Mama Heating Pad in the Brooder (Picture Heavy) - UPDATE

[Blooie]

sorry for the ot @Blooie

deb

Pftttt...Like Blooie never goes off topic!

 

[lazy gardener]

could be doable.... The warm temps are really for spawning.... low O2 goes hand in hand with warm water too. if your temps are constant and dont fluctuate you can keep the water warm with a large watt aquarium heater and an insulation blanket... or a wall of dirt built up around the tank. In my case the ambient temperatures get too hot for the cold water fish. in Summer here I suspect the water will be a constant 75 degrees so I still will have to add heat. Aquarium heaters are inexpensive to run. Then again I could also rig the return water to run through black pvc to heat it up....

I have had Aquariums for 40 years my first was the old style metal frame with Tar sealant. Rule of thumb the larger the tank the easier it is to maintain.... an inch of fish per gallon was the other rule of thumb. Just like square footage for coop vs run.... Rules of thumb. a starting point. With fish you can increase the density with aeration and good filtration. removing 25 percent of the water every month and replacing it with fresh is also an excellent move. What that does is remove the hormonal secretions that help keep the fish sized to their environment. Ever wonder why a gold fish kept in a tank will top out at about four inches.... yet when released into a pond they will grow to a couple of feet.

The other deal is feed. The fish flake package says twice a day every day. I fed my fish about three times a week. Keeps waste down their health was so good that I had Angel Fish spawn in my tank.... Dang plecosotomous ate the eggs.... But the key is dont feed too much. I also supplemented with fresh veggies Spinach was a hit along with Zuchinni. and for the meat eaters little bits of fresh raw fish from the freezer.

So running the tank water through a hydroponic system gives you many of the things you need for the fish. Ammonia and CO2 removal liquid waste removal all accomplished by the plants you are growing.... Aereation can be accomplished by a simple water pump operated by an air stone. the bubbles rise pumping the water up the tube and the water spills into the tank.

I keep telling people I could design a filter for a duck pond but no one believes me......

In theory I can.... but havent been able to proove it because Ihavent done it YET>

deb

Fish tanks. Been there, done that! At one time I had 14 tanks in my house, and had 900 baby angel fish that I was raising brine shrimp for, and doing 25-50% water changes in all of those tanks by hand every week. Had a beautiful corner, curved front 45G. tank in my living room. CO2 supplemented with yeast/sugar water in 2L soda bottle. Those plants grew like crazy. I was taking out about a bucket full of plants/month and taking them to the pet shops. Also had zebra fish spawning and was able to raise some of those fry, as well as the typical livebearers.

 

[aart]

I keep telling people I could design a filter for a duck pond but no one believes me...

I played with small ornamental pond filtration for a fww years, would be interested to see what you have for this.

 

[perchie.girl]

@KDOGG331

Its an investment. here you can get the totes for around a hundred. Use for CocaCola syrup originally. San Diego has a bottling plant.

Seriously investigate dishes you like to eat. If I were on the east coast I would be onto the shell fish that is available. While I like lobster I prefer crab. But oysters and clams and mussles are something I get on the rare occasion. the ocean here is too deep for em. Our fish is deep sea stuff like Tuna, Albacore , Yellow fin, Skipjack, Sword fish, .... I dont get any of that either because this family isnt into fish.

I grew up with a mom that seriously destroyed any fish she cooked.... So the best thing I got was Fish sticks burned on one side and mushy on the other.... How she did that I do not know. So I had to learn to cook on my own. It opened serious horizons to foods I would have gagged down in moms house.

Fish cooked right is delecate and flaky and very flavorful. And doesnt smell up the house.

develope your food horizons into fish before thinking of raising them for food.

deb

 

[Jemezhens]

Maybe you can help me on this thread... I have chicks shipping Monday, divided between my best friend and I, her flock has a broody frizzle bantam, a black meanie of some sort ( really I 'll come up with its breed) who just decided to be broody today and a demon rooster. Needless to say I'm going to take care of her chicks for awhile... In the mean time, we have a 2nd shipment arriving mid May, involving a 3rd friend. This is not the first time I've be brooded chicks, but it is the first time that I'll have to had to divide them into three groups. I have one heat lamp, I want to try the "heating pad mama" method but I can only get it up to 86 degrees. Any thoughts as to what I can do? The weather is not changing...it's a fickle spring up here... Thanks for any imput!

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
so youknow.... Yay. I never attempted a planted aquarium.....

some of them are soooo darned purty... there are many pond plants or water plants that are edible.... From Cattail to Water chestnuts.... and they are excellent water filters on their own. In a closed system you know what they are filtering so no worries for pollutants. They can even handle a bit of salt in the water.

Back befor NovAqua came out with a water conditioner we used to put a half cup of salt in every freshly filled 20 gallon aquarium to keep the water from abraiding off the slime coating on the fish.

deb

 

[Blooie]

Maybe you can help me on this thread... I have chicks shipping Monday, divided between my best friend and I, her flock has a broody frizzle bantam, a black meanie of some sort ( really I 'll come up with its breed) who just decided to be broody today and a demon rooster. Needless to say I'm going to take care of her chicks for awhile... In the mean time, we have a 2nd shipment arriving mid May, involving a 3rd friend. This is not the first time I've be brooded chicks, but it is the first time that I'll have to had to divide them into three groups. I have one heat lamp, I want to try the "heating pad mama" method but I can only get it up to 86 degrees. Any thoughts as to what I can do? The weather is not changing...it's a fickle spring up here... Thanks for any imput!

86 degrees is just about perfect, if we measured temps. Those of us who use MHP have discovered that since it's just heating the chicks, not the walls, the floors, the bedding, the food, the water, the air - just the chicks - the temperature rules of 95 the first week, 90 the second, and so on just don't apply to MHP. But I know that people are curious and want to know, so since you did measure it, rest assured that the reading of 86 degrees will do very well - and in fact might end up being a little too warm by the time your chicks get here.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:

I keep telling people I could design a filter for a duck pond but no one believes me...

I played with small ornamental pond filtration for a fww years, would be interested to see what you have for this.

Then you know the surface area of the filter is important to water filtration. But there are other things going on in a filter. First you have to remove the particulates.... Debris, plant materials, dissolved poo, etc etc.... The last is what I think makes people assume I am crazy. But if you treat this as if it were a black water problem.... or lowgrade sewage treatment instead of "Pond must be clear and drinkable"

first step is to filter out the chunks..... Which you can do with a prefilter made of swamp cooler pads.... Large stuff. They can be knocked off into the compost pile every so often... then rinsed and replaced.
Then the smaller chunks ..... smaller fiber filter.... Cleanable
Now you can start the biological filter.... Coarse gravel, Medium gravel, Sand, separated by screen. In those gravel/sand particles will reside Aerobic bacteria. These are infinately better at dealing with organic waste. As long as water travels through them to provide oxygen they are good at what they do. Once the water makes it through them then you can deal with the inorganic.... In aquariums Charcoal is one of the absorbers.... but in a pond system you can use pond plants.

Here is a youTube video

The one difference is Mine would be cleanable at each stage so the filtration system could be reset every so often.

It may even make sense to have each medium be in separate containers.... Like I said I havent built one yet

deb

 

[Jemezhens]

Really?! This is awesome info, so what the concept tells me is that if they are to cold 86 degrees is ok, if they are too hot they'll get out. Should I use the heat lamp at all in the first week?

 

[perchie.girl]

Really?! This is awesome info, so what the concept tells me is that if they are to cold 86 degrees is ok, if they are too hot they'll get out. Should I use the heat lamp at all in the first week?

um.... NO. LOL....