Finish my coffee first

[David Hart]

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 time, I wanted to drain it all the way. I shut off the in-coming water and started to drain the barrel. "My blueberries are going to really love all this fish 'pooh' ! "
I took the garden hose and was trying to flush out what little stuff was still in the bottom....."That's odd, those last two pieces of dirt just don't want to come out." "It's almost like they are swimming against the flow." They were ! It was two tilapia, about half an inch long, doing their best, not to go out the drain.
I knew I should have finished my coffee first.



Next, it was feeding time for my tilapia in the main tank . After what I found earlier, I really wanted to see the whole tank. So I took off all the covers before I fed them.
As I threw in the food, I started to watch, to see if any were not feeding. Sure enough, there was one, staying down in the corner, while the rest were in a feeding frenzy.
I really wanted to catch her. I thought she might be carrying eggs in her mouth. I took the net and so painstakingly slow, moved in for the capture. I was only inches from her , when all of a sudden, I saw hundreds of fry swim out of her mouth. They seemed to really enjoy swimming through my net !
Plan 'B'. I lined my net with some window screen. Now I was able to catch to those little guys.
Thank goodness I had already set up a small aquarium, in hopes, that my indoor breeders would start to produce some fry.

That evening, I noticed the duckweed I had tossed into the swirl filter earlier in the day, didn't seem to be flowing in a smooth circular pattern. I removed the duckweed, then I could see , that I had knocked off the fitting, on the in-coming pipe. With out it, the filter wasn't doing it's job, as well.

So I learned that day........ Spend enough time with my systems, to become familiar with it, become more observant and most of all.....is to , "finish my coffee first !"

[TCLynx]

I love those hose timers. I use them regularly! Warning, shut off the tap before you go away on vactaion though. those hose timers are kinda cheap plastic, we have had one bust apart and we were very lucky we were not out of town when it happened.

[David Hart]

I already had a timer for my hose, because I have forgoten, many times to turn a sprinkler off. There's no doubt I would do the same for 'topping off' the system.
The one I have is pretty simple....screws onto the faucet, the hose screws onto it. I spin a graduated knob....showing the time in mins. Spring loaded, no batterys to worry about. Same idea as the old kitchen timmers.
I think it was about 15 dollars at one of the home improvement stores. Since I have to pay for sewage, based on my water use.....I know it's paid for itself many many times over.


Hey boss, I gotta leave....I think I left my hose on.....lol.

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Or starting the hose and getting distracted and flooding the system...done that one a few times....usually before coffee!

[TCLynx]

I hate when I do a quick check of things in the morning when I'm really needing to be heading out to work, and I see something that needs to be fixed right away!!!!!! Your description of your morning sounds a little like one of those mornings to me.

Most HSM's (ya know High School Musicals, Drama and tragedy or near tragedy) are actually caused by system owners forgetting something simple after tinkering, showing off, or just checking something. Things like unplugging the pump or turning off the air so it's easier to see into still water (this one can go really pear shaped fast if it goes along with feeding) and then forgetting to restore everything properly.

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Great post, David. Thanks for sharing!