"Gravel Pit Self Reclaiming Aquaponics System"I knew When I ordered the book that there must be more to Aquaponic Gardening than using waste water from my fish tank,

[Larry Dale Smith]

and am enjoying getting started reading it! Especially since what I've learned about so far has confirmed what I decided would happen by my pumping water to flood irrigate from the free flowing liner-less pond in my gravel pit onto the gravel surface. I was sure this was a success of some kind despite of a huge increase of string algae (I must have 10,000 Japanese Trap Door Snails in there now from this) as the orchard grass which could barely grow there before filled in nice and thick with it getting 5 feet tall in places, and I was right the cottonwood trees growing in a stand next to the pond has taken off quite well now from having fish in there.

Now that I know my fish will do well and that the filtration system works,,,so to speak, can't wait find out/or figure out from the book and this forum what more to do, I will begin adding more fish (I spent around $10 on them to begin with, common goldfish and rosy red minnows as a test) I want to add Koi and edible fish of some kind, not sure how many goldfish I have now, but there appears to be plenty of minnows and snails to support many fish without extra feed, though the hoards of water boatman bugs have been scared off or eaten and only a few remain. I also have Water Sedge plants (quick former of peat) and bulrush plants (a wetland edible) ordered for spring planting along with quite a few of my spring planting trees that are on order being ones that will do well in the swampy condition/while making a nice wind break, so I should have a good start on my filtering of the water!

[Larry Dale Smith]

I put out most of a bag of Barley Pellets in the pond to pre-clean the water a might to tide the fish over till the ground thaws enough to pump and have the water run back to the low corner of the gravel pit where my pond is, should maybe get to do that in a few days the way the weather is right now. 

The barley pellets should also give the bottom feeders something to eat as well after they absorb the waste from the water. 

I saw at least 8 goldfish in the pond schooling last night and a nice group again this morning, still not much sign of the bass, but I am sure most are hiding in the pipes and vegetation. 

The barley pellets seems to have cleaned the water fairly well for now, and I saw more snails out of hiding! 

[Larry Dale Smith]

I saw a half dozen to dozen bass out of hiding today. 

I think I may start a worm farm in a worm bin for the castings and for worms to feed both my chickens I'm going to get and for fish food. 

Lots of smoke in the air from wild fires near me.  Not even close to fire season yet either! 

Someone suggested throwing an old Christmas Tree that was blowing around the neighborhood in the wind into the pond for the fish to hide in,,,,the minnows love it! 

I found some sprinklers I plan on adding to the pump system, they are some kind of wobble head sprinkler with one inch pipe thread,,,,,the place I got them had just the right amount of them for all three lines on my pump! 

I figure if four spinning sprinkler heads with half the diameter opening and entrance is enough for a half the diameter line, then these should be just right too, but no way to tell for sure till I try them. 

I plan on bunching the sprinkler heads in on the grow bed area drastically overlapping them most of the time, and only moving them out from there when there is surplus water or the water is starting to stay somewhat dirty after pumping like it did once or twice last year. 

[TCLynx]

Beware of clogging in those sprinklers.  You might want to see how hard it is to take them apart to clean them out before you use all three at once.

[Larry Dale Smith]

Not hard, just pop the head off and soak in soapy water if necessary, and sand should not get stuck in the large opening if I have a screen on the suction-head. 

Wind storm today, but may get some moisture with, already got a half coating of snow over night with the ground looking moist (nothing showing on my rain gauge though).

[Larry Dale Smith]

I finally got the pump going Wednesday after getting 8 bushes planted in the grow bed, all are 8 gallon container with tall narrow shaped pots around 10 inches wide and 2 1/2 feet tall, a five foot tall golden currant and six to ten feet tall shrub willow, should make berries and cover for the birds and make a living snow fence to help collect snow and keep water from vaporizing in the wind to help the system retain moisture. 

I still have 16 more containers, but these are much smaller, 100 cubic inch pots similar in size to 1 gallon pots only taller and thinner but since the soil in the 8 gallon pots was shrunk down and I did raised bed the top six inches I have to did just as big of holes in the gravel bar grow bed,,,,,,8 each Black Cottonwood and Canada Red Chokecherry. 

[Larry Dale Smith]

I ended up planting the chokecherry's and cottonwoods in a different area so I will have room for riparian hardwood trees next year, I know back East they can utilize Black Cottonwood as a hardwood, but though the ones we have around hear are much larger they are usually nothing but mush, and barely fit for firewood but make a good shade tree. 

The water level in the pond is about where it was before I pumped a week ago, but I decided to wait to pump more as much of the water is from the storms we just got over the last few days, and which it just added new fresh clean water to the pond while soaking the gravel bar grow bed. 

Cottonwood makes the best wood to burn while damp I believe, seems to still burn that way since it never completely dries out, and since the air is often damp at my place even when the ground is supper dry the cottonwood makes a good source of self grow-able clean burning fuel that reduces greenhouse gasses while it is being produced at the same time as it cools the atmosphere with it's shade. 

[Larry Dale Smith]

We've finally been getting some snow, a friend suggested spring and winter had gotten mixed up this year, seems legit but I'm just glad to get some moisture! 

The fish are eating good, still haven't seen any but the minnows take a nibble of the food, I've been debating if there is another kind I should switch to, but am not sure if that would get any more to eat the food! 

