (but is really changing colors to a light green is why I'm starting to dose a bunch of stuff to increase the nutes in the water), the one in the hydroton doesn't look like it has changed.

I'm also experimenting with carrots in the DWC and then of course in the wicking bed. I am curious to see if carrots will grow in DWC or not. The root system seems to be growing like crazy so will see if they start forming carrots or not.

My wife had a couple friends come down Saturday and went out to celebrate her birthday. I took them out to show them the greenhouse when they came back and her one friend was completely flabbergasted that 1) I built the greenhouse myself, but then 2) that I was raising fish and figuring out how to run the AP system and can grow plants... shes going to school to be a nurse and can understand and explain how the human body works and how it reacts to different drugs etc. but can't believe that I can figure out how to do this mechanical stuff myself. She does tend to date guys who know nothing but how to make babies and be deadbeat dads though, so I guess that might explain it... the other friend wasn't quite as impressed because shes married to a mechanical guy that knows how to do this type of stuff too, but I get yelled at every time she comes to our house anyways because she always comes up with new ideas of what she wants after she sees what I've been working on... so her husband calls me up and tells me to stop giving her new ideas every time she comes to visit.

I forgot, I did make progress on cleaning up the 240 aquarium. I have most of the sand vacuumed out, but then I decided I'm going to put gravel down anyways so the last little bit of sand that I have in there won't matter. I'm working on filling the tank back up now and need to toss the heater in and start getting it up to temp.

I ordered a couple different types of black gravel to use as the substrate, then I have a rock pile that the farmers had been collecting rocks from the field and piling on the edge of my yard that I'm going to pull some colorful rocks out of to aquascape the tank... and I will have to experiment with some different plants to see if I can find plants that tilapia will leave alone.

It looking good. I like your growing area. Lots of different types of media. You will really be able to fine tune where to grow your plants.
It is fun to look at different systems they are all so unique.

People are a trip to say the least. Quick question: In a planted tank, what's the best way to catch the fish?

Thanks Mark, I figured going with different media types was my best bet for figuring out what I like best and what grows best in what format, then eventually if I decide to convert all to one type of bed it won't be quite as expensive as it would have been to start out with all hydroton for example (although hydroton is going to have to be really impressive for me to convert to it... so far I'm not impressed with my hydroton bed... it comes in the same bags as all of the Aussies post so should be the same stuff but it floats. If I flood the bed the entire media lifts up as the water level comes up and actually lifts my media guard up with it then I end up getting pieces of hydroton going under the media guard and ending up in the sump. I'm not sure if the hydroton eventually gets water logged or not...I keep trying to slowly bump up the water level in the bed to get it to soak it in better but I'm not sure if that is helping or not. Might have been better off just leaving the water level at the max level and pushing the media guard down then waiting to plant the bed until after the hydroton settled down.

The gravel bed isn't the greatest either just due to the density of the gravel. It does grow tomato plants and lettuce pretty well though, but the DWC is a much cleaner way of doing the lettuce plants. I guess time will tell how things go if I change out to one media type or not.

Brian, there isn't a great way to catch fish in planted tanks IMO... but what I will probably do is use a piece of egg crate (light diffuser with 1/2" holes, I think it was about $12 a piece but I can't find the singles listed on the website only the box price http://www.homedepot.com/p/23-75-in-x-4 ... /202653781) to corner the fish in one area of the tank then scoop them out. I don't think I'll heavily plant the tank, but it would be nice to have some live plants in it (otherwise I'll have to find some really good looking fake plants which is tough to find anything that looks realistic).

They shouldn't float that much. Still floating for how long now?

[quote="rininger85" I think it was about $12 a piece but I can't find the singles listed on the website only the box price http://www.homedepot.com/p/23-75-in-x-4 ... /202653781)][/quote]

Any commercial electrical supply business will have what you are looking for.

Generally with the hydroton it floats if it doesn't have enough of a 'dry zone' on top weighing it down - if the top of the hydroton isn't 2" above the maximum water level in your bed, adding some more should help. (Mark the maximum water level against the side of the bed and then add the extra hydroton after the bed drains so you're getting an accurate level!)

[quote="rininger85" I think it was about $12 a piece but I can't find the singles listed on the website only the box price http://www.homedepot.com/p/23-75-in-x-4 ... /202653781)][/quote]

You also have to realize that this material is less than 5/16" thick, it wasn't made for holding weight other than itself.

Brian, it's been at least a month but maybe Mel's explanation explains it... I'll adjust my height to give it a couple inches of dry area - I have been trying to flood the bed every so often to give the seeds I planted a drink but then lowering the level back down for a few days before giving them another drink... I'll keep the water level a couple of inches below the top and just water the bed from the top when I want to give seedlings a drink to help them reach the water below. The other difference I see with the hydroton is that I probably need to start seeds elsewhere then transplant them in to it... I started seeds directly in the bed and I have peas which are larger seeds that stayed up and have sprouted but I'm thinking the other seeds I dropped in have probably worked their way down way too low in the bed by now with raising and lowering the water level and having the hydroton float up and down...

OP, not sure where you come up with things sometimes... who said anything about using eggcrate to hold weight? I can in fact say that it will hold some weight more than just itself... just not sure where that came from...? I built a shelf to mount my skimmer on in my saltwater tank when I first set up my big saltwater tank and had the skimmer in my 75 gal sump, the water level was too high for the skimmer so I took a flat piece to set the skimmer on then made legs also out of eggcrate just zip tied together and raised the skimmer up about 10-12" and it was like that for at least a year before the sump sprung a leak (it had a leak originally that I tried repairing and after a year the repair failed)... the skimmer weighs a bit plus has a pretty large pump that is mounted to it creating quite a bit of vibration on the eggcrate and it was fine. Is it meant to be a load bearing shelf? No... but it does support more than just it's own weight.

skimmer size compared to 5 gallon bucket


eggcrate skimmer stand

My 240 is operational again. I bought a jebao dct12000 because my dc9000 has been really good in 2+ years of continuous use, but it's out in the greenhouse now. I am thinking I'm going to move the rest of my small tilapia into the 240, but this video has 48 in there and I have about 35 that are a little bigger plus 10 a little smaller and about 30 quite a bit smaller and I am thinking it's going to get a little crowded.... But they are outgrowing the smaller tanks they are in now, so might still move them all in to the 240 for the next couple months until the greenhouse is warm enough for them... The real question will be how much filtration I need to keep the 240 looking nice. Right now I am just overflowing to the sump as a settling tank and there is a baffle the water goes over to get to the return pump and I put some filter media on the top of the baffle to try and keep crud from getting to the return pump. I also put a sand and gravel bed in the 240 to hopefully keep the detritus from floating around as much so I can siphon it like a normal fish tank but the only thing is it's going to be overstocked so I don't know if I'll be able to keep the water clear or not. I have a couple filter socks I'm going to put on the overflow and a bunch of filter media that I'm going to put in the settling side of the sump that is supposed to be delivered tomorrow. Then if I need more I plan to build an effort to add to the system because I want it to stay looking decent until I move the tilapia to the greenhouse.




I'm also considering building an indoors AP system now that the big tank is up and running, it would be easy to add, but I have moisture issues in the fish room already which I have to run a dehumidifier for so I don't know if that would make it worse.