I am in Southern California and mine is similar to yours. The plastic sheets look like corrigated cardboard which I really like because they provide some insulation for the system so that the temps dont swing as much. So far it has held up quite nicely but since we get some pretty high winds here I had to bolt it to the cement pad and I also made sure that the door was not on the side of the prevailing winds so that it didnt have so much push force if the door were open. I have gravel in tubs
Thank you. I am having way too much fun playing with this whole idea of aquaponics. I will be building an inground tub with a large growbed along side that greenhouse. I am currently working on leveling the ground there since it is a bit of a slope and I want things to be evenly watered. Take Care and above all else.... Have fun
Yes, the Strawberries will remain there for life. The Lettuce will stay till harvested. The Tomatoes have already been transplanted. When I harvest the Lettuce I will feed the root system and discarded leaves to the crawdads and Tilapia. Any excess that they can not eat will go to my worm bins so nothing is wasted. Then I simply reuse the 2 inch pots that the plants are in.
I have solar panels running one of the pumps but it drains the 2 deep cycle batteries totally during the night and I have killed 2 sets trying to keep it running on solar only. I just found a way to rewire the array to double the output and will be doing that soon. The array will be wired in series/paralell instead of simply series. The 300 tilapia are split between 3 tanks the largest tank is 300 gallons. The formula changes depending on whom you are talking too...
I have the greenhouse set to where the long side is facing E to W so that it receives the most available sunlight. I have strawberries in the bottom so they do just fine in there. I have been picking strawberries for the past month now... yummy. I will have to check out the pond at harbor freight but I have to calculate the liner dimensions I need for the pond on the side of the greenhouse which is nearly done. I have been giving lettuce away to my friends and local food bank.
The bass are in a 300 tub pond with some of the Tilapia, their purpose is to keep the Tilapia numbers in check since they are such prolific breeders. I only have 4 at the moment but have more on order. I will be building 3 more greenhouses and another unit that will be beside the greenhouse shown. It will be fed from a 60 gal tub that I will sink into the ground and have a big riverbed set up that will grow corn, sunflowers, indeterminate tomatos and such to shade the greenhouse.
The number of fish is directly proportional to the size of the fish and the plants in the system. If the amonia levels become too high, I take fish out, too low I add fish. I use the free amonia levels more than Nitrite/nitrate to stabilize the system. I notice an amonia spike when the fish spawn as well.
your system looks great nice job and the crawdads that reproduce by them self thats great. would make a good supply of them but, what do you do with all of them when time to harvast?
sorry for the delay in answering. Nitrate/nitrite can be a problem in the riverbed only if I replace too many plants at one time as the beneficial bacteria cling to the plant roots. The NFT is run constantly to prevent the water in the channels from becoming too hot or too cold damaging the roots. We have intensely high PH here so I put a couple of pieces of grapevine in the tanks to make the water more acidic.
I have one of my other systems on solar with 75 watts of panels set up. It drains the 2 deep cycle batteries during the night and I have ruined 2 sets of batteries that way. I recently found out that if I rewire the array to series/paralell that I will double my output so will be doing this soon. I am also working on building a wind generator to help with electricity costs. The Tilapia are spread between 3 systems with the largest being 300 gal.
My uncle just gave me 3 "franeup" framing kits to make 3 more really cheap. Should use about 24 2x2's for the frame and then with heavy mil clear plastic sheeting should be able to cover it cheaply also. but that is for another project...LOL The gravel is just all purpose gravel from home depot at $2.47 for a 50# bag. any coarse gravel will work, just dont do lava rock, too hard to clean once in the system, roots grow right thru it and it hurts your hands to dig around in.
the nutrient problem was due to insufficient fish load in the tank. worm tea and compost tea can be used in very tiny amounts as too much is harmful to the fish. In the riverbed the water flow MUST be constant, in the warmer months a periodic flow would cook the roots, in the cooler months the water could freeze, both being detrimental to the plants. Twice I have lost plants in the riverbed due to pump failure (clogged by snails) and the water in the riverbeds became suprisingly HOT very fast.
you can start as expensive or as cheap as you like. my first little setup were 18 gal rubbermaids with kitty litter trays! the pond is irrelevant here except as an irrigation source, just too big for aquaponics use since there is no way to increase the fish borne nutrients, but you could set up a series of trough like run ways filled with gravel and a pump from the pond to the runway with another spillway back into the pond??? not sure there could be enough nutrient but it could work
These are Procambis sp that is all the info I have but there are several procambis that are not typically self cloning. I often have some available for sale at $5 ea plus shipping, I always send 1 or 2 extra in orders of 4 or more, because I can not guarantee live delivery due to occasional mishandling by the post office. I can send next day but priority flat rate takes 2-3 days and they often arrive fine, but I won't ship again till late March to avoid them being frozen along the trip.
