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Comment by Holly Curtis on February 24, 2012 at 12:40pm

Interesting info on pipe bending Kent and Bob.  Thank you.

Comment by Bob Campbell on February 24, 2012 at 12:03pm

I have bent PVC by heating it.  To make bend in cooper I fill the tube with sand and cap the ends.  This keeps the tube from creasing.  You can make very tight circles this way.   I imagine it would also work with PVC.

Comment by Kent Biswanger on February 24, 2012 at 11:53am

I have been considering one of these tools for bending PVC, Their not cheap but looks like the best method I've seen.

http://www.pvcbendit.com/pvc-bendit

Comment by Chris George on February 24, 2012 at 9:40am

I'm going to the Garden Pool tour tonight (Friday) at 5pm.  There's room for more to attend if anyone is interested.  There is an aquaponics intro class tomorrow and another tour.  I think I saw that David and Holly are attending tomorrow.  I haven't been to Dennis' place for probably a year.  He installed a roof garden and has goats now, should be interested.  Planning to pick up some more duckweed to torture and kill, last batch grew like gang-busters for about a week then turned slowly to grey and died.  Had it in three different 5gallon containers with different nutrients, aerated and not, inside under light.  And outside in the catch tank from the shelf-ponics grow beds, too much movement I think and it clogged up my drain tubing to the fish tank.  Anyway, trying again...always game for a new experiment.

Comment by Chris George on February 24, 2012 at 9:28am

Sheri - I think you should be able to find a feed store on your side of town that buys from Star Milling Co., they are in California so I would guess that a lot of feed stores buy from them.  I know Mesa Feed had a pond food but I don't have any details about it.  

For the chicken feed hook-up, the guy's name is Scott Brown (a VPA member). Rachel Bess turned me on to him and the group purchasing when I attended her quail raising class.  On Facebook the group is called "Group purchase of Organic Chicken Feed for Huge Savings?", for a detailed list of the feed types click 'info'.  They have broiler and turkey feed, which you might be interested in too, and steer and pig and misc.  Everyone pays Scott through some means, usually paypal, and when everyone's order info and money is collected the feed ships, arrives a couple of days later to a semi-centralized spot and you go pick up your portion.  I like the feed because it's all organic at basically the price of non-organic.  

Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on February 24, 2012 at 9:16am

LOL! Fish queen! 
You're experiencing two things: evaporation and thirsty plants. Some plants, like tomatoes, drink a lot. 

Always test. How's your PH?

Comment by David Schwinghamer on February 24, 2012 at 9:09am

Hey Sheri the fish queen, why is my indoor fish tank losing water, about 3 gallons every two weeks? Im also noticing some of my plants in the aquaponics loop are dying, guess I need to test the water again.

Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on February 24, 2012 at 6:51am

Good info on the siphon, Maynhia. I'm going to look into that Azolla more. After our rebuild I do want to start producing in-house food.
Chris, you're funny! My ideas are that much bigger than my reality, too. But I say, go for it!
Good job on hunting down feed. Now they need to open a place on this side of town. :)  I'm going to check out Cactus Feed today.
Yes, please share the name of the guy with the chicken feed.
Jacques, Love the Epcot pic. It does inspire...
We used a heat gun to bend PVC for our greenhouse; it's pretty workable. Of course, Disney has bigger tools. Either one huge heat gun or an oven...or maybe they set it on the asphalt in AZ in August.

Comment by Holly Curtis on February 23, 2012 at 4:51pm

Thank you Chris.  Good to know.

Comment by Chris George on February 23, 2012 at 3:54pm

David - I know you have been researching feed sources and bulk pricing.  Just to update you (and anyone else interested).  Western Ranchman (the feed store on 32nd Street just south of Bell Rd.) sells Catfish Floater feed from Star Milling Co.  They were selling a 32% protein 'and' a 35% protein.  It sells for $0.90/lb out of the bulk bins, and it's $28 for a 50lb bag.  I know Mark at Rhibafarms said that they feed their tilapia on catfish food....so it's probably fine.  The size of the food is on the big side so it is probably for larger fish (it's 1/4" or better, about the size of cat food pellets).  Anyway, I went on Star Milling Co.'s website and they carry 3 types of tilapia feed (wholesale, minimum order required).  Then I called Western Ranchman.  They can add other foods to their normal orders, they get a shipment every 2 weeks.  I asked if they would get retail prices for all 3 types of the tilapia food, I should hear back from them in a day or two, when I know I'll post the info here.  If you want to look at the nutritional content on these 3 tilapia feeds go to www.starmilling.com, click on 'wholesale feeds', then click on 'fish', then open up the 'Star Milling Aquaculture Fish Brochure' which has nutritional info on all of their fish feeds.  The catfish is pretty close in make-up to the tilapia, so it's probably fine, especially if the tilapia is more expensive per bag.

In a perfect world I'd like to feed mine on an organic feed, which I think I will have to concoct myself.  

Jacques and Sheri - I have a source for Organic Chicken Feed, I just got four 50lb bags of Non-Soy Organic Layer Mash for about $75 (about $17.50/bag).  We do a group order every 3 months from Big Sky Organic Feed, a subsidiary of Montana Flour.  They have other feeds (no fish food however) too.  If you are interested I'll give you the guys name who runs it on Facebook.  I'm really happy with the food.  I'm saving more than $4 a bag and no tax, no shipping.    

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