TomKat
Member
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2009
- Messages
- 401
Some of you may remember last year when I posted some of my aquaponic experience http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?421779-My-Aquaponic-Experience-So-Far-This-Year. I started with a tote and one bed, then two beds, a jalapeno challenge, and then eventually a hot tub with two beds and a swirl/bio filter. Well, this year I went even bigger yet.
The hot tub started out with the same two beds and bio filter but I added on to it with three more beds (using 20 gallon concrete trays for each bed *highly recommended!) and a hydroponic style tube for more grow space.
Now that my original tote was freed up, I decided to try something different so I made another system only this time I used lava rock instead of pea gravel. The idea behind this was that lava rock is porous and is a great place for the bacteria to hang out in. This was not such a good idea. The lava is very hard to plant in and doesn't cover all of the surface so it promotes algae growth on exposed water so I filled it in with pea. I found a better way of using the lava rock when I added on two more beds to this system. I found that the key is to make the bottom layer of the bed lava and make the top 2/3s of the bed the pea gravel. After the second bed for this system was made I figured I would need a bigger fishtank so I made a homemade 200 gallon fish tank out of some plywood, 2x4s, and a koi pond liner.
So far this year I bought dozens of goldfish (probably 13 or 14 dozen, because they are cheap) but I wanted to try to raise something else though, something edible, so I went with some blue channel catfish. I raised two, then added another before I grabbed two more and added them into the new system with a few dozen goldfish that were already there. I knew better than to add the cats to the goldies because the cats would eat them but I couldn't catch all of the goldies so they were on their own. Some of them remained until the cats eventually ate all of them.
After this system was cycled and running I had to make another one so I made a smaller indoor aquaponic system with a small concrete tray (9 gal) for a bed and a 20 gallon aquarium with no gravel in the bottom. This tank held yet another two catfish in it.
By the time I got done with all of this fall was setting in and I wanted to further my growing season so I made a crude homemade greenhouse, about 12ft x 24ft and about 10ft tall in the middle, out of 2x4s, 4x4s, 3/4 pvc conduit, and the thickest plastic sheeting I could find here.
The downside to the greenhouse was that I was a week and a half too early sealing it in and the temps spiked into the 80s two days after it was up. All of the lettuces bolted and went to seed and most of the fall crops died off while the tomatoes and summer veggies thought it was time to keep on going instead of slowing like they had been (I know growing is based on light not heat, but this is what it seemed like). After about a week I had lost 3/4 of everything in the gardens. I did have chinese cabbage, cabbage, brussel sprouts, romaine, iceberg, purple basil, basil, habenero, all of the bell peppers purple-red-yellow-green-orange, jalapenos, kale, broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, okra, santa fe grande pepper, and others that I cannot remember.
I am still growing tomatoes, swiss chard, some peppers that have been stunted all year and won't die, strawberries, radicchios, a rosemary, an apple tree transplant, and broccoli right now and just had a few tomato volunteers pop up this week (just in time for winter to kill them, LOL).
I never did get the heaters for the tanks so I don't think that I will be growing much longer but I will take as much time as I am given. I made many videos on the systems as a video diary to show my progress at my youtube channel, feel free to check them out if you want. I won't bore y'all with them all but here are a few that were milestones.
Thanks for reading and/or watching! If you have made your own system, post a video or pic, I love checking out other peoples systems and if you are on youtube I will definitely subscribe.
Happy growing!!
How I started the second system
Hydro design elevated on the hot tub
Homemade fishtank for the lava rock garden
All five beds and the hydro, hot tub system complete
All three beds built on the new lava rock system
Greenhouse started
The hot tub started out with the same two beds and bio filter but I added on to it with three more beds (using 20 gallon concrete trays for each bed *highly recommended!) and a hydroponic style tube for more grow space.
Now that my original tote was freed up, I decided to try something different so I made another system only this time I used lava rock instead of pea gravel. The idea behind this was that lava rock is porous and is a great place for the bacteria to hang out in. This was not such a good idea. The lava is very hard to plant in and doesn't cover all of the surface so it promotes algae growth on exposed water so I filled it in with pea. I found a better way of using the lava rock when I added on two more beds to this system. I found that the key is to make the bottom layer of the bed lava and make the top 2/3s of the bed the pea gravel. After the second bed for this system was made I figured I would need a bigger fishtank so I made a homemade 200 gallon fish tank out of some plywood, 2x4s, and a koi pond liner.
So far this year I bought dozens of goldfish (probably 13 or 14 dozen, because they are cheap) but I wanted to try to raise something else though, something edible, so I went with some blue channel catfish. I raised two, then added another before I grabbed two more and added them into the new system with a few dozen goldfish that were already there. I knew better than to add the cats to the goldies because the cats would eat them but I couldn't catch all of the goldies so they were on their own. Some of them remained until the cats eventually ate all of them.
After this system was cycled and running I had to make another one so I made a smaller indoor aquaponic system with a small concrete tray (9 gal) for a bed and a 20 gallon aquarium with no gravel in the bottom. This tank held yet another two catfish in it.
By the time I got done with all of this fall was setting in and I wanted to further my growing season so I made a crude homemade greenhouse, about 12ft x 24ft and about 10ft tall in the middle, out of 2x4s, 4x4s, 3/4 pvc conduit, and the thickest plastic sheeting I could find here.
The downside to the greenhouse was that I was a week and a half too early sealing it in and the temps spiked into the 80s two days after it was up. All of the lettuces bolted and went to seed and most of the fall crops died off while the tomatoes and summer veggies thought it was time to keep on going instead of slowing like they had been (I know growing is based on light not heat, but this is what it seemed like). After about a week I had lost 3/4 of everything in the gardens. I did have chinese cabbage, cabbage, brussel sprouts, romaine, iceberg, purple basil, basil, habenero, all of the bell peppers purple-red-yellow-green-orange, jalapenos, kale, broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, okra, santa fe grande pepper, and others that I cannot remember.
I am still growing tomatoes, swiss chard, some peppers that have been stunted all year and won't die, strawberries, radicchios, a rosemary, an apple tree transplant, and broccoli right now and just had a few tomato volunteers pop up this week (just in time for winter to kill them, LOL).
I never did get the heaters for the tanks so I don't think that I will be growing much longer but I will take as much time as I am given. I made many videos on the systems as a video diary to show my progress at my youtube channel, feel free to check them out if you want. I won't bore y'all with them all but here are a few that were milestones.
Thanks for reading and/or watching! If you have made your own system, post a video or pic, I love checking out other peoples systems and if you are on youtube I will definitely subscribe.
Happy growing!!
How I started the second system
Hydro design elevated on the hot tub
Homemade fishtank for the lava rock garden
All five beds and the hydro, hot tub system complete
All three beds built on the new lava rock system
Greenhouse started
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