Time just seems to fly by. I can't believe it has been 10 days since I last posted. My tomatoes are doing great. The two in the system are about 8 inches tall now. They have started to become pungent. Its a nice smell to have indoors I must say. It is new to me because this is my first indoor tomato ever. The other young'ns are shorter and are still just in a rockwool cube. I am going to wait to plant them outside I think. The weather is getting nice and I think since they have had a good…

Hello Brother John, My name is Mike Kivi and my wife and I have been interested in aquaponics.

From the first time I began reading about it, it has captured my interest as a vehicle to serve God as well as man. I am a retired engineer and former training director for a power company. I understand teaching and system development.

I have been praying for guidance of the indwelling Holy Spirit and believe that this is a ministry that could serve :

1. My church,…

Environmental science has been on the fringes for a very long time, with big business and conspicuous consumption filling the world’s views and attitudes for a very long time. The knowledge and theories of environmental sciences have not changed much, but I see with some interest now that it is getting re-labelled to some extent. I do not necessarily see this a bad thing, but it has me thinking about things that got me exited about aquaponics in the beginning.

The catalyst…

So far our experience with the heat has not been a particularly pleasant one.  It seemed to have jump completely over spring here in Florida and gone right to summer.  Our friends in Colorado just had snow and we just had 90's. 

Through March, the heat wasn't too bad and although the lettuces looked a little wilty in the afternoon, it didn't seem to be too bad.  Then the first week after our commercial training we had 4 days of clouds and rain.  By the fifth day when the sun…

Tank has been cycling for a couple weeks now and still no nitrate reading. I had 4ppm of Ammonia last week which lowered to 2ppm two days later. No ammonia has been added since then but the reading started to climb first yesterday it rose to 4ppm again and today it is off the chart. Found nothing dead in the tank and the only thing added was a product recommended by the local pet store owner.

He suggested adding StressZyme. The water had been clear until this was added. A few days…

Well it's been a couple weeks since I posted an update and a lot has been going on with my system! A LOT!!! With those many many changes, has come a lot of lessons! A LOT!!!

Let's start with the asparagus. I had no idea that asparagus goes through so many phases. The roots that I bought were only a couple years old and I didn't know that it takes them 2 to 3 years before you get asparagus that's edible. Needless to say, I won't be eating asparagus this year from my garden. But it is…

Unfortunately I started construction on my first AP system before I found the Newbie mistakes thread. But everything seems ok so far.

I have a 1200 gallon fish tank (in the ground)

Three growbeds, One of which is only 5" deep. (The bell siphon is a little iffy)

Grow towers and NFT system are next to research. I just wanted to get my feet wet before committing to a larger system.

I had planned to run the system on one pump and…

I made fishfood and am testing it on trout.  This was gross but they love it--I took a large pack of whole anchovies (6-8") and 3 whole crab.  4 cups whole wheat flour.  2 cups bulgar wheat.  4 eggs.  4 cups compressed duckweed.  2 cups corn meal.  Water.

I blended the fish and crabs  --Dan Ackroyd --ronco Bass Amatic on SNL  smelled great.

took a few goes to get that smooth texture.

then mixed it up like a cake with a hand mixer.

spread…

I made fishfood and am testing it on trout.  This was gross but they love it--I took a large pack of whole anchovies (6-8") and 3 whole crab.  4 cups whole wheat flour.  2 cups bulgar wheat.  4 eggs.  4 cups compressed duckweed.  2 cups corn meal.  Water.

I blended the fish and crabs  --Dan Ackroyd --ronco Bass Amatic on SNL  smelled great.

took a few goes to get that smooth texture.

then mixed it up like a cake with a hand mixer.

spread…

So i hooked this thing up sitting above a 300gallon rubbermaid.  1 3/4" outlet pointed staight into the water about 1" above the surface.  When I turned it on the entire 300 gallons looked like the ocean frothy overflowing on all sides lost about 50 gallons of water on the floor of my garage.  I think it will run the 4000gallon pond out back--I was LOL. then had to shopvac and towel up the mess.  It filled 5 gallons in 21 seconds so i figure if my math is correct it is about 2000gph and 30…

All is going well in my system. I have noticed that the carrots that were once yellowing are now slightly greener. I am wondering if the worms are helping? Time will tell. I also put up a reflective surface along the walls behind my shop light. I am hoping the mylar will increase the captured light and therefore help increase photosynthesis. This is my system currently... Just to the left are seedlings of tomatoes and a spinach.

 …

Funny how, when you least expect it, your aquaponic system can show you that you are sometimes not completely responsible for all that grows in it.  End of last year I took out some tired looking cherry tomatoes from a bed and replanted.  I must have dropped some fruit into the bed because just as the current batch of plants started looking good, a whole lot of tomato seedlings popped up in a single position.  I took out all but one, just to see if it can find its way in the tangle of plants…

I was looking over my photos and was curious to know what exactly you would like to see in this assembly guide.

Currently I follow these steps per unit.

1. Preselect LED's for each "string" and put them in a breadboard so I can just grab them as I need them, not a necessary step but I still do it.
2. Start at string 1 and solder in the resistor after bending the leads.
3. Place each LED in the string in the board, make sure it lays flat, then bend leads…

Well the secret is out. I have fish and a fish feeder in an unsecured greenhouse.   Oh us stupid humans.  As a Ferengi I use to know would say.  Hue-Mons they are strange. It seems a terrestrial Invader has found first my fish feeder and then my gallon jar with fish food. A racoon I surmise. Woe is me.  I have heard the many stories of the cunning invaders. They can open jars and navigate wires. All may be lost but the thrill of the Game is on.  Sure I could go the mundane route of a steel…

So here is some scale. That Aliflor bed that it is in is about 14" square. The cabbage plant on the left is over 3 feet wide.  I harvested it today for the leaves in my green drinks. 

Now the monster on the right is about 6 feet or so. I am really tempted to let it keep growing. I has no HEAD. What the heck is going on. I think it know that if it heads I will harvest…

Holy Elvis.  (not retouched)

Well I missed the Kodak moment.  Although this wasn't bad.  When I went by yesterday Elvis was bent backwards at the knees.  So that photo would have been named the Incredible pelvis of Inflatable Elvis.  But alas when I went back to take the photo Elvis was completed deflated.  I guess that famous stage move of his of…

Here are the photos that I promised in my last blog. They aren't the best unfortunately since I couldn't find the cable for my camera. I had to take these with my phone.

Here is the gigantic spear of asparagus. I know my previous blog stated it was 14 inches tall. This was yesterdays. It is nearly 17 inches tall now!!!

Below are the brussel…

Well, here I am with a fancy aquaponics system that I just built myself. How did I come across the idea of getting into the aquaponics hobby, you may ask... Well it all started a long time ago while I was looking into setting up a hydroponics unit. But, me being the lazy type, I figured it would be too much work always having to take readings of the nutrient levels and feeding it the nutrients manually (I really dislike manual labor). Then one day while day dreaming about how nice it would…