Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I was talking to Sara about our interest in fancy goldfish for our next aquarium and thought I may have made that mistake, thanks for pointing it out. Ours are Koi with longer bodies and barbels ...
Let me see if I can get this clear in my head before I put my foot in my mouth ... again

http://thegoldfishtank.com/goldfish-info/biology/differences-koi-carp-goldfish/
The main differences between the two types of fish are:

Goldfish are generally smaller than koi when adult.
Goldfish can be seen in a much greater variety of body, fin and tail shapes than koi.
Koi tend to have a greater range of color and pattern combinations than goldfish.
Koi have clearly visible barbels near their mouths, which are missing from goldfish.
Goldfish have a split caudal fin, while on koi, the caudal fin is joined.
The dorsal fin of the goldfish is detached and free at the back, while on the koi, it is attached along the whole of its length.

Oh yeah the barbels that is what I was trying to think of.

I gotta say though, those Shubukin goldfish are just about as cute as can be too.

I'm currently trying to tool-up to build cabinets, something I've never tried. We have a tablesaw, router and some other hand tools, but I need to figure out what else I will need. I'm open for suggestions.
First off I need to build an aquarium stand for the 45 gallon tank we recently picked up for the livingroom.
Not knowing anything, I'm looking at clamps that hold panels together

This looks cool and if it isn't good enough for cabinet making I can use it for metal fabrication. But seriously I have no clue, and need help.

I hadn't thought about this type of tool either, but it looks great. What do you think?

Brian have you thought about using a doweling jig and glueing the joints?

I use an old doweling jig that I bought when I was an apprentice, it's one of the tools I have kept using over the years and it still works the same as it did when I first bought it.

I don't know what they cost in the US, or even what they cost here now but I think a doweling jig would not be too expensive over there, you guys make them.

Glueing and doweling make a good solid joint and you won't need those corner clamps.

You're on the right track with using pocket hole joinery. Doweling jigs work well but are slower than using a really good pocket hole jig.

I think I'd skip on that particular jig and probably on the clamps as well. I think you'll be spending a lot of time trying to get it adjusted if you're making many cabinets.

Kreg makes several really good pocket hole jigs probably the K5 master kit will give you everything you need except one of their corner clamps (I'm pretty sure it includes their face clamp to hold surfaces flush while you screw them together (like cabinet face frames)). The corner clamp isn't essential but will really speed up the process when you're doing right angles (like fixed shelves).

https://www.amazon.com/Kreg-Tool-K5-Master-System/dp/B00YT79BS2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcPMdLULbjY

It's not cheap but will speed up your cabinet building once you have it setup. I'll suggest that you watch a couple of videos on building cabinets using pocket holes so you know what will work for you. Whatever you buy, get one that is easy to align to the edge and can adjust for different wood thicknesses.

Good morning
Here is a lousy image of one of our Koi.

I wonder if there is a film on the lens of my smartphone camera I can not see? I'll try to work on that, because damn, I'm wasting my time trying to get pictures out of this camera.
Thank you Joeblow and Scotty435 for helping me get going on the cabinet making project(s).
I own a dowel jig, so that's good. I bought it when I made the counter-tops for our kitchen. I was all impressed with myself for using those and actually making it work. One of those times when we hope the spirit of our father's are watching over us while we do something using knowledge they instilled in us.
Indeed doweling is a little slow for a guy with little patience and endurance. When I saw a video of someone using the pocket jig on right angle joints I thought, wow now that's sweet and could be quicker too. Of course watching someone else do something always looks quick and easy.
The Kreg looks well designed although I'm a bit leery of plastic tools, but I can get over that if it does the job. But then again Joeblow's old-school dowel jig is a tough act to follow. MAn that this is pretty. Mine looks like a block of steel with a set of collars that I wish had some place to hold them like that Kreg has for it's accessories.
In other words, "Thank you guys, you made my day!"

I had a wonderful walk with Nell's granddaughter Rachel and my daughter Brittany down to the Sapello River on Sunday. Thanks to beavers or muskrats the river is blocked off in a couple places providing an oasis from the drought. Thank goodness we're getting afternoon rains, because of this the flow in the creek has increased from a trickle.
Hope is all we need.
Brian

Glad to help Brian.

FWIW - I have an older Kreg K3 and there are metal sleeves where the drill bit goes plus the plastic is about like the rubbermaid stock tanks. I think the storage container part of the new one isn't as durable but the jig part is - the whole thing should last you for many years if you get one.

Good morning
I'll just start off with the best stuff in my bucket list updates

We built a little WIFI tower way out in the middle of nowhere. This makes me so happy!
I've also been able to walk again and of course this is also on top of my list for being happy as hell!

I love work, especially when it isn't everyday.

I'm here to tell you it was hot enough to fry an egg on that solar panel. We had good sunblock and protective gear and I even wore knee-pads all day, so we came though the long work day unscathed.

