DD's System 2012

Dave Donley

Fiddled with the two dead pumps I had in the garage, I got the one working by putting some washers on the axle so that the impeller wasn't bouncing along the shaft so much. That pump is twice as powerful as the front trough's pump, so I had to divert the heck out of it to use it. The one that had been there was put into the in-ground tub with the couple of minnows and the four goldfish from my aquarium inside, because I felt sorry for them. They had been in there with just two airstones, a bunch of dirty scotch brite pads, and a lot of string algae from last year. I am pumping into the 70 gallon Rubbermaid full of gravel, and man there is something to be said for gravel beds - the algae is like all gone in a couple of hours. I also made a cover from landscape fabric to help control the algea in that tub because it gets a lot of sun. Planted a lot of bean seeds and some tomato seeds.

Tomorrow I'm taking the day off mainly to work on house issues (for selling), but I also plan to do some AP. After a small inventory I have a lot of stuff that I can use to expand the system for the milder weather now. Lots of net pots, still a good amount of pond liner, the mortar tub that is not in use, medium and small planter pots, and a decent amount of charcoal as long as I'm not trying to fill anything large. I may get some 2x4s and a little more charcoal and expand with that tomorrow. Has to be semi-mobile in case we move in a timely way.

Also played "find the smell" in the greenhouse today and found a really decomposed trout laying near the front where I hadn't seen it. Whew that was nasty! I've had a few dying on me like one a week, a larger one today which has me worried so I put a few capfuls of marine salt in there. There is a crapload of air going into the FT so I don't think it is that. I think I need to get the water filtered better, hence more expansion soon. I also had pulled the "stand pipes" on the rear troughs yesterday and let the stuff (charcoal sandy bits, etc.) in the troughs go back into the FT which may have bothered the fish. I am thinking about a sand filter to run just to really get the particles out of the water, the pond has a lot of sediment etc. in there and it could be better. I measured the water temp at 61F/16C so that's perfectly fine.

Another reason to add more is that the sun path has changed, to where the sun rises toward the front corner of the house. This means the front of the garage is almost getting more sun than the side wall where the greenhouse is, and the plants on the back wall of the greenhouse will be getting less sun as we get further in the Spring. They will still get enough from the afternoon, but I may put new stuff in front of the garage to get the tasty morning sun.

Dave Donley

Didn't get started until the afternoon today but did get the most important thing done - 16 feet of new planting space! If you assume that each of my troughs could hold a 10" square net pot then I went from 20 feet to 36 feet of growing space!

The new paired trough is made from 8 foot long 2x4s, held up level off of our driveway by little 2x4 posts on the ends, joined like a 4x4. The troughs are connected at the one end by 3/4" pipes pushed through 1/2" drilled holes in the liner, and clamped with hose clamps. The coupler is leaking just a little bit, I'll cement the join there. There is also another clamped pipe higher up on the one end to work as a drain.

The plan is to divert the flow from the top trough inside the greenhouse to these troughs, then drain back into the greenhouse FT. I may supply them with their own pump. I have two spare air pumps I'm not using so I'll put airstones in there to keep things groovy.

Dave Donley

Pictures inside:

Dave Donley

This is where the goldfish and couple minnows are, can see all the way to the bottom now. I got them a different pump that might be a little on the slow side compared to this one but should still turn over every hour.

Dave Donley

I like the troughs because of flexibility in holding 10" square pots, or 3" round ones, or 2" round ones. For those I plan to cut holes in blue board.

I hope we're not still here when the weather gets hot but if so I will cover the sides with some trim boards.

Seriously considered putting the new trough in front of the greenhouse but the morning sun really does shine on the garage front and this is more sheltered from strong winds. It's been really freaking windy the last few days here and I'm sick of it!

In bad news I think the trout have some kind of white fungus. I looked in the greenhouse door yesterday morning and two different trout were slowly swimming at the surface, both with a white edged round pattern on their sides. One trout was floating this morning, probably one of those that were slow yesterday.

