"Gravel Pit Self Reclaiming Aquaponics System"I knew When I ordered the book that there must be more to Aquaponic Gardening than using waste water from my fish tank,

[Larry Dale Smith]

and am enjoying getting started reading it! Especially since what I've learned about so far has confirmed what I decided would happen by my pumping water to flood irrigate from the free flowing liner-less pond in my gravel pit onto the gravel surface. I was sure this was a success of some kind despite of a huge increase of string algae (I must have 10,000 Japanese Trap Door Snails in there now from this) as the orchard grass which could barely grow there before filled in nice and thick with it getting 5 feet tall in places, and I was right the cottonwood trees growing in a stand next to the pond has taken off quite well now from having fish in there.

Now that I know my fish will do well and that the filtration system works,,,so to speak, can't wait find out/or figure out from the book and this forum what more to do, I will begin adding more fish (I spent around $10 on them to begin with, common goldfish and rosy red minnows as a test) I want to add Koi and edible fish of some kind, not sure how many goldfish I have now, but there appears to be plenty of minnows and snails to support many fish without extra feed, though the hoards of water boatman bugs have been scared off or eaten and only a few remain. I also have Water Sedge plants (quick former of peat) and bulrush plants (a wetland edible) ordered for spring planting along with quite a few of my spring planting trees that are on order being ones that will do well in the swampy condition/while making a nice wind break, so I should have a good start on my filtering of the water!

[Larry Dale Smith]

Re-thinking the water pump trouble (boy the things I think up when tired), must have been turning to fast and drawing air. I decided if wasn't getting hot enough to be vaporizing the water, warm yes, hot no! 

The new engine is overhead valve and an extra 1.5 hp giving it 6.5 total, that is a big step up, will have to try slowing down the engine and see if that helps next time. 

I know the old engine seemed like it was having the same trouble after getting it running good and getting the built up carbon burnt out of the exaust, just there was no way to slow that one down, it only had one speed,,,,,full throttle! 

Now that I think of it, that was how I blew the old engine up!  Began sucking air instead of water and over reved, BANG! 

[Larry Dale Smith]

I've still been doing more seeds: Austrian Hills pine, Quacking Aspen, and Rocky Mountain Juniper pluss another batch of red clover. On order are: my salad greens, Dwarf Italian Stone Pine, Hedge Cotoneaster, and Big Wyoming Sage Brush.

Not many would plant the Sage Brush because of it's nasty reputation, but it usually only grows where grass almost won't or best where it won't, and I have a patch of the place or maybe two or even three that haven't kept up responding well against pampering to avert the grasshopper plauge.

I think I saw a wolverine today on my way home from church but didn't want to stop to get a closer look! 

[Larry Dale Smith]

I got a used water pump for $80, it is a smaller pump that my old one (which I still need to figure out what is going on with as I haven't tried it again yet), but is great for running sprinklers. 

I ran it for 3 hours on a quart of gas. 

I watered the cotonwood trees with the pond water to get them going and hopefully leafing out. 

It's an oldy but a goody! 

I need to finish re-plumbing it, but other than that it took only cleaning the starter clutch to get it going. 

I added a few dozen minnows for food for the bass as well as hopes of lureing the other fish to come out of hidding.

[Larry Dale Smith]

I figured out what was wrong with my original pump, needed a hose clamp on the suction as it was drawing air. 

I have a hard time thinking ratonaly about simple problems due to my schizophania but sometimes it can be an advantage when the solution is un-logical or at least sounds un-logical.

I have seen some of the last batch of minnows I had put in, but none of my other fish though they have been making plenty of waste, so I put in 4 dozen more minnows and 2 dozen goldfish for food for the bass and to try to lure some out of hiding but have only see the newcomers once again just more often.

I ran both pumps at once yesterday, got the water clean in a hurry! 

Was evenly clean throughout the pond too, the small pump that is new to me runs 5 sprinklers scattered all around the pond for good circulation and airation while the big pump moves a large mass of water long distance through the gravel for deep cleaning. 

The smaller pump removes small enough amount of water I can run it every couple days keeping the water cleaner longer while the big pump can be then run very other week instead of every week and water twice as much at once for more effectiveness is what I've learned from the simple mistake with overlooking the hase clamp, it's all trial and error=learning from in my project anyway. 

My goat manure came yesterday too, 5 pickup loads of it! 

[Larry Dale Smith]

Steve R said:

try chinese alge sharks for hair algae it is there favorite food, they can tolerate the same temps as koi and get along well with there tank mates even little ones.  Dont forget that your cottonwood trees are great for growing oyster mushrooms.

I recently found two clumps of Oyster Mushrooms growing on small stumps (2 1/2 inches diameter) from removed trees, I do believe this was the first of these I've mever eaten! Delicious, perked me right up from the mowing I did this week and I wouldn't have likely been able to get more mowing done today after mowing some most every day this week if I hadn't had them in my tummy yesterday. I only harvested one clump as the other was to small to bother with despite being older and deteriorating, but the clump I did harvest had about 3 mushrooms decent sized and last I looked today was puting out new ones to take the spot,,,sure glad I made sure to put a sprinkler on them when running the pump today. The harvested clump came up second and was how I even recognised what they were, it sprang up almost imediatly after applying lime to the sawdust mulch to help it decompose sooner and help the grass continue to spring up through it, the lime sure made the goat manure smell like it was perfumed to and it is only $2 for a 50# bag where I found most of what I got of it.

Still got those algae sharks on my mind, will get some of those after the weather evens out to warmer weather, it is still snowing every once in a while, even though the last few years it was 90's degree days by now we got the warmest so far with 77 today as a heatwave!

[Steve R]

you dont have to wait for the weather to get warmer if your water is above 60 you can acclimate him if you drip acclimate him. Put him in a bucket and add some water from your system ever 5 minutes or use some air line to drip water into his bucket for an hour or so.

[Larry Dale Smith]

It is warm enough part of the time but is still getting cold part of the time, but should be able to rely on the weather soon.

[Larry Dale Smith]

Steve R said:

you dont have to wait for the weather to get warmer if your water is above 60 you can acclimate him if you drip acclimate him. Put him in a bucket and add some water from your system ever 5 minutes or use some air line to drip water into his bucket for an hour or so.

Can these fish handle water that fluctuates in temperature as well or nearly as well as my Koi and Bass?

[Steve R]

yes I have used them in ponds on both the east coast and in colorado year round to treat algae. They live through the winter no problem. They are native to the yangsee river which in the winter goes down to as low as 40F in the wild and spawn in teh head waters which are basically snowmelt. 

[Larry Dale Smith]

Steve R said:

yes I have used them in ponds on both the east coast and in colorado year round to treat algae. They live through the winter no problem. They are native to the yangsee river which in the winter goes down to as low as 40F in the wild and spawn in teh head waters which are basically snowmelt. 

It got down to -39.7 here this past winter, does so every couple of years, Colorado is a similar climate though. Finaly got above 80 degrees today.

I only had enough gas left in the can to fill the tank on the pump halfway, was a good day for that as the sudden warmth made the freshly leafed out trees draw 6 inches of water from the pond, and kept from draining far down that way.

The fish were more active than they have been, slowly getting brave enough to venture out when I'm there. 

[Steve R]

Right but remember in teh water below the ice its still above freezing. In my experiences if the koi and catfish in a pond survive they will too. 

[Larry Dale Smith]

Steve R said:

Right but remember in teh water below the ice its still above freezing. In my experiences if the koi and catfish in a pond survive they will too. 

Thanks!