A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

October 2010 Blog Posts (20)

The roller coaster called today - hopefully I learned my lesson

This morning I headed to Boulder, excited to see Sylvia's Bernstein's greenhouse, aquaponic arrangements, and most importantly, to pick up my white tilapia stock. Sylvia's house is a beautifully peaceful home, and the greenhouse provided me with the level of sensory overload I've not experienced in quite a while. She graciously explained the state of the systems she is running, and we went on as aquaponists tend to do about all things related to all of it. The conversations are often difficult… Continue

Added by Dan Brown on October 31, 2010 at 9:29pm — 2 Comments

Immortal Alien Tilapia

Immortal Alien Tilapia. Yes that is right I have now learned that those aliens who I have written about before are immortal. I know some of you have joined the resistance yet but I know have proof that they are Aliens and immortal. Here is how I have found out. I built 5 tanks in my greenhouse for what I thought was just fish. I only have 2 of them lined to hold water. All of my fish (ha they still think I am not on to them) in one tank due to my sloppy tank lining job. The second tank starts… Continue

Added by M Cosmo on October 31, 2010 at 8:09pm — 4 Comments

Scribed by the Sculpturerist Apprentice

Alas learning is the path we all must travel to reach the end of our inter-kingdom epicurean quest. I had the luck of working under the tutelage of the master water sculpturerist. On a past visit to the outdoor art exhibit disguised as an Aquaponics Garden in Orlando. I quickly recognized the work of a water Alchemist. One can can make the element move in mysterious ways. I was accepted as an momentary apprentice from by this master and she came of to my outdoor man cave to help me learn her… Continue

Added by M Cosmo on October 31, 2010 at 7:40pm — 2 Comments

Duck-A-Ponic Update

Sorry no pictures today but I just want to share a little update about my duck system.

First a refresher.

The duck system is based on a 7 foot dia, 2 foot deep galvanized stock tank that a neighbor got for free and dropped off to us. Had a bunch of holes but patched those easily with silicone. Figured the galvanized stock tank would not be appropriate for fish but the ducks need a pool and what better way to keep the water filtered and fresh than a ponics system.

So the duck… Continue

Added by TCLynx on October 22, 2010 at 4:00pm — 1 Comment

Mixing Methods

I have lately had people ask me for advice on if a particular set up will work and in a few cases it is obvious that they have done some research but have mixed their methods and are using the stocking/feeding rates for one method but trying to apply them to a totally different situation.

For example,

A combo media/raft system which retains it's solids in the media beds should be using the recommended stocking/feeding rates for media systems and low density raft culture with no… Continue

Added by TCLynx on October 22, 2010 at 3:40pm — No Comments

Greenhouse complete!

I got the sides on myself, with a crochet hook and a lot of swearing.

Then Pam, my friend from work, came over to pick up the old greenhouse, and while she was here she helped me put the ends on.…

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Added by Andrea on October 17, 2010 at 5:30pm — 2 Comments

Progress once again

So the new rainbarrels are drilled and plumbed, though I'm still trying to get a water tight seal on the plumbing. I'll work on that some more today…

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Added by Andrea on October 17, 2010 at 9:30am — No Comments

The sweet seduction of running my fingers through the red stuff.

I have been an avid loyal devote of the vertigro stacks. Then I built the float tanks below the hanging vertigro stacks to collect the recalculating flow. Sue the float tank looks interesting and I like putting my feet in it when I have to get to the south wall of the greenhouse. Then I came up with the great idea of building a gravel bed to be the filter for the first stop of the fish tank water. Little did I know that when I bought 10 cubic feet of Aliflor what I was in for. So I built the… Continue

Added by M Cosmo on October 15, 2010 at 8:52pm — No Comments

New Closet system

Here's a link to a detailed cost analysis of my new system. I'm pretty excited about this one, more details forthcoming as they develop.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5873576/new_closet_aquaponic_system.html?cat=32

Added by Dan Brown on October 15, 2010 at 3:01pm — 1 Comment

Restaurant buyers - do you have basil to sell?

I've decided to follow the conclusions that I drew in a paper I wrote about aquaponic business.

I am actively pursuing (and now have two clients set up) for restaurants that are interested in getting micro-herbs and basil. I will begin selling in another few weeks, once I can pull a harvest on the micro basils I have going (cinnamon, thai, and purple). I can find more chefs, but with only 2 sq ft of grow area, I'm going to be limited on production, and I'd like…

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Added by Dan Brown on October 14, 2010 at 3:30pm — 11 Comments

Ya don't need so many fish.

Another TCLynx Public Service Announcement. Or perhaps that should be Fish Service Announcement?

There is a common Aquaponic condition that causes many people to feel the urge to add more fish. This urge should be fought and quashed ruthlessly unless you actually don't have any fish at all.