I can't think of anything better after this year of pain and anguish than getting back to working and walking.
With a little luck we have another tower to build for Desertgate Internet coming up hopefully next month.
I don't know if lately I'm more into researching tools or using tools, but it is really nice to believe in the possibility of being able to need tools again.
On this last job Jason and I mixed 30 80# sacks of Quikcrete in a wheelbarrow. So while that's really great exercise, I got to thinking maybe it is time to buy a new cement mixer?
I need one that is gasoline powered so we can use it on these remote sites. I leaned two things pretty quick: 1> there is a new style of cement mixer out now called a Wheelbarrow style mixer. No wheelbarrow is used. In fact they won't dump high enough for a wheelbarrow. 2> Gas engine powered cement mixers are not popular and of the two I've been looking at both look like retrofits from electric driven models!
I like this one pretty well, however I believe the reviewers when they say this is pretty wimpy design and the no dumping issue is a pain.

Not to mention pricey and the $140 shipping. It is an American company if that's worth anything anymore.
Also we're going to be finishing the exterior of our house and if I can use this to make stucco and figure out how to dump it in buckets it should be adequate for that.
I just worry that I spend too much time reading and wanting instead of actually doing the work. I suppose that is to be expected coming out of what seemed to be a bleak future health-wise.
Speaking of health, I've got an appointment on Tuesday with Doctor Lily Blecher a holistic practitioner. I'm super hopeful she can push me the rest of the way to cured of this horrid auto-immune disease.
This is also going to be pricey. Of course money is the other reason work is good. I'm tired of being broke. The cost of this doctor visit would go a long way toward paying for the cement mixer, hehe, but then if I'm sick I couldn't mix cement
Damn, they get ya comin' and they get ya going.

I''m really impressed with the growth in our little koi pond. I thought for sure the Hornwart was gone, but no, its doing really well. In fact I think it needs trimming so the Koi have more room to swim.
In regard to projects here on the ranch, I am still in limbo emotionally not knowing for sure if I'm out of the woods or this is another remission period. I keep thinking I figured it out, and blammo!
It's difficult keeping the foods which may be causing inflammation completely out of my diet. The latest issue was cornbread Nell made, mainly from home grown - ground blue corn flour from the farmers market. Going back after I had three days of swollen knees Nell noticed the store bought corn meal which she supplemented with didn't say gluten free. Dammit because that was one of her best corn-pones ever and I ate it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Sometimes it does feel like I can't win for the losing, luckily not often.
Loving life and loving doing my morning newsletter again.
PM me your email address if you would like to check it out.
Brian

Jup, they see us coming, all the time.

But good that you see the light at the End of the tunnel.

Just put some ramps under the mixer, couple of 6x6, put some notches were the tires and the rear bows are, so it can not rattle of the ramps.

My big truck did not want to start, got a road mech with a hand help computer, tells me a Ford blocked code.
Hauler, and of to the shop, very pricy.
At the shop no error code, turn the key and the beast starts.

Oh well, a truck vacation and an expensive one.

They see us coming...…………………….

Damn. I know that one too.
I used to try and make light with a customer when they would bring their consumer electronics repair job to the shop for the "free estimate" but the VCR or whatever it was, worked, "maybe it just wanted to go for a ride in the car?"
I was really good at finding those mechanical issues with my training as a mechanic. Almost always, something was making a bad connection. Then again, my specialty as a VW mechanic was electrical systems and back in the 70s that was a fairly rare specialty
In hindsight, I may have been better off sticking with auto mechanics with that specialty. VCR repair service sure dropped dead suddenly. I got ten good years from it, but all those service manuals and spare parts became useless overnight when Laserdiscs came around.

Unless mixer has a Honda engine, I would go with electric and small 4000w generator (Honda of course).

I have fought with Kohler/B&S/and amother line and all had issues of some sort. Honda 120 or 160 seems to fire right up and keeps on working till ot runs out of fuel.

I agree on the Honda engine deal.

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

Good morning!
I'm outside early today enjoying the weather and working in the dirt (read "mud"). What could be better than that?
Yesterday morning prior to dawn I was watching seven Bull Elk in the backyard munch their way across our field when a fog engulfed them and they just faded from sight. Wow, after nearly a year of little snow or rain we have so much moisture it gobbles up 1200# creatures!
I love this time of year because the Bull Elk hang together in harmony, cruising and grazing in prelude to the Fall games where they will be pitted against one another. Yeah, it pretty cool and we're seriously lucky they still come by even though we built our house so close to their trails and pastures.

Anywho, I'm outside looking for something to do around the yard and picked the Koi pond to play with.

The fill which we put around the Koi pond came from the excavation of our new bedroom site.
I've been spending time on https://permies.com/ learning about homesteading and sustainable gardening landscaping.
They have something called Hugelkultur described here: https://permies.com/t/17/Paul-Wheaton-hugelkultur-article-thread It's basically rotting biomass formed into a berm which creates its own nitrogen cycle. These are great for planting berries, shrubs etc in immediately. They create their own microcosm I think is the word.
I hope folks in the know will chime in and correct me before I get too far into this very cool project.
My goal is multipurpose, I need to raise the lower side of the Koi pond. I'd also like to stabilize the ground temperature around the little pond, as well as have a nice backdrop of plants behind pond.

