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Comment by Bob Campbell on May 28, 2014 at 6:08pm

Kim get one of those little water feature pumps that makes a crown of water.  Run it during the night to cool the water and place something over the tank to keep it cool in the daytime.

Comment by Kim Romen on May 28, 2014 at 5:51pm

water was up to 104 this morning before much sun was even on the FT and garden beds.  I'm starting to think coco core might be the way to go for garden beds.  said the outside temp was 85.  could my thermostat be broken?  could it already by 104?  i located the thermostat in another area of the tank, cleaned it off, and put a gallon of ice water in the FT have had extra shade on the system: shade cloth, cushions from an old couch, and now threw on a couple of foam kitchen rugs.  the whole thing isn't shaded but considering it's mostly shaded and it's a bit cloudy today, i'm worried about the summer.  i am trying to plan to change the system out completely this summer so am not wanting to invest much more in this system.  Last night I dreamed that the fish died.  some of them have been up closer to the surface when i go out to feed them and they eat well when i feed them.  waiting on more ice to freeze.  what is the rest of your water temps at?  what are u doing to help?  i have my covered IBC tote buried a foot or more.  thx

Scott, your peppers put mine to shame, too!  I wonder how far down the roots are going in that barrel.  they must love the space!

Comment by Scott Bloom on May 28, 2014 at 4:39pm

These plants produce lots of little peppers that are about 3" tall and a little over 1" wide.  I am saving all the seeds and if there is a tour this fall I will give them out to whom ever wants them.  I read somewhere that if the summer is hot, to raise plants that produce small fruit.  It seems to be working for me.

Comment by John Malone on May 28, 2014 at 4:29pm

Nice, Scott Bloom.

They put my pathetic specimens to shame.

Comment by Scott Bloom on May 28, 2014 at 4:21pm

These are pics of my Lunchbox bell peppers growing in my 60 gallon AP system.  This is my prototype system that I turned the pump on for the first time August 2012.  I planted the peppers from seed spring 2013 and they survived through the winter.  Last summer the peppers grew, but nothing spectacular, and then came this spring.  The plants are currently 34" tall and the leaves are huge.  Anyway here are the pics,

Comment by Kim Romen on May 28, 2014 at 12:43am

Matt, the fish are at 88.4 now at 11:40pm.  I did actually freeze a gallon of water.  I'll put it in in the morning.  reminds me of pouring boiling hot water in the tank in the winter.   jeepers.  summer just began!  I do have shade over them and the tank is fully covered.  I'm planning on expanding the system so haven't wanted to spend more money on this one with styrophome and the such.  I hope I don't have to put ice in daily, though.  our freezer is usually pretty full. 

Stephanie, pretty looking basil!

Comment by Jim Troyer on May 27, 2014 at 10:34pm

Hi Steph

My Irises just got done blooming.  They have full sun, whereas your are shaded so that may be the difference, only time will tell.

I had 12"+ tilapia jumping while I was trying to catch them last night.  They are pretty smart, they jump parallel with the tank to land back in and I even had one jump into the next tank.  Mind you they are jumping over the net and my shoulder and landing back in the 60" long aquarium again, it is pretty spectacular!  

They are smart too, one figured out that if he hit the glass tube style heater I would look to see what the noise was.  He made several passes at the heater, clacking it off the glass each time and stopping to look to see if I was paying attention.  I wondered if he was hungry and sure enough he bolted for the food.  After that he asked to be fed regularly, pretty smart!

Comment by Stephanie Bader on May 27, 2014 at 10:18pm

Basil and tomatoes from the garden. I think I'm going to do the same thing as John and pull them as soon as all the fruit's gone instead of trying to over summer them. Though last year i had a problem with the fruit only getting orange and never bright red after the temperatures hit a certain range.

None of the koi that I managed to hatch survived. They either cannibalized each other or starved i'm not sure they just slowly disappeared and i wasn't able to tell who was picking on who because they were all about the same size at least to my eye. And I think that anything that hatched in the pond would have been eaten by the mosquito fish.

I've been having trouble with water hyacinth roots getting into everything so i've been slowly pulling them out again. My nitrates never get above 0, so i'm not sure if i just need more fish or less plant matter.We're still tinkering with the expansion so if i want more plants I guess I'll need more fish. Just need to figure out between more koi or more blue gill. I think the biggest disadvantage of having a pond system is that it's really hard to get fish out of it. The light has to be just right if I even want to see the blue gill.

Jim, those irises you gave me last year still haven't bloomed, just gotten bushy. Am I doing something wrong with those?

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on May 27, 2014 at 8:42pm

I'd say you're there.  Are you covering the tank and not letting the sun hit it?  If so do that.  one thing I would do is put bottled water jugs in the freezer and let them freeze over night and them put them in the sump like ice cubes, also when you put those in put in some more to let them freeze.  and change them out.  I would do this twice a day once when I left for work then trade them out when I got home.   try to get the water down to at least 90   

Comment by Kim Romen on May 27, 2014 at 6:23pm

my FT water is 99.1 already.  what temp is too high?

Sheri, thx for the comments!

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