Any ideas on what to do besides emptying everything and scrubbing with bleach? Because that is not going to happen. The several bluegill that died during the Winter had white fungus on them too so I think the trout got it from them. My plan is to try to improve the water quality through the plant expansion and to add some gravel and sand filters in buckets to filter out fine particles. I want to see the bottom of the pond. I think if I improve the water quality that the fish should be able to fight off any diseases that may be in there already. Is this a stupid plan?

TCLynx

When my catfish show signs like that, I usually pull out the slow/sick looking ones and salt to 2-3 ppt.

Dave Donley

Hmm yeah I may be a little more pre-emptive about getting rid of the sick ones. I added a little bit of marine salt (for marine aquariums) yesterday but haven't calculated how much to do yet.

Jimbo Rollins

Yeah, except for ich (ever present and just waiting for a temp drop-mostly a tropical fish problem) most diseases in fish are water quality related. Will you be moving bacteria-coated charcoal into the new troughs or starting from scratch? An immediate filtering improvement might be enough to help them heal themselves, but if waiting for the new part to cycle, you probably want to do the salt treatment.

Dave Donley

I really like having the plants in net pots so that they can be moved without killing them, so it is possible to take the plants out and salt the water then put them back in, or something. The net pots just touch the water on the bottom end, so other than the front trough the charcoal might not need to be rinsed.

SuperVeg

Correct me if Im wrong but I see it like this.

Healthy fish generally wont get a disease, parasites not included ?
good water conditions = healthy fish (generally)

On a side note, when I first set up my system I chucked a heap of small creek fish in, due to unnaturally high ammonia (oops) they started dying and the water really stank like rotting fish. Im assuming this was due to a lot of bacteria/fungus consuming the dead and dying fish. After a few weeks of just running they system on hummonia, the water became nice and clean again with absolutely no bad smells. It smelt like a crystal clear creek. After that I put in more little creek fish, then goldies then my SP. No deaths from any except a few little creek fish early on (there were a few dropped onto the concrete and I may have mushed them a bit trying to pick them up at the local produce place. Since then all happy and healthy.

If I were you, just run the system fishless or if you have fish in there just watch them, get rid of them if any more get sick / show symptoms. Then after a couple of weeks put some cheapo fish in there for a while to evaluate for residual diseases. If all seems fine after a few weeks it should be fine. System will stay cycled so no ammonia/nitrite shock.
Avoid large ph swings and providing the temps are good for your fish you should be fine...

Dave Donley

So yesterday I was able to finish hooking up the expansion. Moved 60 or so gallons or gravel, washed with help of some five gallon buckets. Stole pump from the goldfish, it took several tries to get the flow OK, I.e. Not too fast. Ended up using a valve. I think today I want to change to make more of a loop going between the FT and the valve, kind of like a loop for fuel injectors I think. That way the pump isn't being restricted except by the friction the get to the valve.

Anyway made some holes for the three inch net pots in some spare blue board using a Rotozip. Fiddled with the water level for a long while to get water up to the pots. Moved some lettuce outside. Was windy yesterday and this morning and I know those plants aren't used to it.

Also tried making a sand filter to reduce the particles in the water, but looking today at the flow out the bucket it seems to be a failure. Will try again with either very coarse sand or fine gravel and/or Scotch Brite pads.

Been eating salads everyday and lettuce on sandwiches, it's getting to be a scramble to keep up with the plants, and I need to keep planting new stuff too. I added more beans, tomato, dill, and cucumber seeds today but there are still empty places to be planted, and the stock tank too.

Dave Donley

Dave Donley

(Not liking Tapatalk much although it's good to be able to upload images at least)

RupertofOZ

I luv to see systems being expanded... :cheers:

Charlie

Looking great Dave, what did you use for rafts? Just standard polystyrene foam?

Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

DD's System 2012

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Backyard Aquaponics A place to discuss aquaponics

DD's System 2012

Who is online

Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics