Comment

Comment by John E Windsor on August 7, 2012 at 5:57am

@Garrett  That would be a question for Phil Slaton to answer. He is up there in Silverdale, Washington.

Comment by Garrett Wallen on August 6, 2012 at 10:40pm

Hello all new here. Just looking for some easy ideas to keep my aquaponic system inside a greenhouse warm in the winter. I live in the north west so its pretty cold here. Ill use electricity when I have too but I would like to use alternative heating. any suggestions???

Comment by Deborah Susan Berry on August 4, 2012 at 9:34am

Ok, I now have green peppers and cucumbers but still no tomatoes...

 What is the perfect temperature for the green house... your help is invaluable. 

Thank you all so very much.

Comment by TCLynx on August 1, 2012 at 7:59pm

I probably would not place the muck in the beds, eventually you may just want to remove muck to the compost or worm bin.  The surfaces of the pond will have the majority of the starter bacteria and after you have all the plumbing hooked up and get media into the beds, you might just give a small portion of the side of your pond a bit of a scrub and let the "slime" you rub off flow into the grow beds to "move" some of the bacteria there to start colonizing the media.

Even so, it will still take time to cycle up the new elements.

Comment by Brad on August 1, 2012 at 9:22am

Greeting from deep South Louisiana.

I work in the Middle East and have 11 days till I can go home and start my system up.

So real NEW to this.

I do have a question I have a Lowes pond that has been in constant circulations for 3 to 4 years now.

The Snakes and the cats have fished me out at this point.

When I get home I plan on building my bed using concrete but will leave the blue syrofoam I like to use. On the inside for a liner. When I start cycling through the bed. Do you think because this has been in cycle so long there maybe bacteria in the bottom of the pond in the form of muck and leaves? Then I am sure there is just don't know if it is good or bad. Should I move some of this up to the bottom of the beds before I place the media?

Well I guess that is two questions.

Comment by Leo White Bear on July 30, 2012 at 7:11pm

Thanks TC-

  I also have a small amount of the "Puffed Glass, about 2 sq. ft.  I guess I will have to make a small barrel-ponics unit out of a 15 gallon feed drum I have laying around and do the tests myself to see if this stuff is detrimental to some bait fish.  I will get back to the group with my results in a couple of months.

Leo

Comment by TCLynx on July 30, 2012 at 4:32pm

Leo,

    I don't know.  I know people who have used perlite in systems long term and been ok.  I've also heard that perlite or other glass product can shed particles that would be bad for the gills of the fish but I've not seen any research to that effect.

I have a sample of some grow stones (made from recycled glass that I hope to test out but I'll only be able to do a very small scale test since I only have about 1 cubic foot of the media so I don't expect the experiment to be terribly conclusive unless all the mosquito fish die very quickly or something.

Comment by Leo White Bear on July 30, 2012 at 4:23pm

TC-

  You are talking about various mediums such as expanded slate and shale or glass.  I have an outlet for what they call "puffed glass" but my concerns is the micro-shards that are rubbed off as you work the medium.  How big an issue would these micro-shards of glass be to the health of the fish?

White Bear

Comment by TCLynx on July 30, 2012 at 6:27am

You can also look into local landscape/pond scape and aggregate suppliers if you want to research other options besides the expanded clay.

Be sure to bring a clear cup, some water to rinse the samples and a jug of vinegar to do a fiz test to make sure you don't order a bunch of limestone or something.

Other expanded products like expanded shale or slate or glass might give an initially high pH reading or cause the vinegar to fiz but that could be from dust on the product from the kiln process.  I would recommend an acidic  rinse of those medias before use starting up a new system.

1/2-3/4 river rock is often a good choice though heavy unless the rivers in your area are full of limestone.

Comment by Tom OBrien on July 29, 2012 at 10:20pm

I'd try one of the hydroponics stores in your area. I've found those to be the best places to get the expanded clay media near me. There are also plenty of other options like Amazon or the store on this website, but the shipping cost is often very high.

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