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Comment by Jim Fisk on July 26, 2013 at 9:11pm

Will do Matt. Busy day but I did get a few pics and will post.

Comment by Jim Fisk on July 26, 2013 at 9:11pm

Congratulations to Nick Rizzo. He is our 100th member here on IBC.

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on July 26, 2013 at 7:12am

Awesome job Jim!  post pictures of the fish when you get a chance!

Comment by Jim Fisk on July 26, 2013 at 6:22am

Hi all, been so busy building walls, floors, plumbing, electric, etc. while moving into our new house (because our daughter and fiance surprised us and moved down from Cape Cod and needed our cabin) that the AP system has been pretty much on auto pilot including auto feeders for some months now. Well I am happy to announce that the trout have reached harvest size and we had our first feast on our son's birthday on the 22nd.

After some attempts at fishing with worms that resulted in feeding the trout but little else I decided to take advantage of my 2" drain system and after placing a hand net over the ibc drain hole, and shutting off the fill hoses, I dropped the level to about a foot and while the one tank bio-filter still circulated I was able to use the hand net to select the 6 largest fish and voila: dinner. I then turned back on the 2 fill hoses (from the sump pump) and topped up the sump. Thought I should share this simple harvest method and I should also mention that the swirl/bio-filter shown in my photos has worked amazingly well at keeping the trout water just the way they like it: clear

Now it is time to get all the largest trout into one tank (from 2) and purchase more fingerlings. Also time to figure out a basket "safe house" as the trout were full of roe!! and it sure would be nice to raise our own. I will post this to the trout group as well as there might be some good suggestions there. We now feel like our AP project has come full circle. The flesh was a nice healthy pink and tasted amazing.

Comment by TCLynx on July 15, 2013 at 8:08pm

bacillus thuringiensis products can be safely used on plants in aquaponics.  (Thuricide or Dipel dust)  They work against leaf eating caterpillars only and the caterpillars need to eat a little bit of it for it to work against them.  The product must be applied to the leaves of the plant and the pests need to eat some of it for it to work.

Had picking the caterpillars off is often very effective and doesn't require spraying the plants.

Comment by Michael on July 3, 2013 at 9:28am

The fish loved them and I removed as many damaged plants as I saw they needed to be thinned a bit anyway. Did not notice any new damage this morning

Comment by Leo White Bear on July 3, 2013 at 7:22am

Depending on the amount of caterpillars you have, best to hand pick them off and dispose of them.  Also depending on the type / species of caterpillars they are you may be able to feed them to your fish - waste not, want not.  Silvia bernstein states in her book that if the plants are small, you may even pull the plants, gentilly, and float them in the fish tank.  The fish will eat the bugs and you can replant them back in the grow beds after a while.  She did this with an aphid infestation she was contending with in her greenhouse.

Comment by Michael on July 2, 2013 at 9:08am

help I have caterpillars eating up my mustard greens what organic pest control can I use to get rid of them that will not harm my system. I have around 30 bluegill living in the tank and have just trained them to floating fish food.

Comment by TCLynx on June 24, 2013 at 12:02pm

Too much algae can rob your system of nutrients if you are trying to grow veggies.

Too much algae can also mess with pH.

It can also rob your system of dissolved oxygen overnight and leave your fish gasping for air before dawn.

And if the algae dies off suddenly it can really crash your system and cause overloaded bio-filters, clogged everything and quite a mess.  So while a small amount of algae is normally not an issue, water that looks like pea soup could well cause a major issue.  Block as much light from the water as you can, add as much aeration as you can and check screens, grates and filters often to avoid a major clog problem.

Once algae is decomposing in the grow beds (at least with media beds) it can help inhibit future algae blooms to an extent though it may do little against string or surface algae growth.

Comment by Michael on June 24, 2013 at 10:21am

ok picked up yard of pea gravel for 35 bucks vs 3.37 a bag at home depot. Have set up three of my systems one to go.

I know in my swimming pool I don't want algae to form but is it ok in the garden. plants are growing and the fish don't seem to mind.

However it is a little hard to see them in there due to the hue of the water.

 

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