Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures when I put the seedlings and small plants in the system, but holy shit the plants have grown so much over the last 3 weeks!! I'm not used to things growing this quickly with the spring temperatures we have...

These pumpkin and zucchini plants were about 10-15 cm high 2 weeks ago. They've had a good time getting lots of water and good stuff from the F&D beds so now they're getting too big to stay inside the greenhouse. They've found a good spot outside now! All three have flowers ready to open and little fruits going already

This is about 2 weeks ago. pumkin, zucchinis, cucumber, pickle and hot peppers on front row, bell peppers and peppers on back row.


And this was today, going strong!

Thanks! I tried to keep it clean while designing and building it, it increases the wife (girlfriend) acceptance factor

Unfortunately I also had 2 fish deaths.
One had obvious bleeding in the stomach area, I think it must've mistaken something for food, maybe a bit of wood or something. I've been taking care to keep everything clear of the water but something might have fallen in.

The other is a mystery though, no signs of why or how it died. It was just lying on the bottom of the fish tank one morning. It was the smallest of them, probably around 6 cm long.

Today there was one fish that was acting a bit weird, sometimes seeming to gasp for air at the surface while other times just being lethargic at the bottom of the tank.
That's just one of them, the others are all very active and swimming around the whole tank volume.
They all eat OK, their food is gone within 10-15 minutes.

Ammonia has been 0.25 ppm or lower with the exception of 2 days (between 0.5 and 1ppm).
Nitrites have been at 0.75-1 ppm for 3 days but are back at 0 now, otherwise haven't been above 0.5 ppm.
Nitrates are between 20 and 50 ppm lately.
Water temperature has been between 15 and 21 degrees so I don't think I'm at toxicity levels yet for nitrites...
I've added the water quality measurements graph. Red is ammonia, yellow is nitrites and green is nitrates.

I've got an air pump running 4 stones, 2 in each tank. So I also don't expect it to be a DO level issue.

I'm hoping it's just stress related. I'll be getting my trout fingerlings pretty soon but I don't want to put them in the system if I'm having issues. The trout hatchery is not too far from here so I can get them whenever I feel I'm ready, no pressure.

As expected, the lethargic fish did not make it. It was lying on the bottom of the tank this morning
The 7 remaining goldfish are very active and are feeding well, let's hope this was the last death...

I can't see anything wrong with the fish, no spots or bleeding or anything weird.
This morning's values:
pH 7.5
KH 5
GH 11
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrites 0 ppm
Nitrates 10 ppm

My plants are growing and taking up more nutrients while I have less fish so I think I need to get more fish to get more input to the system. Just a bit reluctant to do so after the 2 mysterious deaths of the last couple of days

So the remaining fishies are very happy, no more deaths.
I'm in need of more fish but am on the fence in regards to what kind of fish.
As 4 of the 6 grow beds are in the greenhouse, temperatures of the water are maybe a bit too high for trout.
We had a hot (for Belgium) spell the last couple of weeks, with temps of 30-35 degrees C.
So now the water is at 19 degrees C, which might be already on the warm side for trout with summer coming up...

So I might have to change the idea of growing trout to growing catfish.

There's a lot to be said but I think images say more than words so here goes:

Some more pictures:

And some more:

Looks awesome!

Thanks

Had my first holy shit moment today. We went out to a friend for a BBQ yesterday evening and stayed the night. When coming back today the whole zone around the aquaponics was flooded. Apparently in our haste to get going I forgot to turn off the tap water feeding into the sump tank, making it overflow...

Luckily it's the lowest point in the system so apart from costing me quite a bit in water usage and upsetting the water balance (pH went from 7.5 to 8.0 & KH went from 6 to 9 DH), no harm was done. All fish are still alive although a bit skittish and not wanting to feed yet!

I've got the parts here for an automatic top-up system, time to hook that up so that this can't happen anymore!

Aquaponics strawberries, sooooo delicious! Way better taste than the strawberries one can buy in the stores around here