Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Great looking Trout

Those trout look YUM

Howdy!
I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you for the complements.
I did a water change today, I don't know how many gallons, maybe five hundred gallons out of 2600. The system seems to be doing good although after the adding iron a month ago we had three floaters a few weeks ago. I guess the trout are kind of sensitive to that dosing. I thought giving the pond a quarter of what I did last year would be okay. I did less than a cup full this time. This time I had full power air bubblers going. Nevertheless I wonder if the iron does something to the availability of available oxygen in the water?
I am doing much better health wise and hopefully in the near future I'll be capable of focusing more attention to the science aspect of aquaponics.
After harvesting 17 trout averaging one pound and filling the freezer with smoked fish I need a break from dealing with that aspect at least for a few weeks or a month. I bought some Purina Aquamax 500 to hold them over while I get the stucco project finished.

I know that is no great deal, but with shipping the good stuff (Skrettings) costs ~$60 and I don't want to keep the excess for a whole year while the new fingerlings get big enough to use it.
Hopefully next year I'll be done treating this illness and be able to manage the fish feed better. I believe the reason the trout are undersized is the poor quality fish feed I fed them over the last couple months.
In permaculture, oh have I mentioned that I have another hobby? Actually from what I'm reading, permaculture is more of a way of living and adding to our productivity each year. The things we do this year will add to what we do the year after that and so on forward.
Well the first thing I need to do is plan on the quantity of fish and how much high grade feed it'll require to make them fat and healthy. Of course I'm saying this now after seeing Gunagulla's trout yield. If you haven't been ya gotta see what he and his wife are doing and how they do aquaponics. http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=24153&start=645
What I am noticing is cheap fish feed does't grow plants or fish all that great. Our trout are also 18 months and about half the weight. Another thing I noticed when I smoked these trout, omg they are fatty! Fat may be from the poor quality fish feed too. There were fat icicles hanging off the grill shelves!

I have learned a lot more thanks to the naturopath I've been seeing the mysteries of my battle with inflammation are being resolved. Dr. Lilly Blecher DOM now armed with several tests I've been taking that I don't have an Autoimmune disease, rather this is an autoimmune response to an overgrowth of yeast somewhere in my system.
https://www.cdc.gov/fungal/diseases/candidiasis/index.html I've got to take Fluconazole 200mg for 10 days
Saccromyces Boullardaii 1 capsule twice a day for a month
Oregano Oil 4 drops in water in a nasal spray twice a day for a month.

I did a forth test today which should verify and clarify more about what's is going on with me.
It's been four maybe five months since I had a severe inflammatory response and that's almost as long asit was after I started on immune system suppressants. I call that success! It also means we're on the right track to cure this incurable disease!

Great news Brian. Looks like progress is being made right across the board.

Thanks Nhibbo. I really like the way the naturopath diagnosed this. We sent the information to my primary physician along with a request for a prescription. I hope he sees how she did the diagnosis using the food allergy test and it gives him some ideas about how to diagnose these wield disorders in the future. The naturopath also requested I do this test: https://www.23andme.com/ next in combination with the urine test I just did. A cool sidebar is I get a ancestry test too. Now I'll find out how white I am, lol!
Brian

Brian look at that recipe and the advises.

I will do half a salmon and one of my Tilapias tomorrow, on oak and cherry pellets.

I do not like celery, so it stays out.

https://www.thespruceeats.com/how-to-sm ... on-1300787

I'm working on the outdoor koi spa hugelcultur project.
The idea is to stabilize the temperature around the tank itself. I still need to do some type of insulated box around the bio-filters and plumbing. I'm thinking of having a incandescent light inside the space between the barrels and the fish tank to add a little heat to the system. No straw bales this year, I will add the thermalpane glass over the top. I hope to get the hugel mound up above the tank top so I can have the glass higher on one side. I don't know if that will happen before the weather gets really cold and I have to close it in and be done.

Good morning

Yep, after receiving no significant snow fall last year we're now setting records for early snow, well I think we are.





This isn't going to be a Winter like last where it barely snowed at all, no.
Brian

That looks good Brian. I am not a big fan of snow anymore, but after last winter and this summer, I do not care in what form we get moisture.
October had already more moisture than any month of this year.
We are in for some snow this week.
Monday night we had -10C.
Have to dig up the last potatoes, today.

