Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Very nice!

Janet, What are your nitrate readings?

:blush: nitrates are still about 200. I'm trying to get that down by adding all the transplants, but it's hard. And fishies are so hungry, it's hard to say no to the little beggers. I'll have to go look and see if there is more basil for me to take cuttings from. (sigh)

Growth is great Janet...with all those nitrates you need to expand...

where's the chainsaw when you need it

Didn't know you can plant Basil from cuttings. I will try that.

I'm really excited to see the pics of the ornamental stuff doing well Janet. Great stuff.

I want to see that egg plant get Huge, so maybe the high nitrates are not to bad? 200 wont hurt the fishies me thinks.

I have another eggplant on a different plant, but I think with the lower levels of other nutrients, each plant is only able to do one eggplant at a time. They've dropped some flowers since setting the fruit. However, the eggplants are visibly bigger every day.

Fishies are perfectly happy at 200.

If the first expense is the last expense
it is the least expense!

Update. I built the sand columns I mentioned in the 'Conversation with a Really Smart Guy' thread and have attached a pic below. No movement on the nitrate yet, although nitrite has dropped to 0 from 0.25. On the down side, the ammonia keeps spiking up and then dropping back to zero just as quickly. (The pH is pretty low, so I'm getting away with it for now.) On the theory that perhaps the autosiphons are acting up when I am not looking, I shortened the vertical drop, and put the ends of the loop into guides to keep the water going back into the tank. That should help ensure that the siphons stop more reliably. I hear less slurping as they break now.

After reading Joel's comment about stocking about 25 fish per 500liters of growbeds as a nice safe number, I realized that I had almost twice that number of fish. No help for it--I ordered the minimum and split it with Dave. I thought gosh, I really should cull some more. But when I tried to net the runts, the largest one in the whole tank got himself caught. Gazing at him, I thought gee, I should just eat him. Ah ha--dinnertime menu was determined! I netted out a total of 6 of the largest fish I had. They ranged from 180g to 130g (6.4oz to 4.6 oz) - a little small, but doable. I cleaned and scaled them (first one was hard, but by the 6th, I had my touch back), dipped them in egg and milk, and rolled them in cracker crumbs and fried them up. Delicious!! Nice clear flavor, no muddy or fishy flavors. Both daughters gobbled theirs down (I de-boned theirs for them), but husband complained that they were a lot of work (I didn't de-bone his). So he's in the doghouse tonight. As the fish get bigger, I will be able to fillet them, but not at this size. Dinner also included beet greens from the dirt garden.

My older daughter was feeling a bit sorry for the fish, and commented that they looked nicer with their heads and alive. I assured her that the fish had good lives, better than most cow or chickens she has eaten. And as I said, she wolfed hers down, so she can't have felt that awful about it.

It all looks and sounds pretty impressive to me JP.....

Lookin' good jp!
I am drooling worse than a dog at a barbie of pissed idiots.
Right, thats it! I'm going fishin'

Wow.

Good on ya, JP!

Looks good Janet. Next time I'm sure you will be flat out fitting 2 in that pan.