Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Have fun!

That's a long trip, be safe!

We'll make sure the posts continue..safe travels

Hey Joyce where are you?

Hi friends, great to be back. The holiday season is so intense here at the ministry. When you have 32 children living with you the "elf house" was busy, busy getting ready for the big day. With each child getting at least 5 gifts each, that is 160+ packages under the tree, well the tree really gets buried, so we bring in boxes filled to the top. This does not include the new bikes that have to be wheeled through. Also there are presents for the ladies and the few men here, 56 people in all. Then the culinary arts school does the new years eve party at the Great Outdoors which is a exclusive RV resort up the road. So we cleaned up christmas and went right into catering. OK, so now to breath, welcomed in the new year and checked on the fish. Well, lots to catch up on there. Mealy bugs, molds, one of my sons kept up on the upkeep of the tanks and even found a leak that nearly left the fish on dry land one night.
On the great side of this we have had really sweet tomatoes, broccoli, habinero peppers (don't cut them with out gloves), chili peppers, parsley, chives, lettuce, and there are now heads forming on the cabbage. This is doing so well my husband has now agreed that I am not crazy, or he is willing to go crazy with me. We took a trip today to check out a building company that does green houses and we will be redoing the whole system. It was the tomatoes that I brought him each day that did it.
We have another catering this Saturday, but I will send pictures of the progress soon.
Missed you all, Happy New Year and best wishes.
Joyce

Wow, you do have a full plate each day. Looking forward to the Pictures and hope the New Year gives you what you need.

Great work Joyce, in everything you've been doing!

New Year, new beginnngs. The system has proven that I "may" be on to something. I fed fresh tomatoes to my husband and got his attention. Now it is time to redo and add more grow beds. The main tank will be lowered into the ground half way to help make the gravity feed and get rid of one pump, or atleast use it when I set up a different system. I have had problems with the gravel "gumming up" with poo and have water running on top of the beds. I know this is because there is the wrong ratio of fish to grow beds. Part to be solved with the upcoming fish fry. I also want to learn how to do a flood and drain system. Next new learning curve. Now to do this I believe I need a tank at the top of the grow beds to pump water into, that in turn goes to the grow beds flooding the system and then drains back into the main tank. Am I correct on this?

Good to see you back Joyce, you've progressed a long way, I remember that it was well over a year ago that I sent you the book.. One way to get things flooding and draining is to restrict the drains of your growbeds. As you pump directly into your growbed, it will fill faster than it drains, then switch the pump off for a while as the bed drains out.. Very cheap and easy to get a timer for your pump..

Or you could try a syphon....

I just checked my records, I got your book on August 30, 2005 Joel. My has time flown by with lots of work in between. Sure has been good.
I have tried the auto syphon and still do not understand it. I really am not all that technical. I have a basic understaing but will be getting some of the other minds here to look at spots dealing with this. I do understand the switch to the pump and filling the beds faster than they drain. I have been suprised at how much a 1/4 inch hole brings forth water. No wonder a leaky faucet will raise your water bill so much.
I have been working up a plan to make a green house out of pvc that should stand up to some "small" huricaine winds. After I get the plan all down I will post it and see what you think.

This next section is from a thread called New Tank. I did not want to hijack John's site.
New question to help both John and my self. I also have a 5' radius tank that is 4' deep. I was going to use this in my water garden area, but may be should switch the two out, with still burying part of the tank for gravity feed reasons. Thoughts on this?

Hi Joyce,
Great work!

You don't necessarily need a tank at the top of the growbeds. You can work with water just moving between the tank and the growbeds. The challenge is that the tank water level can fluctuate more as you fill all the growbeds in an F&D system. I resolved that by using a separate pump for each bed and staggering the fills with timers. Other folks are using a sump tank below the fish tank to accept overflow. There are a lot of different answers at this point.

Finally getting a few pictures up. The Talapia were caught and a fish fry done for the house. These are the ones that didn't get away.

wow! what great looking fish Joyce! Well done!

Wow, There you go!

The small system waiting at the missions house will be moving to the back of the main house pictured.

Go Joyce!

How did the tilapia taste? Did you purge them ot eat them straight out of the system?