Hey hi gnoib. This storm is still here. It has been gentle and not terribly cold. I did a reading in the Koi pond this morning and got 48F, brrr poor Koi.
Here is my morning newsletter which covers what I accomplished yesterday. Yeah, I'm a happy camper!
Good morning!
After the early snow and cold weather we had this week I decided to kick myself into gear and do something for the Koi. The pond water temperature was already at 53F.

First-Snow-October-14th-2018-Hugel-Koi-Spa-covered
This system is RAS (recirculating aquaculture system) the main difference between this and our aquaponics system in the greenhouse, is the plants are in the Koi pond where as the plants in aquaponics systems are plumbed externally from the fish tank. These two systems do have similar mechanical and biological filtration. It was protecting the three DIY barrel filters, that I addressed yesterday.
Koi slow down in cold water and we need to stop feeding them or food gets caught in their slower moving digestive system.
This makes Koi (there are also four Channel Catfish) in this system ideal for cold weather endurance, because their feed is what drives the system. Less fish food means the bacteria in the biofilter which has also slowed down has less to do.

Koi-Pond-Hugelkultur-filters-closed-up-10-16-18
I've begun Chapter 3 of Permaculture, Designers Manual, so please take this story for what it is, a Permies Newbie doing my first project. It would make me very happy to hear what I can do better. This is layer five I think, and if the weather holds I'll be adding more layers to the Hugelkultur mound. When I get it as large as will fit in to this area so close to our house I'm thinking of adding either flagstone or rock to the south side where it faces the Koi Spa-Pond. I assume the Hugel will shrink over time as there are large rotten logs inside. I'm unclear if there is enough benefit in dew collection to make it worth have the flagstone up off the ground like they would be above the pond?

Koi-Pond-Hugelkultur-filters-Nell-inspects-10-16-18

Koi-Pond-Hugelkultur-filters-closed-in-more-rotten-wood-10-16-18

As I'm reading about permaculture systems, there are a lot of complexities and connections, it's right on the edge of a level of thinking I can comprehend.
With your help, I believe I'll get it.
So the image above is named: Koi-Pond-Hugelkultur-filters-rotten-wood-compost-pile-move. I'm thinking I can create a "connection" between the compost pile and the Koi pond.
What if on the next move of the compost pile I put it against the facade in front of the filters? There may two fold benefits, 1> Yet to be determined quantity of warmth provided to filter area. 2> less need to seal the rotten wood facade from drafts.
We are going to clean a horse stall at a friend's farm and bring home a trailer load of manure to mix in with the rotting hay compost.

Koi-Pond-Hugelkultur-filters-rotten-wood-move-compost-pile-up-against
I made the facade in front of the filter barrel from rotting dimension lumber. Every year we have had this system outside I build and dismantle the covering as per the season. With this system, I'm excited to see what happens to it come Spring.
There is a lot of mycelium on this wood, having the compost right up against the wood may make things decay too soon. I need to take into account that just as the bacteria in the biofilters and Koi slow down in the cold so will the mycelium. Complexities.

Koi-Pond-Hugelkultur-still-growing-larger
As I imagine what will happen in time to the rotting wood I built the facade from, I haven't been down a thought stream where the outcome is anything but good.
Thanks for the loan of the big book, Jim. I've finished Chapter 2, in Permaculture Designers Guide I'm happy about that. Thank goodness for the sparse pictures because these pages are 8" by 10" with small type and that chapter was a bit grueling to read. At some point I'll do what I often do and write about what I think I learned. This helps me clarify concepts.
Brian

Good morning!
Holy smackerel, it rained all day and all night and yes it's raining right now too.

I've been helping my son replace the ball-joints on his Blazer. We got the first side finished without much trouble. Day before yesterday, while we were working, a couple deer and bear hunters came by and asked if they could hunt. I agreed if we could have some meat. I've been seeing tracks and signs deer and elk have been very close the our house and gave them some tips about where they are. This is the second time, perhaps the third time these hunters have asked and been allowed here.
Yesterday morning they drove up to the house with a three pointer in the truck.
We now have some venison! We spent part of the morning butchering the two front legs we received. Perfect timing since deer season is over tomorrow.