The grass is sure greening up good and right on scheduled time frame despite the dry year last year and less than normal snow. 

Looks as if I'll get a good crop of plums this year from my Native American Plum Trees, should give the wild critters a good feed while having some left over for me! 

All this moisture is keeping the pond sparkling clear without pumping, but I figure I should run the pump soon anyway just because. 

It is good to hear the birds singing again!! 

[Larry Dale Smith]

I had a pair of sand-hill cranes on my place this morning, they seemed to being enjoying the pickings! 

Not as big as the pair that was hanging around the last few years that may have gotten poached, but good sized birds, just yesterday I ordered some bullfrog tadpoles to feed the bass, I guess the birds must have my computer tapped because they had not been coming around then right away when good food for them was ordered! 

Still been seeing more geese around and having them be in closer to my house this year too, I guess they are deciding my place is an ok place to be! 

I guess this means most of the worry from the grasshoppers is over,,,,at least from the surplus from what the missing sand-hills not being around to eat! 

[Bill Bailey]

I have a pond that I care for that I was thinking "winter killed" all the big Gills, Bass, Crappie,etc. But I have had a weed problem for years and there were about 20 Evergreen Trees planted around pond as well as 2 Willow Trees that started as saplings in 1965. No matter what we do including restocking every year, we loose the fish over winter. 2 yrs ago I drilled 12 holes in ice to do depth checks as the pond is spring feed. It was dug at 14 ft, and after bottom build-up and all these trees sapping off the water the springs can't keep up. The Pond was 9 ft average depth.  Now it is 3 ft lower. I had packed rocks and gravel on the banks to attract the Bass and Gills to Bed ... all that is out of the water. I had the DNR come out and he took one look and said this pond is old and has not had the right care ... it will not support any life as it is completely overrun by alea, and grass that grows from the bottom to 9 ft, and the trees, especially the Willows were leeching all the water and Oxygen out. We cut one of the Willows and it was back and almost BIGGER in 3 years. I am cutting All the trees down around the pond, BUT the DNR told me it may be to late for that because as the roots die the water will just run out their roots. When the weather gets better I am going to add Tilapia and they will probably winter kill so I'll have to keep doing it for awhile until weeds are down and run an areator for Oxygen all the time. Pond is about 1.5 Acres.  Just be careful what you plant now as it may not work out so well later.

[Bill Bailey]

... Put out a Great Horned Owl and Blue Heron Plastic Decoy out ... and before you get Muskrats and  Groundhogs put out Coyote Decoy.  Move them around from time to time.

Larry Dale Smith said:

I had a pair of sand-hill cranes on my place this morning, they seemed to being enjoying the pickings! 

Not as big as the pair that was hanging around the last few years that may have gotten poached, but good sized birds, just yesterday I ordered some bullfrog tadpoles to feed the bass, I guess the birds must have my computer tapped because they had not been coming around then right away when good food for them was ordered! 

Still been seeing more geese around and having them be in closer to my house this year too, I guess they are deciding my place is an ok place to be! 

I guess this means most of the worry from the grasshoppers is over,,,,at least from the surplus from what the missing sand-hills not being around to eat! 

[Larry Dale Smith]

First off Bill, thanks for your concern, is always good to have a second pair of eyes looking at what one is doing. 

These are shrub willow I put in and they are quite a distance from the pond and in my grow bed that drains back into the pond, also I have bigger concern from the cottonwoods already growing next to the pond but they act as a two way valve by taking water out when there is plenty and putting back in when it is say for example August around here that means it is hot and humid but no rain yet the water level goes up more than down as the cottonwoods take water out of the air to grow. 

Evergreens might not be good right next to your pond, but those are excellent at putting water in the ground when a distance is kept so they don't suck the pond dry. 

The DNR is probably right, once the trees are big enough to leach the water it is too late as they say the water will run out past the roots, live tree roots slow water moving through the soil and the trees may actually be keeping more water in than they take out, so cutting the trees is a bad idea as you may have a different problem causing the water loss.

Tilapia are more of a tropical tank food source and I don't think they will survive in a pond that gets ice on it as well as I would try to get the algae under control before putting more fish in, start by getting some trap door snails and keep the string algae raked out of the pond and try using it as mulch for the trees to keep them from leaching as much water out. 

I don't think the Sand-hill Cranes would be scared of as small of birds as Great Horned Owl or Herons besides of that I've not seen the cranes go near the pond just pecking at the ground and I want them around to keep the grasshoppers in low numbers later on, I hear they like to eat frogs but only when there are not enough bugs to go around. 

I've only seen a handful of Muskrats around here in my whole life and don't believe we even have any Groundhogs around this is more of Rock-chuck territory I've seen plenty of those off in the forest service but not around here local. Then again if I put out predator decoys such as Coyote they would probable attract bullets! Not much good to get rid of one problem to have another! 

Thanks for your input though it doesn't seem to be relevant right now it will be good stuff for me to keep in mind later on! 

[Bill Bailey]

I have some many embedded weeds in this pond I can not pull a rake through it ... I need my Hemi for that and I am using old Bed Springs with rakes behind them. As far as relevance it has to do with what you do now that will effect you later and, how it will. You are VERY lucky not to have Woodchucks and Muskrats, Muskrats have undermined one whole bank and I can't catch them in traps, so I have to try to shoot them on the water, not the best idea.