Aquaponics obsession!

abdul

Hey Jeff, even if you take pictures you can use windows movie maker, a default windows program, to easily put them together and add a narration or a soundtrack.

mantis

Your an inspiration Abdul. I will try to get a vid or two happening when the weather warms here :headbang:

abdul

Rock on Mantis

earthbound

Yeah I've used the windows movie maker a few times, works a treat, really simple...

OceanJeff38

Hey Abdul, just saw your facebook photos, nice!

Pheby Haroon is your girlfriend? Nice job man!

Take care, looking forward to more updates.

By the way, what does your girlfriend think of aquaponics?

What about the rest of your family? I noticed they were very helpful before in your videos making seaweed extract, and you seem to have a lot of plants for food and decoration around the house.

Just curious,

Jeff C

abdul

No she isn't Jeff, we worked together in my last play and in a play before, she's been in charge backstage, gem of a person. That's a picture from backstage.

The rest of the family is very helpful always, they really caught on to the idea once they saw it working, and in any case they're used to my seemingly hare brained ideas turning out as gold so I get the benefit of the doubt.

Just saying, no d:

Abdul

BullwinkleII

Hey Abdul, it's been a while since I read your thread, and was doing some catchup reading and noticed some white glaze on the pots in your broken pot GB.

Depending on the state of the laws and general health practices in the country you're in, and where your getting your broken pottery, generally speaking, I'd avoid low temperature glazed pots for media. Low temperature pots might be earthenware or terracotta, rather than "glass like" porcelain. It's not uncommon to use lead and other metals as a flux and colouring agent in pottery, and lower temperatures might mean more leaching. In higher temperature clay bodies, things like lead are used less because there are other fluxes and oxides that are more appropriate to those temperatures.

I have no idea if tin represents a problem to fish, but it's likely that tin is an ingredient in the white glazes. It's also not impossible that lead has been used as a flux in some form.

I wouldn't panic as the leaching is pretty slow, but If you have the option and are not sure of the glaze used on the white pottery, or any other pottery that's glazed, I'd pull the glazed bits out and replace them.

In our house, I would guess I have at least 2 or 3 pieces of pottery that would leach lead or other toxic stuff if used as a baking dish or coffee mug (one of them is actually a coffee mug) They might be fine forever in an aquaponics system, but they might not. It might even depend on something like your pH and thus your water's ability to dissolve the toxins.

I HAVE NO IDEA!

Read that line again!

I'm really not sure, but thought you might like a heads up on something to research.

But like I said, don't panic. I'd gladly eat the produce from your grow bed if you invited me to dinner

abdul

I salute you Bullwinkle, I'll be sure to look into it, though I think the white bits may just be bird poo, but in either case some reading and checking is in order, the heads up is much appreciated :]

On another note, here is this weeks updates and I have so many tomatoes in clay pots that its silly!

BullwinkleII

I have lemon grass envy!

Mine died over winter.

abdul

Thanks Bullwinkle :] Do you know of any way I could propagate that lemon grass?

Min hasn't been through a winter yet, but it was in the fridge for a few days before I planted it in there.

iammr.bill

Could you just break off a part of the plant/root ball and put that broken off part somewhere else? Wife does that with some of her plants, they seem to do just fine. As a matter of fact, if she doesn't split them up and replant, they tend to either wander off sideways and grow into another plant's space or die off from being rootbound.

abdul

Hmmm, that's a good idea Bill, I think I'll try it tomorrow, will make video and show you guys how it goes...

abdul

What a long way I've come thanks to you guys, the encouragement, the advise, the camaraderie,

All is well in both systems, though the tub AP basil really seems to have given up, but I'm growing enough algae in that GB to term it a success

Am planning on seperating the lemongrass in my AP, put it into pots and try to sell it as a set of five containers, lemongrass, thai basil, sweet basil, mint and coriander, all things I have at the house and should be able to propagate easily, though I have no idea on how to encourage the lemongrass.

Also planning on starting a hundred seedlings of tomatoes and another hundred of Okra or cucumbers, will also try selling these, cheaply when they're young or a little pricier when they're older and ready to fruit.

I hope it all works out, but all that will happen on Monday starting, tomorrow is a day of rest and debauchery which I shall enjoy at the beach, as long as the weather and the law and order situation allows. Lets all hope for the best.

earthbound

Cool..... Yeah those lemon grass could certainly do with splitting. Depending on how many you want, just dig it out and break the root ball into a few pieces, the bigger the clumps, the less set back the plants will be.

OceanJeff38

Actually about the white bits...yeah, given the amount of bird poo you have at your location, that's probably what it is.

I have a small rainwater catching system on my balcony, and I saw some bird poo get into it, and then I transplanted that into the aquarium indoors (before I realized the poo was there of course, because it dispersed, and I thought at first the poo was just the leftover harmless dirt from the bucket's previous use), and after sitting for a few days, the surface of the water (and all throughout) developed a gelatinous bunch of white ... I can call them smears ... and I didn't realize where they came from until I thought about it a few days, and I saw other bird poo on my balcony.

Anyways, that might not be the reason in your case, but I wanted to add my two cents.

later,

jeff c

Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics