Comment

Comment by Pat James on September 10, 2013 at 1:24pm

Matt, i would like to see your plan to daisy-train fill and drain beds. Not only would I like to make this work, but it will dummy-proof my system.

I am using raft beds, but the first 3 beds in each row are connected. I start with a combo radial and swirl filter to remove whatever it will.  It goes to the first bed which is filled with bags of media. This is siphoned to a 2nd bed with more media filled bags. and then to a third bed with a couple bags...( I simply do not not have enough of the plastic media to fill all 3 beds.)

Now each bed started with the drain at the same elevation. So in the first I added a 1.5 inch extension and in the second maybe an inch or a little less. The 3rd bed remained as originally setup.

The idea is that the first bed has to fill beyond the higher drain stack before it drains on its own, The second bed will start draining if its drain pipe is exceeded.  This is to prevent an overflow if the drain in a bed downstream gets plugged.

I am using this system on the first 3 growbeds on each side of my pool. The other 4 beds in line have their own fill and drain.

Yesterday I was out of town and my wife called me to tell me the last bed in my system was overflowing She had no idea how to fix this. After a VERY heated exchange over the phone, I was convinced I was talking to a moron. "What is a ball valve and how do I take it off?" ...even though nothing is glued and if you wiggle the pipes they will almost fall apart.

When I got in at "0 dark thirty" I found some of my siphons had been pulled out. The wife saw pipes and pulled on them , not knowing what they were.
I am now going to add siphons between all those growbeds so that if any one drain gets plugged, the water will flow into another bed.

Especially since I will be out of country in 2 months and will not be able to  troubleshoot a problem over the phone.

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on September 9, 2013 at 10:48pm

@Stehpanie, Thanks!  I have pics from our group hugs that I never posted.  I think I'll create a discussion forum and post the pics their - if anyone else has pics from our outing they can post them their too! 

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on September 9, 2013 at 10:44pm

be on the look out for caterpillars, that looks similar to the "poop" they left behind, but they usually like tomatoes and pepper plants (been battling them for the past few months)

 

Comment by Stephanie Bader on September 9, 2013 at 10:42pm

@Matt I like that picture! :-D

@Sheri Those are gorgeous fish

Regarding shade cloth, i think you can get by with 25 or 50 as long as you have the western sun blocked off. The main thing we're going to change for next year is hanging a piece of shade cloth off the west frame so that it hangs between the top of the shade structure and the wall. It just seemed like the couple of hours of afternoon sun that came through there beat up a lot of my tomatoes.

Did everyone else enjoy all the rain today? I'm not going to have to use any top off water for a while.

Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on September 9, 2013 at 10:41pm

They do look like looper poop. If you have holes in the leaves, that would be the food that turned into the poop. :)  Look under the leaves that have holes and eventually you'll find the culprit. They're hard to see because they're the same color as the leaves. Chickens love them.

Comment by Randy Mann on September 9, 2013 at 9:38pm

No Dr. Brooks I am not sure.  I did find them underneath a leaf and these I thought had dropped off the leaf and landed below. I could easily be wrong.

Comment by Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr. on September 9, 2013 at 9:34pm

Are you sure those are eggs? If so, they look just like cabbage looper fecal pellets.

Comment by Randy Mann on September 9, 2013 at 9:15pm

Little help identifying these eggs.  I found them under a basil leaf I have holes in my plants that look to be from the cutter wasp....they are small and black in color and there were a bunch of them.....also Sheri asked for a friend to see if I could come out and look at your system. Thanks.

Comment by Samson J. Loo on September 9, 2013 at 7:34pm

Thanks Sheri! We're very excited too. I've already received several requests from family and friends so I'll be do this again and getting plenty more experience in the near future.

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on September 9, 2013 at 7:18pm

Hey Sheri, Thanks for the compliment on the feeder. Those pictures are awesome!! You really grew some huge Tilapia!

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 107
• 108
• 109
• 110
• 111
• …
• 557
• Next ›
• Page