Just completing Aquaponics System

Actually, I've researched the rabbit angle extensively, and the neighbor with the chickens got cited, just like the b**ch down the street that had peacocks! (Ever get woke up at 3 AM hearing someone yelling for help, and then find out it's a f**king BIRD? If I'd had a gun, I might have shot it. As it was, I offered to wring it's neck). So, chickens are out. I just have to find out how many bunnies I can have. I'm leaning towards Flemish Giants or Giant Angoras (but they need TONS of brushing! On the other hand, I get the fur for spinning!) Still working on it.

 

Well, you'll save on fish food, then!

 

Future Growing beds will have two bell-siphons to facilitate faster drainage, as my present system is reluctant to break siphon completely on the larger beds, it just slows way down to match the flow of water into the growing beds. I compensate for this by having a timer on the pumps that allows the system to fill and drain for a half hour then rest for a half hour. This seems to work pretty well.

 

Fish excrete ammonia into the water, decaying vegetation also creates ammonia. The ammonia oxidizes and become a Nitrite that is consumed by bacteria and becomes Nitrates,. The plants feed on the Nitrates and fish are not harmed by Nitrates.

 

Does the PVC tubing extend above grade?

Raising those bell-siphons above grade and adding holes to the tubing below grade would make it drain faster and eliminate the drainage from air locking. Hard to tell from pics.
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Most recent pictures

 

Got my Master Water testing Kit in today. My pond is a little sweet with a present PH of 8.2, probably in response to the recent fish kill due to wood ashes, since I added some fresh lime rocks to sweeten the acidic water. Might have over-done it a wee bit. Ammonia tested at 0 ppm, Nitrites at 0 ppm, and Nitrates 5.0 ppm; all in all, not a bad condition as fish tend to do well in alkaline water but maybe a little too alkaline for some garden vegetables.

 

@Seacowboys, how big is that pond? When I first saw this project, i thought you were using a small in-ground pool.

 

it is about 1200 gallons

 

I just got through potting five tomatos 12" pots.
Better Boy, Cherry, Patios, and a Potomato
I planted four squash plants in the box garden with Mel's mix.
All shade in the back yard, have to move them to get sun.

 

How did you learn to do this? I'm interested in trying aquaponics, but I don't wanna kill the project with ineptitude.

 

Potomato? Never heard of it.

 

If I remember correctly, a "potomato" is a hybrid blend of a potato plant (which grows its potatoes underground), and a tomato plant (which grows its fruits aboveground). They simply utilize both sides (upside and downside) of the plant for production of food.

 

Okay, I'll have to look at that. Interesting idea, since the two are related, I think.

 

Yep both part of the nightshade family as I recall, as are eggplants and peppers.

 

you can always tell were a salvage guy is working ... 4 inch grinder and a bottle jack

 

My aquaponics system is producing more watercress than I can eat, plenty of lettuce, the cabbages are huge but not heading; I think I may have waited too late in the Spring to hope for a good head. The onions and peppers are doing really well and the tomatoes are vines are taking over, sort of like the thing in Little Shoppe of Horrors....I have not seen such large and robust tomato plants in a long while and they are loaded with young tomatoes and blossoms. I purchased a water testing kit to monitor PH, ammonia levels, nitrite levels, and nitrate levels and the water quality is staying in a good range for both fish production and plant production.
I have had a few minor set-backs, call it the learning curve. I had a large fish kill as a result of wood-lot being dozed and burned. The ash accumulation made the pond too acidic and clogged the pumps and resulted in the loss of maybe half of my new fish stock. I was able to quickly replace the pumps and put several lime-stone slabs into the pond to make the water sweeter. The second problem is that sediments tend to bog the gravel growing medium near the filling ports, creating a flow of water that bubbles to the surface like a spring and sometimes will over-flow the grow beds near the port before the bed fills to the point where the bell-siphon drains the bed. My low tech solution was to introduce a population of worms, red wrigglers, to be precise. They eat right through the sediment and basically poop water. I will eventually have to put a restrictor-valve to reduce the rate of fill into the beds. My most recent set-back was the loss of a healthy and robust population of channel catfish. These guys are voracious eaters and I believe this caused their demise. My pond was inundated with cane toads and we had millions of cane-toad tadpoles. The catfish loved them and gobbled them up in a day or so. Cane-toad tadpoles are poisonous and killed the entire catfish population. I have yet to determine how to address this problem. Fortunately, the other fish apparently were not affected. I had rally counted on this source of food for them, it is unfortunate that they don't seem to agree with the fish.
The misting system I installed inside the greenhouse seems to be keeping it nice and cool by evaporation. I intend to introduce a misting fan soon.
@VHestin, I was introduced to the idea by our engineer at work. He had read some on the idea and recognized that I am the perfect Guinea-pig, already having a pond, green-house, and garden and an apparent inability to try new ideas. There is tons of free information, forums, and .pdf files on-line and it really is a pleasure to grow and learn.

 

We have harvested all the lettuce and now have bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, tomatoes, basil, parsley, onions, and strawberries coming in. The tomatoes are really thriving. The cabbages are still growing but not making heads as quickly as I had hoped. We have more water cress than we can eat and the fish have tripled in size since stocking.
I added some red worms a while back to help digest the algae and they seem to be quite robust.