Our Aquaponics System...

[Blaze]

Awesome set up guys, great work. I want to see some cannabis in there though!

 

[pinegrovedave]

So, after less than a month, our veggies are thriving and we've already been enjoying fresh garden greens....

 

[geologic]

Nice,
and quick--
an' a lotta work...

 

[Seamaiden]

Now that it's set up, it's really not much more work than controlling plant growth. Today we pick up the food fish! Bluegills, along with some mosquitofish. I fucking love fish.

 

[Blaze]

What all did you guys plant? I see lettuce and tomatoes - anything else?

 

[pinegrovedave]

What all did you guys plant? I see lettuce and tomatoes - anything else?

We've got some beans, squash, and melon in there as well Blaze.

Today, we just stocked the pond with Bluegill, mosquito fish, and 50 crawdads. :)

 

[Seamaiden]

I finally got a video done that shows the system. Enjoy!

As far as what we're growing we've got the lettuces, Russian kale, rainbow chard, two different kinds of pole/shelling beans, cucurbits, some onions and... now I'm drawing a blank. I didn't mark anything I planted, I figured I'll know when it grows. :o

 

[50YardLine]

Very clean set up, great job.

How do you plan to feed calcium, phosphorous and potassium? Plants look great in veg, just wondering your approach come flowering.

 

[Seamaiden]

Ca is stupid easy, it's already in the water. So is Mg, but again, stupid easy to correct if it's off. Since we didn't have very many fish in the system until this weekend (still very understocked for its size) we've been peeing in it, but still it's not enough relative to the size. So, I've been adding frass, pounds of it since I have it, seaweed (MaxiCrop dry), Sea-90 and MicroHume. I toss any plant bits that we're not eating back into the pond to decompose and add those nutrients back to the water column. I think the frass may be one of our more important fertilizers here.

Our biggest problem has been water temps--they've been too cool. The plants get locked out when the water's too cool. We may add a pond heater after we've insulated it a bit better.

 

[MGRox]

Excellent setup and pics!!!

It's very nice to see the updates and video!

You guys have done a great job and it looks like it's doing wonderful!! I was all ready with swim trunks to come jump in the pond......but then I read about the peeing:D I can find that at any local pool tehe.

In the growing beds, is there any "level" of water that stays in those? from the video it appears that the exit pipe is directly in the middle bottom, so I was curious.

I look forward to seeing any further updates too.

 

[Seamaiden]

Thank you, MG! We'll do our best to do updates, we're getting the GoPro ready for some U/W video (I REALLY wanna see what's goin' on down there!).

The water level is probably a bit on the high side, we're probably going to have to cut down the drain pipes just a bit to help with an overflow design we have in mind. The overflow is over towards one end, while the inlet is towards the manifold. I asked Dave to set it up that way so as to help ensure best flow from one end of the media bed to the other. So far it seems to be working, but we might have that water level a bit high like I said. Since we had the root clogging issue I've got a redesign in my head that we'll be implementing over time, as I/we cut slots in the sleeve pieces of PVC that will be replacing the hardware cloth, because... I just don't like that solution, I prefer to do it more like how we had the large fishrooms.

I have an urge to give you shit about the pee thing, but I won't. :p I'll give you frass.

 

[Seamaiden]

I love that we've got crawdaddies in the system. I built them a crawdaddy condo this weekend and dropped those into the pond. I got *in* the pond to place them, nekkid butt-down and got nibbled hard, so I got outta there as soon as I could because I feared for my nether regions.

So, a coupla pix of the crawdaddy condos and a video of a fat crawdaddy hanging out on some barley socks.

These are made from plastic file bins from Wally World that were <$4 apiece. I looked up the type of plastic after I bought them to make sure it's food safe, and it is.

Then, I took this screen stuff that comes on a roll, and lined the bottom side with it. I did this because the condos I also plan to use as traps and I don't want the mudbugs to be able to skip out on us when we lift the condos. I still plan on using actual traps, but these can serve double duty.

Then, I got a bunch of scrap PVC pieces and chopped 'em into lengths with the chop saw. Oh, what fun that was. I then fitted them as tightly as I could into the bins. The black stuff floats, the white Sched. 40 (@pinegrovedave -- yes, it is Sched. 40) does not, it sinks, but I used mostly black because that's what we had on hand. I also used various sizes to account for various sized crawdaddies.

The condos are not stacked in the pond, but I suppose they could be if we liked. I have two more to make if need be, but I'm not ready to get covered in plastic bits while it's so hot just yet. I've found that the crawdaddies make a home wherever they can, there's at least one living on the blue floating mats I left in the pond.

 

[CelticEBE]

So @Seamaiden ....are the crawfish for you guys.....or for the fish?

Are you gonna have a crawfish boil? Can I come????

 

[Apollo13]

Isn't potassium permanganate the water sterilizer in emergency situations.

I saw a show on telapia and at the fish farms they eat pure fish waste. They live behind the stripped bass and ate their poop. When I decided I didn't like to eat them..lol but they are obviously something special..

U can pen raise crayfish. Now when u figure out the fresh water peril thing, I'm in!

 

[Seamaiden]

So @Seamaiden ....are the crawfish for you guys.....or for the fish?

Are you gonna have a crawfish boil? Can I come????

They're for us!

Isn't potassium permanganate the water sterilizer in emergency situations.

I saw a show on telapia and at the fish farms they eat pure fish waste. They live behind the stripped bass and ate their poop. When I decided I didn't like to eat them..lol but they are obviously something special..

U can pen raise crayfish. Now when u figure out the fresh water peril thing, I'm in!

Yes it is, but I'm not sure it's allowable for use. I don't have any on hand anyway. What I do need to get is some 35% H202 for safe Tx of any problems.

I'd like to understand better your last statement about fresh water peril. I haven't found a whole lot on tank raising crawdaddies outside what the Aussies do, and based on what I've read it sounds like their marron and yabbies are much less fractions crustaceans than the North American redclaw. That said, I'm not 100% certain what species we have.

 

[Apollo13]

Japanese make fresh water perils, like 2 people in the world know how. I wish I was one of them.

Crayfish will climb out and leave. U can make cages and contain them. I saw it in a fish farming magazine. This shows many species in Michigan. I know the ones up north are different than ones in my pond. Up north are small and some are turquoise to dark blue..
http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/crayfish/country_pages/species_by_state.htm

 

[showmegreen]

We got reds and blues here in missery. Just missed the reds "migration" idk but on a good rain they climb up the runoft an like try ta find the source or sumptin. I know they fill tha gravel roads an wont move. Claws in tha air wantin ta take on yer car. Me an tha boys got four walmarts bags full in about ten minutes. There was plenty to be had but i believe in only takin wat ya need. And use it all. Even tha shells get turned inta tha garden. Them blues i dont know if they one of them invasive species but they are fewer and they git fuggin big! I mean big. Four ta six would make a meal fer tha average joe. Damn im hungry naw.

 

[CelticEBE]

They're for us!




I'd like to understand better your last statement about fresh water peril.

When I was 7 it was my job to shoot any Choupique or Water Mocassins in my mom's boyfriends crawfish pond. He actually opened the FIRST crawfish processing plant in Henderson, LA. If there is anything I miss about Louisiana.....it's crawfish.

I think he means "Pearls"

 

[Apollo13]

Yes, pearls.

 

[Bulldog11]

You guys get any fruits yet? My tomato plants are just starting to give fruits. I started them way late however. I love this Sierra Mountain sun, all my plants are just exploding. My plum tree must have 100 lbs of almost ripe plums right now.