Aquaponics

[politicalcenter]

Stihl 180, 16" bar, easy start. Looking forward to playing with it. But, I won't use it until hubby is here for safety reasons, so may have to wait until next weekend.

Please be careful...very careful...they will kick back and they will mutilate flesh.

I used to work cutting pulpwood and I have seen some nasty injuries..

 

[lazy gardener]

Got it. Have used one before... but not a lot. I have a healthy respect for all power tools. That's why I won't use it unless hubby is home.

I'm sitting here watching a huge tree frog climbing all over the window screen. This guy has a huge belly! I think I'll turn the light on so he can get a bigger selection of bugs!

 

[politicalcenter]

Got it. Have used one before... but not a lot. I have a healthy respect for all power tools. That's why I won't use it unless hubby is home.

I'm sitting here watching a huge tree frog climbing all over the window screen. This guy has a huge belly! I think I'll turn the light on so he can get a bigger selection of bugs!

Cool!! sometimes we get these green tree frogs that are so unique.

 

[lazy gardener]

There are tiny little brown ones all over my yard. They are about the size of my little fingernail. I love my creepy crawlies!

 

[ninjawesome]

Wow! Aquaponics sounds like a cool thing! Very pretty pictures.

 

[RichnSteph]

Checked the tank last night when I got home and the pump was a little plugged which caused the water to get murky and icky looking. Also have about a billion snails in there.... I need snail eating fish. So I cleaned the pump, cleaned the siphons and cleaned the feeder lines to the grow beds. I planted 6 more tomato plants, 6 yellow sweet peppers, a crooked neck yellow squash and another squash that I can't seem to recall the name of. This morning the water had cleared up considerably and other than losing one of our larger crawfish (just dead on the bottom) the system seems to be working well.


Hope we get some fruit from the new plants before winter gets here.

 

[politicalcenter]

Checked the tank last night when I got home and the pump was a little plugged which caused the water to get murky and icky looking. Also have about a billion snails in there.... I need snail eating fish. So I cleaned the pump, cleaned the siphons and cleaned the feeder lines to the grow beds. I planted 6 more tomato plants, 6 yellow sweet peppers, a crooked neck yellow squash and another squash that I can't seem to recall the name of. This morning the water had cleared up considerably and other than losing one of our larger crawfish (just dead on the bottom) the system seems to be working well.


Hope we get some fruit from the new plants before winter gets here.

I have said before that i don't do aquaponics but I am starting terraponics. I had some leftover block and built some raised beds and filled them with pig dirt and a little lime. The dirt is black! My wife said it looked like good dirt and I told her it was about the best we will get around here. I planted broccoli and if the dirt isn't too hot it should do well. I will water them with pond water from my fish ponds.

Redear sunfish are pretty good for snail control and they taste good and are are thicker than bluegill. I have a few snails myself and if they ever turn the turbines off at the dam I will add some more.

 

[RichnSteph]

I have said before that i don't do aquaponics but I am starting terraponics. I had some leftover block and built some raised beds and filled them with pig dirt and a little lime. The dirt is black! My wife said it looked like good dirt and I told her it was about the best we will get around here. I planted broccoli and if the dirt isn't too hot it should do well. I will water them with pond water from my fish ponds.

Redear sunfish are pretty good for snail control and they taste good and are are thicker than bluegill. I have a few snails myself and if they ever turn the turbines off at the dam I will add some more.

Thanks for the heads up on the Redear.

 

[RichnSteph]

In looking at the tank last night I've determined that I need to purchase another pump. The one we have is great until a pile of snails get on the filter and clog it up. When that happens the input into the beds is just a trifle more than the outflow. Result? The beds don't siphon off and the plants stay in water for hours at a time. That's a recipe for root rot. I also noticed that when the beds can't siphon off the water in the dank gets just nasty.

I cleaned the pump and lines again and took a rake to the lava rock in the tank and stirred it up to get some of the solids back up into suspension so they could be pulled into the grow beds. This morning the tank was a lot cleaner. I'm not going to feed the fish for a few days in the hope that they start eating some algae and possibly a snail or two. So far the only fish that are doing really well are the two plecos that we dropped in there. They have quadrupled in size.

 

[3goodeggs]

Mud turtle. You need a mud turtle. They eat snails like popcorn and prefer them to fish.