Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Dave, it seems like they were cuddling when no one was looking

Tek, you don't get dry areas in the gravel? I did with my small prototype. Obviously your plants don't seem to mind. I would have expected a more extensive water distribution grid on the top of the gravel with just Continuous Flow.

Janet, I don't seem to have a problem with dry spots but i did cheat. The gravel in the bed is really no deeper than 8 inches so with 4 inches water the plants don't have to send their root system too deep to find water. My only problem is with that is that the tomato doesn't doesn't stand well on its own.

JP, I'm almost divorced and you're in need of a life... :tongue3:

Maybe you should pm that sort of info DD! you never know whos watching out here

HE HE! Hey im not really a deviate just an ap insomniac

"taking notes"

Yeah, Monya's Dad might be reading this...

In need of alife JP? I thought ap was a life! besides DD you could end up like this

Teknix, just a couple of questions:
1) how did the plants get wet....rain?
2) is the duckweed food for the fish in the tank or are u growing it?

Nice simple setup

EB it seems to me that the plants derive enough moisture from the water that is being cycled. It wasn't untill this week that the I moved the plants out from under the roof. So this week thy got a little rain but, as said I aven't noticed any difference in their performance. Just like hydroponics.. no real need to get the leaves wet. As for the duckweed, I have about 4 cultures in different tanks but some of them have been infested with a water fern that i have yet to identify. So the duckweed you see in the fish tank is there for food. However the culture that i purchased seems to have lemna minor and lemna something or rather.. the latter of the two the fish don't care for so we let that grow in the fish tank and then move it to our worm bins for their food. But hey thanks for the compliment

-Ingo

Hey Tek if it's azolla then feed it to the fish; I'd love to have some of that stuff as well as duckweed!

Good morning Dave
I checked out what azolla looks like.. its not it unfortunately. But it seems to disappear least the big ones i put in. I'll snap a pic of it tonight when i get home and post it.. maybe one someone can help me ID it
Oh hey Dave.. i was thinkin.. i could ship you a culture of duckweed.. only one catch you pay shipping

I can get duckweed at a fire dept retention pond on the way home from work, but I don't have a good place to grow it. Last time I tried it got too hot and bred mosquitoes in it.

should cover the water surface about 75% when you grow it.. plus the larvae are good for fish food.. i have a barrel with just water for them little buggers