A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

June 2010 Blog Posts (39)

Drilling holes in plastic container Tips

Tips.

A nice whole saw kit plus a few larger whole saws (of the appropriate size for bulkhead fittings or uniseal fittings of whatever two primary large sizes you are going to use if doing a large system) are definitely a must in the Aquaponics Tool kit

1- Don't put the hole through across a ripple, curve etc. Makes it impossible to get most bulkhead fittings to seal properly.

2- Don't push too hard on the drill, if the plastic is brittle, you…

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Added by TCLynx on June 13, 2010 at 6:00pm — 2 Comments

The Final Touches... So far

I finished hooking everything up, and transplanted my plants. I seriously expect most of them to die, and I'm hoping my poor fish survives the experience. And that he likes the friends I eventually pick out for him.

The siphon is working like a charm! I found the volume control on the water pump, and turned it all the way down to the lowest setting, and I think it's filling at about the right speed. I'll need to time it, but not tonight. But it's draining completely, and stopping… Continue

Added by Andrea on June 13, 2010 at 3:30pm — No Comments

More set up

This morning I did a little more shopping, and got some things set up.

Purchased:

Plastic primer ($5.49)

Copper paint (hey - no reason not to make it festive, right?) ($3.99)

1-1/4" bore bit ($5.49)

3/4" bore bit ($4.79)

Power strip ($4.49)

10 piece saw/driver set (for removing slats from the plastic shelves in order to have room for the drainage) ($14.99)

24" Level (I've been wanting one for quite a while anyway) ($8.99)

Zip-ties… Continue

Added by Andrea on June 13, 2010 at 2:30pm — No Comments

Before you send water to your NFT pipes

FILTER IT

Yes that was me shouting.

What's NFT, that would be nutrient film technique or when you put the plant cups in holes in a pipe or trough and trickle a film of water along the bottom of it.

An aquaponics system is more than just fish and plants, if you try to do aquaponics with only those two things, you are sitting on a two legged stool and something is bound to collapse. The most important part of… Continue

Added by TCLynx on June 12, 2010 at 6:00pm — 6 Comments

A starting point

I've done a lot of research, planned, revised, considered building, purchasing premade, went back to the drawing board, and finally took the plunge today. Right or wrong, I bought stuff.

So here's the fishtank I already own:…

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Added by Andrea on June 12, 2010 at 11:00am — 1 Comment

Blue Tilapia

I have grown Blue Tilapia but am no longer growing them. I found it too

much trouble to keep them warm through the winter without using

electricity to heat the water.

Here are excerpts of the article I wrote on them for the Backyard Aquaponics Magazine (Full article with

the pictures is available in the 6th issue of the Magazine.)

Tilapia, Blue Tilapia, Oreochromis…

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Added by TCLynx on June 11, 2010 at 8:00pm — No Comments

Finish my coffee first

The other morning, while I was drinking my first cup of coffee, I thought... "I'll get an early start, before I'm completely awake." I just wanted to get my least favorite part of aquaponics done. The dreaded cleaning of filters.

I finished the indoor ones with no problems. Then I moved to the outdoor system.

Normally, I just drain a gallon or two of water out of the bottom of my swirl filter into a bucket. Then I dump it on some of my plants in the dirt garden.

This…

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Added by David Hart on June 11, 2010 at 1:36pm — 5 Comments

Channel Catfish

Channel Catfish are currently my only fish species in my aquaponics systems.

Here are excerpts of the article I wrote on them for the Backyard Aquaponics Magazine (Full article with the pictures is available in the 5th issue of the Magazine.)

Channel Catfish Ictalurus punctatus

Facts

Two to four…

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Added by TCLynx on June 10, 2010 at 11:16am — 4 Comments

Gravel washing

Many people will ask "What's with this Gravel Washing?" The answer is you don't really want the random unknown sediment settling into your system and possibly damaging your pump or clogging up your grow beds and plumbing.

Now some media is fairly clean and some people get away with loading it into their grow beds and rinsing through with a hose and letting the water drain away outside the system. I don't really advise this one for most gravels though as it only really washes the top… Continue

Added by TCLynx on June 9, 2010 at 6:31pm — 4 Comments

Algae

Something that most people with fish tanks exposed to bright light are going to have to deal with is algae. Now if you are talking about a display aquarium or an ornamental fish pond, you may need to resort to chemical or UV means of killing algae along with cleaning it out of the system, however, in an aquaponics system we have to avoid chemical methods and we really don't require the high tech of UV sterilization just to get rid of algae.