In the begining I had to keep close track on the system, but the biggest thing to watch is actually the ammonia levels, the nitrite and nitrate will eventually take care of themselves over time. The numbers of fish varies in accordance with size of fish and number of plants in the system. You have to play with the numbers if the ammonia levels get too high either stop feeding the fish for a few days, use some of the water from the system to water other plants and top off or remove some fish
Hi, congratulations, can you please tell me how big the pots are in the area where you have it set up like a hydroponic system, I am a little confused about the pot size. Also what is the size of your gravel? Congratulations again
If they are bitter that is because the system is still too new and there are not enough nutrients or the nutrients available to the plants fluxuates dramatically. When my system was new that was the case but not that is is over a year old that is no longer a problem
Where exactly did you get those crawdads and if possible can you give me the name slang or scientific is fine, and also what exactly do you feed them? I was interested in doing crawdads but didn't want to mess with reproduction for a grow out system. It would be nice to have some self cloning ones.
I have 90 watts of Solar panels to run one small pump during the day on one of my ponds.I am very interested in air lift pumps but am having a hard time finding quality info.where can I learn about them? do you know where I can find other fishes because the Tilapia seem to be a little more difficult to keep alive because of the temperature requirements. I have had heavy losses already down to around 100 from 300... I am in California, know of anyone who ships??? ttyl happy new year Sheryl
I am in Southern California and mine is similar to yours. The plastic sheets look like corrigated cardboard which I really like because they provide some insulation for the system so that the temps dont swing as much. So far it has held up quite nicely but since we get some pretty high winds here I had to bolt it to the cement pad and I also made sure that the door was not on the side of the prevailing winds so that it didnt have so much push force if the door were open.
I have gravel in tubs
Thank you. I am having way too much fun playing with this whole idea of aquaponics. I will be building an inground tub with a large growbed along side that greenhouse. I am currently working on leveling the ground there since it is a bit of a slope and I want things to be evenly watered. Take Care and above all else.... Have fun
Yes, the Strawberries will remain there for life. The Lettuce will stay till harvested. The Tomatoes have already been transplanted. When I harvest the Lettuce I will feed the root system and discarded leaves to the crawdads and Tilapia. Any excess that they can not eat will go to my worm bins so nothing is wasted. Then I simply reuse the 2 inch pots that the plants are in.
The poor mans system is interesting thank you!
Keep us posted please...very cool!
I have solar panels running one of the pumps but it drains the 2 deep cycle batteries totally during the night and I have killed 2 sets trying to keep it running on solar only. I just found a way to rewire the array to double the output and will be doing that soon. The array will be wired in series/paralell instead of simply series. The 300 tilapia are split between 3 tanks the largest tank is 300 gallons. The formula changes depending on whom you are talking too...
I have the greenhouse set to where the long side is facing E to W so that it receives the most available sunlight. I have strawberries in the bottom so they do just fine in there. I have been picking strawberries for the past month now... yummy. I will have to check out the pond at harbor freight but I have to calculate the liner dimensions I need for the pond on the side of the greenhouse which is nearly done. I have been giving lettuce away to my friends and local food bank.
The bass are in a 300 tub pond with some of the Tilapia, their purpose is to keep the Tilapia numbers in check since they are such prolific breeders. I only have 4 at the moment but have more on order. I will be building 3 more greenhouses and another unit that will be beside the greenhouse shown. It will be fed from a 60 gal tub that I will sink into the ground and have a big riverbed set up that will grow corn, sunflowers, indeterminate tomatos and such to shade the greenhouse.