Just because your system could possibly support a certain MAX amount of fish mass, does not mean that it needs that much. Especially any system that retains it's solids.

During… Continue

Added by TCLynx on October 12, 2010 at 4:30pm — 5 Comments

Ducks on a roof top, bloop bloop bloop, what shale I do with all this poop.

So, the young muscovy ducklings have learned to fly, well at least the females have.

I came out of the house last night and found the three females of the latest clutch up on the roof snacking on the banana leaves.

They are not nearly so cute now as they were two months ago.

As you can see, female muscovy ducks are very able to fly. The chickens were a little… Continue

Added by TCLynx on October 10, 2010 at 2:28pm — 3 Comments

What to do with all the seedlings!

Has anyone else experienced this? You go planting all the seed trays you have and then when the seedlings are outgrowing the seed trays or pellets and need to be placed in a more permanent position, you are at a loss as to where to put them all?

I'm guilty of this on a regular basis.

However, I'm happy to report that the capillary matting seems to be a good way to keep peat pellets moist for seed starting.…

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Added by TCLynx on October 9, 2010 at 3:27pm — 4 Comments

Dead Fish

Figuring out what to do when something is going wrong.

There is little nastier than fish that have been dead for a while floating in your fish tank.

Ugh.

How to even tell if the problems with surviving fish are due to the same thing that killed the first fish or if the first dead fish just tainted the water causing poor water quality to weaken the later fish letting them sicken from opportunistic infections.

Sigh.

Here is what I pulled from my fish tank when I got home… Continue

Added by TCLynx on October 9, 2010 at 9:00am — 3 Comments

My Little Woody Willy - How to save thousands a year.

Get your mind out of the gutter. This is about my 1951 Willys steel woody wagon.

SSo here are the facts. If you have a regular car with a regular insurance company than you insure your classic with full insurance for very little a year. In my case It cost me only $226 a YEAR with one of the two classic Insurers. No…

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Added by M Cosmo on October 6, 2010 at 5:00pm — 3 Comments

Healing through laughter. Those precious moments.

I never knew how rewarding and trying it was going to be when I became a GRANDFATHER. I have bloged before about how wonderful it is being with my grandson. Well my fellow seniors ( I like that title) send me lots of jokes etc. So here I will post a few that help me remember why I can get away with my wit. Here is one I got today. It reminds me of the many times those young-ins try to help me with my iphone. I just smile. Having been an Apple system engineer for dozens of years I think I can… Continue

Added by M Cosmo on October 5, 2010 at 9:06am — 1 Comment

My love affair with the perfect tool

Yes we all have that perfect tool. The one we are proud of and treat like jewelry. Alas we are bigamist and have several of them. Even the old ones. I have a collection of my grandfathers tools he used to build his bungalow colony in upstate NY. The ones he taught me to use as a small child. The wood handle screwdrivers and Chisels. I use them with tears of nostalgia. I also have several of his wood planes. Those I keep on display. But alas they are not the ones I am writing about.

These…

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Added by M Cosmo on October 5, 2010 at 8:39am — 8 Comments

The "official" trip report

Saturday morning I got up at 2:30 to go to the bathroom, and The Princess decided that since I needed to get up in an hour anyway, I might as well stay up and pet her. I tried for a perfunctory scritching but she wasn't having any. She climbed up between my shoulder blades and purred directly into my ear, and if the petting stopped (and you can imagine how difficult she was to reach anyway) she stuck her cold, wet nose into my ear. When I finally put my hand over my ear, she nipped it to recall… Continue

Added by Andrea on October 4, 2010 at 9:30am — No Comments

In which nothing goes quite as planned...

On the plus side, I had paid the damage waiver on the rental truck, so when the guy in Santa Barbara said he was really good at backing trailers managed to jackknife the thing and bash up the side of the truck, at least I don't have to pay for it. Not that I didn't feel *really* bad about messing up their brand new truck. And on the way to find some muscle to help us unload stuff, we found some military-looking guys moving in 2 blocks away, and they kindly agreed to unload for us. And once I… Continue

Added by Andrea on October 3, 2010 at 9:30am — No Comments

Yeah, sure, no problem

So I've ordered this "7' x 15' Greenhouse" in which to put my new system. And when I go onto the website just before it arrives, to check the height (since 2 dimensions are simply not sufficient now that I've decided to put this thing under the arbor) I read the specs VERY carefully and see that it is, in fact, NOT seven (7) feet wide. It's 6.5 feet wide. Um... that matters, folks. Truly.

But I'll cope. Not that I have a choice now, since it's supposed to be here the next day. And… Continue

Added by Andrea on October 1, 2010 at 9:30am — No Comments