There is a really simple method of… Continue

Added by TCLynx on June 8, 2010 at 10:00am — 2 Comments

Oh but it's gotten so Hot

Location, Central Florida, USA

This time of year is so hard for us. I have trouble spending lots of time indoors but it is so hot out here now that simply stepping out the door causes a drenching sweat to break out.

Learning to garden in this climate is difficult. We are definitely not in the temperate climate that most garden books teach about gardening in. We are also not really in a tropical climate since we do get freezes in winter so long term or perennial tropical crops are… Continue

Added by TCLynx on June 7, 2010 at 3:16pm — 2 Comments

Pee Ponics

Alright, I've broached the subject of Pee Ponics in my Fishless Cycling Post.

Did you know that you can run a system indefinitely without fish?

I ran a Pee Ponics system for quite a while. It was my original Barrel Ponics system I built and cycled up fishlessly. Then I continued to run it fishless. I found that the pee ponics system needed about the same supplements as a system with fish.

Ok, I know many people get all grossed out by this, let me go into a little of the… Continue

Added by TCLynx on June 6, 2010 at 8:00pm — 6 Comments

Automatic fish feeders

Well, some one beat me to the punch about Automatic feeders with a discussion but I'll post what I had started anyway.

When I started doing aquaponics I had no idea how much difficulty I would have finding an appropriate automatic fish feeder. And finding an automatic fish feeder was rather important since I have to be able to leave the system to the attention of neighbors fairly often when I need to travel. (I don't want to ask a neighbor to come over and measure out feed three times… Continue

Added by TCLynx on June 5, 2010 at 6:04pm — 4 Comments

Fishless cycling

Here is the basic of fishless cycling in a nutshell so to speak.

Dose system to an ammonia level between 1 and 2 ppm

then wait and test till ammonia levels start dropping.

If the ammonia levels drop below 1 ppm and the nitrite level is still below 1 ppm, then dose again.

If ammonia or nitrite levels are still high then wait and keep testing.

Eventually both ammonia and nitrite levels will drop.

Then dose to 1 ppm again and see how long it takes for both… Continue

Added by TCLynx on June 4, 2010 at 10:00pm — 10 Comments

Wash that strawberry !

A friend sent me this link on washing strawberry's with 'soap'. At first, I was kind of skeptical. After watching the short video....I was asking my self..." how many of 'those' have you eaten in a life time ? "

Good grief...I normally just rinse them under running water.

http://star-k.org/cons-vegdetail.php?ID=48

Added by David Hart on June 4, 2010 at 4:21pm — 5 Comments

Aquapnics questionnaire (exchanging knowledge)

At this moment we are writing on our business case for an indoor (old

factory buildings) Urban Aquaponics company as a part of an Urban

Agriculture Foundation. In a short time we want to set u an test case

to get some hands-on experience .

Unless I have a lot of knowledge about farming (Biodynamic soil based) the Hydroponics and fish is rather new to me. To close these gap

of knowledge I already visit Growing…

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Added by Bas de Groot on June 4, 2010 at 7:52am — 9 Comments

pH and tap water

Here is an interesting thing that most people may not know about tap water. When you first run the water from the tap, the pH will probably test out with a false low level. If you air out that water for a while and test the pH again, the pH will probably be much higher.

For instance, if I test the pH of my tap water right out of the faucet, it usually tests out at right around 7. If I bubble that water for a day and test the pH again, it will be up over 8. I have well water from a… Continue

Added by TCLynx on June 3, 2010 at 10:00pm — 7 Comments

Supplements

There is much comment about what might be needed to add to an aquaponics system to keep the plants happy. Once a system is mature, it will require less special attention, however, new systems do often need a little bit of something something to help get the plants off to a better start. The most common additive is sea weed extract. Original Maxicrop is the one I know of here in the USA. Make sure it is just sea weed extract and NOT the sea weed extract plus fish emulsion. We don't want to be… Continue

Added by TCLynx on June 2, 2010 at 10:00pm — 4 Comments

Fish Feed

Fish feed can be a big dilemma for aquaponics. Especially for people who want to be as sustainable as possible or organic as possible or want to grow fish that are as healthy as possible to eat.

Here are the main problems with commercial fish feeds.

Most commercial fish feeds are mostly corn and soy based as these are commodity crops that are cheapest to make animal feeds out of. In this country it is becoming nearly impossible to get those crops organically and most animal feeds… Continue

Added by TCLynx on June 1, 2010 at 10:00pm — 6 Comments