The number of fish is directly proportional to the size of the fish and the plants in the system. If the amonia levels become too high, I take fish out, too low I add fish. I use the free amonia levels more than Nitrite/nitrate to stabilize the system. I notice an amonia spike when the fish spawn as well.
your system looks great nice job and the crawdads that reproduce by them self thats great. would make a good supply of them but, what do you do with all of them when time to harvast?
sorry for the delay in answering. Nitrate/nitrite can be a problem in the riverbed only if I replace too many plants at one time as the beneficial bacteria cling to the plant roots.
The NFT is run constantly to prevent the water in the channels from becoming too hot or too cold damaging the roots. We have intensely high PH here so I put a couple of pieces of grapevine in the tanks to make the water more acidic.
I have one of my other systems on solar with 75 watts of panels set up. It drains the 2 deep cycle batteries during the night and I have ruined 2 sets of batteries that way. I recently found out that if I rewire the array to series/paralell that I will double my output so will be doing this soon. I am also working on building a wind generator to help with electricity costs. The Tilapia are spread between 3 systems with the largest being 300 gal.
My uncle just gave me 3 "franeup" framing kits to make 3 more really cheap. Should use about 24 2x2's for the frame and then with heavy mil clear plastic sheeting should be able to cover it cheaply also. but that is for another project...LOL The gravel is just all purpose gravel from home depot at $2.47 for a 50# bag. any coarse gravel will work, just dont do lava rock, too hard to clean once in the system, roots grow right thru it and it hurts your hands to dig around in.
the nutrient problem was due to insufficient fish load in the tank. worm tea and compost tea can be used in very tiny amounts as too much is harmful to the fish. In the riverbed the water flow MUST be constant, in the warmer months a periodic flow would cook the roots, in the cooler months the water could freeze, both being detrimental to the plants. Twice I have lost plants in the riverbed due to pump failure (clogged by snails) and the water in the riverbeds became suprisingly HOT very fast.
you can start as expensive or as cheap as you like. my first little setup were 18 gal rubbermaids with kitty litter trays! the pond is irrelevant here except as an irrigation source, just too big for aquaponics use since there is no way to increase the fish borne nutrients, but you could set up a series of trough like run ways filled with gravel and a pump from the pond to the runway with another spillway back into the pond??? not sure there could be enough nutrient but it could work
they are a procambus sp called marmokrebs they are the only known species of cray to be 100% female
These are Procambis sp that is all the info I have but there are several procambis that are not typically self cloning. I often have some available for sale at $5 ea plus shipping, I always send 1 or 2 extra in orders of 4 or more, because I can not guarantee live delivery due to occasional mishandling by the post office. I can send next day but priority flat rate takes 2-3 days and they often arrive fine, but I won't ship again till late March to avoid them being frozen along the trip.
In the begining I had to keep close track on the system, but the biggest thing to watch is actually the ammonia levels, the nitrite and nitrate will eventually take care of themselves over time. The numbers of fish varies in accordance with size of fish and number of plants in the system. You have to play with the numbers if the ammonia levels get too high either stop feeding the fish for a few days, use some of the water from the system to water other plants and top off or remove some fish
Hi, congratulations, can you please tell me how big the pots are in the area where you have it set up like a hydroponic system, I am a little confused about the pot size. Also what is the size of your gravel? Congratulations again
If they are bitter that is because the system is still too new and there are not enough nutrients or the nutrients available to the plants fluxuates dramatically. When my system was new that was the case but not that is is over a year old that is no longer a problem
Harbor Frieght has the BEST price on a standing greenhouse. What kind of pea gravel do you use and where do you buy it?
@cylyntblu Depending on where you live, you could use your pond as a growout. youtube search Florida tilapia farm, there is about eight videos.
have you tasted your cucumbers? On my green house they came out really bitter, three different types!
What do you feed your craw fish?
Where exactly did you get those crawdads and if possible can you give me the name slang or scientific is fine, and also what exactly do you feed them? I was interested in doing crawdads but didn't want to mess with reproduction for a grow out system. It would be nice to have some self cloning ones.
I have 90 watts of Solar panels to run one small pump during the day on one of my ponds.I am very interested in air lift pumps but am having a hard time finding quality info.where can I learn about them?
do you know where I can find other fishes because the Tilapia seem to be a little more difficult to keep alive because of the temperature requirements. I have had heavy losses already down to around 100 from 300...
I am in California, know of anyone who ships???
ttyl
happy new year
Sheryl
nice