Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

And buy the way, I saw a worm all dried up on the floor of my room, it looked like it was try to borrow in the carpet by the wall. Poor guy , he was all stiff and dried up.

So I guess night crawlers do crawl around at night, creepy .

-df

DF, you will need to leave a light on to restrict their movements, they tend to be "photo phobic"

Tony

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE.



Ok, I took all of the worms out of my grow bed last week, I counted 10, and I found 1 more on the floor ( ). So I am missing 3 worms.

Water was still cloudy

A day after that, I put 5 Gold Fishes (they where 1/2in long or so) in my 5 Gallon fish tank. I woke up the next morning; and I found a fish up on my lit for the fish tank. It was Suicide. So now for fish, I checked my water, all normal but 0-.25 ammonia. I thought it will be fine, but the next morning, I found one floater, so I checked the water, nothing moved, ammonia still was 0-.25. So I decided to find the other gold fish. I found one on the bottom dead, and found two gold fish in my so called "bio filter" box for my pump to go into. It was made out of a small plastic container, with holes drilled on the top and sides, and filled with pea gravel.

So with all the fish gone I decided to drain it all out. But wile cleaning my "bio filter", I found those three missing worms (those little buggers), and 1 of them was alive. So he’s in my back yard.

So I am ditching my "bio filter" AKA the sucky plastic box of death and doom .

I am not putting any water or anything else back into the system until I have found a way to keep solids out of my pump with out sucking my fish to death, I was just thinking about putting a thin cloth over the intake of the pump, and baring it under gravel in the bottom of the grow bed.

How have you guys (and gals of course ) over come this fish killing aspect of the pump?

-df

Hey DF:
If the pump doesn't have some kind of screen one thing you can use is a net basket which you can find in the pond sections of some pet or landscaping stores. They are black plastic with a grid of small holes in them. You can cut out a hole for the pipe and so enclose the pump.

i have seen those around, didnt realy know what they where for, i thought i could use them as net pots, but there to big.

see that what i was "trying" to make with the sucky plastic box of death and doom, but it didnt turn out to well

thank you

-df

ok i got some thing new.

i am takeing a Plant Science Class at College (C.O.D.).
and i was talking to my professer about Aquaponics, and he was quite intrusted.

in my class we need to do a project, and i am deffelntly do in a Aquaponics thing.

so he let me have space in the green house to build an Aquaponics system!



so we whent to the green house and messerged out a 3 foot x 3 foot space on a table 3 feet above the ground. i am thinking of a system no more then:

40 gallons, and a 1:1 ratio. unless i go with a smaller fish tank. like 15 gallons.

any thoughts plase let me know.

my display will be showing of Backyard Aquaponics, and this forum.



tell me what you think

a 70gal Rubbermaid tank is 40" long, 24" tall. I bet it would fit in that space diagonally. Tuck it underneath the table, and maybe sink it a little in the ground if possible. If you can't sink it, turn it so a little of it sticks out into the aisle so you can get to the fish

a 3' x 3' x 1' growbed would be 67 gallons.

Pump straight up from the tank to the growbed on the table, set up a looped auto-siphon to drop water back to the tank. Golden!!

A larger water volume will be more stable.

thank you janet. i kinda need it to be moveable, so at the end of the semester i can take it home. so 70g a little to big.

3' x 3' x 1' it 67 gallons?

so i will be chillin with a 40 gallon tub(if i can get my hands on one).

i was thinking about haveing a NFT tube going into the Growbed. like Pump to NFT to GB to autosython, to fish tank?

1 gallon = 231 cubic inches

36 x 36 x 12 = 15,552 cubic inches

15.552 / 231 = 67.3 gallons.

a 70gal Rubbermaid moves easily in a station wagon.

Some NFT would be fun to play with, but if there is any way you can put the growbed in the cycle before the NFT, the solids would deposit there instead of the NFT. That complicates the mechanics, I know. Just something to think about. Maybe get fish that make little poops?

Or you could set up a little "Barrelponics" setup to wow everyone in class as to how easy it is to do....

Here's a link to one that Joel did based on Travis Hugheys design.... has a link to Travis's system in the first post

http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... highlight=

I would go with the barrel ponics rough design because of the low cost and availability of plastic barrels.

But, if you want some fish tanks for your system, let me know, I'm sure I have something you can use and I'm just up the hill from you.

the barrelponics manual is what got my intrusted in aquaponics.

i am going to try to get my parents camra to take photos of the space for everyone.

i was thinking about just getting an old waggon, or dolly, and build a system on that. so i can move it any where i want(with a power outlet).

what do you think...

-df


ps should i start anuther thred?

why not

There are Rubbermaid storage tubs at WalMart that hold 50 gallons, if you're interested in keeping the costs down. Yoyu should make a truss out of 2x4s to keep the tub from bowing out too much. I am using 25 gallon Sterilite tubs from Walmart for grow beds. If you wanted to make a mini DD system just use a 50 gallon storage tub and up to two 25 gallon grow beds, each with a loop siphon. Since the loops are out of phase most of the time it limits how low the water level gets on average. A 100 GPH pump would probably service these OK - I am using a 340 GPH fountain pump to service four at a greater distance than what you are proposing and its still a little too much flow. HTH!

hey dave, do you have the specs for your system. i am looking at your thred, and i feel like i am skiping alot of stuff.

thank you