New system Part 2

We cleared the site yesterday. Going to do it all properly.  My earlier idea of using the old water tank is not really the way to go. Especially if we are going to be showing people around.  Behind the tractor on the right is our store. Ill be using it as our office and keeping fish food etc. Off to but the tanks later today.

December Update

Well for me this has been a very exciting month.

Got my own home system working much better. Today I tested the water. Fantastic results. Ph of 7.5 and NO2 and NO3 almost negligible.We had been having a lot of heavy loads from the tank clogging the filters and the pump. So much so that is was beginning to go terribly wrong. Even the large flood and drain bed was accumulating algae. First off was to redo the syphons. We made them a little shorter to ensure the water never came up above top of gravel.  I know easy enough but when we did the beds we ran out of energy to put in more gravel.. So being lazy finally came home to roost as it were but thats now sorted. Second big job was to remove some of the small fish we had. I thought we have added a lot but when you buy a kilo of cat fish they take up a lot of space. I reckon I removed about 150 small fish. We sorted them out. Kept 7 big Tilapia and the rest went into our main farm pond. Hopefully to grow and finally arrive on on plates in due course...

Next up for December was meeting with James Racoky of UVI fame who is the world renowned expert on Aquaponics.  He has retired and lives in Pattaya.  Owen and I met him for a quick coffee. 2 and a half hours later we left. Very interesting and exciting stuff. Go me more pumped up about the whole thing.

 

The four pictures above are of the 1000 litre system.  We are going to have a very similar construction to this one.

Above is Wanna reviewing the large UVI system construction. I think she is hooked as well.

Following on from such a meeting was then catching up with Robert Bob" White at Chat Takarn. Bob has been instrumental in establishing the Association of  to see a small system he had installed in a local Wat, and see his other new UVI type system in its construction stage. Really got me all fired up to get started. The small system is a 1000 liter fish tank feeding about 10 meters of flow beds. The big system is 4 fish tanks of 7000 litres each. Big and very interesting. Ive added a few random photos of the systems and as youve guessed Ive got a load more to help me understand what is going on. Ready for me to start on mine...

To keep me going through January I have bought a small system off Bob.  He is due to deliver in first week of January. Thats the 1000 litre system.  It should produce all the greens to fed the whole family and more... We should have it up and running with in days of Bob making his deliveries. Getting excited about this. Bit like waiting on a Christmas present.

Then our big project. We are going to build one similar to the UVI system on our land. I mentioned before we met with James Racoky of UVI.  He was really helpful to support us in this idea. Already got the spot in mind. We have flat raised land, power and water. Also already have a lot of ancillary stuff. Office, store room, pumps, plastic pipes and lights etc. Just need the fish tanks which well make out of concrete and the various filter beds and grow beds.So now need to finalise costing and make sure it pays of itself. Then February/March we start the big system.

The last photo is form our tank. Modest but a success.

Happy New year for 2013.

July 2012 Update Mid Summer heat and bugs

OK...I know its been awhile since I last posted any updates, but as everyone knows, everyday life can consume much of your time just tyring to get by.... Anyway, enough of that. I didnt have much time to dedicate to the plants in the greenhouse due to other responsibilities during June and the 1st part of July, but Im in the process of rectifying that. Heres an update on whats been going on with the whole system.

As you know it can get pretty hot in Texas, and boy it has been. This has been detrimental to most of the plants in my raft system...all of the Squash, & Cucumber plants succumbed to the heat along with some of the more tender Bibb lettuce. Tomatoes and Peppers didnt do well either, but I think this was mostly due to lack of enough fish in my system to provide the required nutrients. The only plants that did well were my Basil, Swiss Chard and Romaine Lettuce plants.

As for the media grow beds inside the greenhouse, I have had to rip most of those out due to an explosion of white flies that started on my tomato plants and rapidly spread to almost all of the other plants in the greenhouse. I had them under control for quite sometime, but I believe the high heat in the greenhouse stressed the plants causing them to become less resistant to the white flies. After removing most of the plants with the exception of my red Swiss chard, some of the mint, basil and rosemary and spot spraying with insecticidal soap, the white fly population has dwindled considerably and is barely noticeable. I will continue to treat for them as I add back plants to the media grow beds. Lesson learned, be consistent and persistent with pest control.

Here are the Media growbeds partially replanted with the remaining plants from my rafts.

and a pics of the rafts after cleaning the surface of the foam boards, the liners were cleaned as well.

On a happier note, due to the increased temperature in the greenhouse, my fish tank water is hovering anywhere from 82 to 86 degrees which has promoted much spawning inside the tanks.

I currently have five broods of baby Tilapia in various stages of growth. I currently up to about 300 fish, including fry and fingerlings. A pic of the latest small fry is shown below, they are gray and hard to see in the photo but show up better in the video.

I also traveled, once again, down to Overton Fisheries to purchase some Red Mozambique Tilapia. I bought forty of these and actually ended up with about forty-six. While most were a solid orange/red color. I had 13 that were partially or fully grey with a red sheen to their bodies. The only way to tell the difference between these reds and normal grey Tilapia is by their Red Eyes. Since this is the first year Overton has offered these Tilapia, I believe their breeding program has not quite gotten to the point of producing pure reds.

I think I will try to breed these back to each other in successive generation to get  pure red females that I can then breed to a Nile Male for all male offspring....Some Im off to by breeding tanks for my next chapter in Aquaponics. I intend to setup some breeding colonies of greys and reds, and once I get my Aquatic species/Aquaculture licenses perhaps I will try some Blues, & Niles.

Heres a quick video update on the aquaponics system...enjoy.

The Aquaponics Gardener Greenhouse update for December

Just thought I would throw together a quick update on the progress of the greenhouse. Its been a month since the last video showing how all of the plants and fish are growing....Im very excited to see that the system is really starting to crank out the produce, and in the middle of winter...just mind numbing. Anyway, heres a quick look.

 And as stated in the video we had our first harvest of produce, I picked and prepared Swiss Chard, all types of Kale, Basil, Arugula Chocolate mint,  and spearmint which was mixed up in a nice salad.  It was really good, and there is plenty left over for a few days. I still have quiet a bit more growing in the greenhouse.