We've got these peeled logs which have been sitting in the yard for ten years. I finally found something to use them for, yay!
The idea is to dig a trench next to the fiberglass spa for the first layer highly rotted logs. I should have no trouble finding rotten in the forest around the house.
Ideally Hugelkultur berm should have a south facing component which takes advantage of solar energy to create dew which in turn moistens the Hugelkultur mound. I hope having the water in the Koi pond so close I can mimic the dew collection effect of a properly constructed Hugelkultur mound. We'll see as it seems I have nothing to loss from trying.
First I'll dig a trench 18" (45cm) below ground level on the low side, then place heavily rotted logs in the trench. That's actually as far as I got while reading about Hugelkultur on Permeis.com.
One step at a time really ought to work on something like this I hope. I may not even be able to get that load of rotten logs today and if I do wood that has been outside after all these rains is just about as heavy as it's ever going to be, hehe.

Currently the Koi pond is filled with pond plants and it is considered RAS (recirculating aquaculture system) i.e. it has a DIY MBBR (moving bed bio reactor) as well as a RFF (radial flow filter) plus an inline UV sterilizer.
Sorry if I mistakenly cited facts and added definitions you already know I'm cross posting this between Permies and BYAP and tried to be clear.
Please let me know where I can improve this project, I'd love to know what you think.
Brian

I am jealous of the rain. We are back to burning, closest fire is about 5 miles and the smoke is getting nasty, it rains ashes.

Interesting projekt have going, do you have some of that old straw left. You can use that to.

I would put a nice bedding under the logs and maybe even cover them with straw and than the dirt.

I do that with my potato towers, round 4 inches of straw and than the dirt.

Good morning!

I made considerable progress on the Hugelkultur project yesterday, yay!

One of those blessed days where I was able to turn the positive energy I felt into actual work and progress moving us forward through my long 'to do' list.

I setup my rest chair next to the Peppermint Petunias Brittany gave us as an observation point enabling me to see how I wanted the dirt I was moving to be spread around. Yeah baby I was getting my feng shui on!

That's when I realized all this digging next to the pond may undermine the already weak support for the NE corner of the spa.
I used a heavy steel tamper to pack the dirt at the base of the spa in the hope that would be enough in case it rained.

Which it did! The day was capped off with a nice rain shower.

The pond is still in place this morning so I guess I get another chance to address the lack of support today. I'm fairly certain I put at least one concrete block under that low side of the excavation.
The Hugelkultur mound will not offer any support as it is rotting biomass and will shrink over time, so today I'll dig that corner out and see what I can do to support it. That corner has always been the low edge of the pond. Now would be as good a time as any to clean the pond and drain some water out so I can jack it up and set it back down on concrete.
The pond did so well last Winter without all the hay bales I had covering it the first year I may aim for less covering again this year. It's getting more difficult each year with rapid climate change to plan for what the weather might be. The scientist's agree it is getting warmer, but I don't guess we can count on anything. The most relevant part of the phrase Climate Change may be CHANGE.


Speaking of change, we've prioritized projects and the important greenhouse expansion has been put off until next year. It came down to working out an understanding of what I can accomplish now that my health is slowly coming back to normal. At 64 I've got to come to terms with the fact that if I'm lucky enough to get to a point where I can work for a whole day and not be in massive amounts of pain I will not be able to go at projects in the manner I used to.
An example of how I used to do stuff is I'd think about the project for a short time weighing a few pros and cons, then jump in the deep end no matter what the results of that internal debate.
If I was lucky, long about midnight I'd have so much accomplished I was at a no turning back point and felt good enough about the project at that point I'd then go back and reassess whether what I was doing was going to provide the results I dreamed of.
You can probably see how that technique may be troublesome for an aging guy?
This time however, while I know we need to increase the space for vegetable production because climate change is making growing outdoors more and more problematic, throwing together a structure for the greenhouse may be possible, but getting it sealed in for Winter would be problematic. If the new greenhouse isn't sealed, no matter how mild this Winter may be it will freeze and all that frenzied work leading up to that point could be for naught.
This new section of greenhouse may be more difficult to earth-shelter you see, because busting rocks out like Jason and I did for the pond in the original greenhouse might cause cracks in that pond.
So even if I came up with a plan for the structure and managed to source the materials with our budget I'd still need to figure out how to heat the new greenhouse in Winter.
Damn reality, messing with my chill.

just work on getting the expansion built and sealed first... worry about heating later... in all likeliness you would be able to grow salad greens in the expansion without heat for the first winter as long as it has enough glazing to get it above freezing during the day. I guess time will tell how realistic that is as we approach my first winter attempting to grow salad greens in the hoop house but everything I've read says it can be done even with freezing night temps as long as the space thaws during the day.