With the cool wet weather, I was talking about needing a wood heater in the shop. Austin said there was a big pot belly stove in the barn. Awesome, so after butchering, we drove the Jeep and trailer down to the barn and retrieved the pot belly in the rain.

It was raining hard while I was trying to install the stove pipe cap, and I had to give up. It just wouldn't go on, grr

Now the lumber is wet and I'll need to re-stack it and get it off the ground. This is the lumber for the aquarium cabinet. That project went to the back burner when we began the stucco project on the house. That project stalled too, because of rapid climate change I need to modify the way I've done things here in the normally dry (16" of precipitation per year.) Keeping firewood dry here was never a big issue because it didn't rain in October and when it snowed it was powdery and often blew off the piles before it melted.
The term rapid climate change says it all, now I need to have a rapid response to go along with it.
The rain may pass over today, I hope so, I need to get on the shop roof and finish the installation of the pipe cap.

On the bottom I made a modification to the stove pipe, apparently we forgot to pick-up the 7 1/2" to 6" adapter. I tried to weld it in, but I'm out of acetylene. It's on the list, but naturopathy is using up every penny we have and it got back burnered too.

I'm pretty proud of that mod, nevertheless.
A lot of stuff is happening here all at once, for example the greenhouse roof is leaking zinc from the galvanized tin roof into the fish tank. This will hasten the trout harvest before they get sick.
"Damn rain," I never thought I'd say that here in New Mexico.
We need to scale up the firewood collection which we should have done already. This is going to be a very different Winter than last year and for that matter years past.
I need three times as much firewood as I have here. Sigh.
We were able to collect firewood all through the wimpy Winter last year. I have a feeling this year everything is going to be wet wet and snowy as hell. I've been remiss in making my morning newsletter and it's all these issues, projects, and project changes that have kept me too busy to write or even take pictures.
Oh well, we're doing pretty darn good, all these things considered.
We were not able to attend Della's Harvest fest. We did get to Albuquerque in time to have a great family dinner with Nell's and my family too. Japanese food and great visiting. It was great. Austin brought us all kinds of food goodies from Della's annual Fall Harvest Party. In my haste to make up for missing the good times at Della's, I ate two pieces of pumpkin pie along with all the brisket, turkey and potato dishes Austin brought. I completely forgot that eggs and dairy cause an inflammatory response in my joints. I woke up with painful finger joints as a reminder that I will never be able to eat eggs or milk products ever again
Dashed on the rocky shores of reality.
I'm going into surgery in the beginning of November for a brow lift, which hopefully lesson the pressure on my eyeballs. The surgeon says it won't, but if I tape my brows, lifting them up I feel instant relief from irritated eyes, the itchy scratchy feeling goes away immediately.
I went into see if I could get an appointment to talk to my primary physician before the surgery. Alas, "No openings," was the answer. I said I just wanted to talk to him and let him know I was feeling much better these days. Apparently the only part of that message the doctor got was that I was feeling better and they cut my hydrocodone prescription by two thirds, Which is fine, except for the fact that I'm having surgery in two weeks and the rules with a pain killer contract are what they give me is all I can get, not any from the surgeon either.
My anxiety level is heightened now.
What are ya gunna do about it? I've been coping with severe chronic pain for four years, I guess I can suffer a little more.
I am doing a heck of a lot better. I just need to pay closer attention to what I eat and that will keep the pain away.
Brian

I'm taking a break from forest work and fire-wood collecting, my son Austin and I have done for the last few days.



Getting more comfortable every day. Firewood on hand is like money in the bank.


Another plus is the adverse effects of eating pumpkin pie are wearing off. No pain killers today, yay!
Brian

Brian I love the pot belly stove, they a worth a small fortune here in Australia

I've got a mate who built one using the boiler from an old paddle steamer, boy can he throw some big logs into it.

Brian,

Where exactly in northern New Mexico are you?

I've got a ton of Aquamax that I'm not gonna be able to use before it goes bad and I'd love to share it with someone that will make good use of it. Our feed store here gets it in for me but I gambled and got too many bags. So if we're close enough I'd love to share.

Private message me. Maybe we can meet halfway. I've got the big fifty pound bags. I have 2000, and 4000

Holy mackerel! What's that about $3000.00US?