Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Howdy friends!

I came out of retirement and went back to the Internet place where I worked before, yay!

Work for profit for the week is done. Now I can get back to working or around the house projects, except with money!
I'll only post a few of the images of non-AP projects. This project is being done for some chickens we're raising this year.
June-2019-Karaoke-box-Brooder-van-integration-Chicken-pen-Guinea-hen

June-2019-Karaoke-box-Brooder-van-integration-Chicken-pen-Guinea-hen
I've been doing a lot of carpentry for the integration of the Brooder van and karaoke box trailer into the chicken pen. At first it seemed straight forward to build a cage of chicken wire to meet up with the van. I soon realized every curve of the van needed an engineered piece of wood to fit it in and not being able to attach the wood to the van meant each piece needed to be self-supporting.

Chicken-pen-mods-rounded-to-square-type-stuff
Chicken-pen-mods-rounded-to-square-type-stuff. I had a piece of chain link fence which has been used twice before on projects and discarded only to be retrieved again and again and reused. This is well attached and hopefully large predator proof, yeah right, lol!

June-2019-Karaoke-box-Brooder-van-integration-Chicken-pen

Integrating the Brooder Van and Karaoke box trailer into the chicken pen. A whole lotta round to square carpentry. Lots of voids to cover under the van and the trailer. I hope this part is done and I'll move onto the door on the other side of the trailer today. It took all day to figure it all out, but I got it and I'm satisfied it will keep the birds in and foxes out. Unfortunately the whole top is yet to be covered and it is also round! I want to say from now on I'm only going to build square structures, but the reality is Nell and I were both sick when we built the chicken pen and it is what it is and we're glad we did what we did. I have a plan for how to cover the top. I still need to simplify the plan so it takes like one day to do, haha, right?

Taking big pieces of wood and making small pieces. Thank goodness for this miter cut off saw. Not next, but after the door where I'm standing will be the top of the pen. My plan is to layout three lengths of chicken wire in the field and weave the sides together, then drape the combined sections over the sides. This is so we don't have to work up from the bottom as much.

We're also working in the four next to trees gardens we have been building around the house.
June-2019-Blue-Columbines-backyard-garden-patch


June-2019-second-season-peppers-outside-again

Second season peppers are outside again after continuing to fruit all Winter in the greenhouse. I never would have guessed they'd go a second year, so that cool.

June-2019-Fairly-rare-red-white-Columbines-backyard-garden-patch


This morning I used the last of the compost from the rotting hay we got to help warm the outdoor Koi pond three years ago.
June-2019-compost-spread-back-gardens-rock-partitians-added to keep the dogs from nesting in the cool soil under the trees.

June-2019-compost-spread-back-gardens. This bed gets good morning sunlight yet is protected (hopefully) from hail which usually comes from the west.

June-2019-Aquaponics-Rainbow-chard-petunias

The media beds need cleaning after raising 100 Brook trout overloaded the system with fish poop.

June-2019-petunias-aquaponics-upper-media-bed-greenhouse

Tyme-Aquaponics-media-bed

June-2019-Peppers-not-outside-yet-greenhouse. These will be backups if hail does pulverize the plants I already put outside.

June-2019-dirt-bed-first-grapes-3-year growth.

Thanks for reading and looking at our projects.

Have a great weekend

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Brian's AP
I don't understand all I know about this
Specs: 2600 gallon (347.56cf) Masonry fish pond. 44cf GBs. 200 gal (26.7cf) ST. 15 gal (2cf) RFF. 50 gal (6.7cf) biofilter. Brook trout and Comets.

Great recycling project for your chickens

Works a pain at times but money in the pocket always helps

Ive been recovering from injury and I think ive found a job I can do that will get me going again , starting next week

Got some projects that ive had on hold for awhile now due to lack of spare funds.

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My System
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=12070

Thanks for the note Terra. Yes not working doesn't help make us feel better went we're down for the count. It's funny, now that I am working again I want to buy stuff whereas when I was down I wouldn't even look at Amazon. First thing I did last week was buy more parts for the lifted Jeep

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Brian's AP
I don't understand all I know about this
Specs: 2600 gallon (347.56cf) Masonry fish pond. 44cf GBs. 200 gal (26.7cf) ST. 15 gal (2cf) RFF. 50 gal (6.7cf) biofilter. Brook trout and Comets.

Howdy.
I did a bunch of fish moving as well as harvesting the last ten Brook trout. I cleaned both ponds this is the indoor 2600 gallon aquaponics tank:

Scrub-brush-hose-lotta-exercise-bingo!

Hopefully it'll stay clean for a while with only the four four year old trout in the 2600 gallon tank.







Now after cleaning ten big fish I exhausted and can't type, lol!

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Brian's AP
I don't understand all I know about this
Specs: 2600 gallon (347.56cf) Masonry fish pond. 44cf GBs. 200 gal (26.7cf) ST. 15 gal (2cf) RFF. 50 gal (6.7cf) biofilter. Brook trout and Comets.

How are you Brian ?
We have not heart from you for a very long time.

I hope you and your wife are well.

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3 Dogs, 2 Pigs and a Bier

Thanks gnoib, we're doing well. I don't recall if I mentioned that I went back to work, I did. I'm feeling pretty damn good too.
I finally got the air-lift powered cone-bottom RFF installed. It was a workout, and I chased a leak coming from the plumbing I modified coming from the SLO.

I freaked out when I watched my own video because at the very end it dripped. It turns out it isn't worth fussing about. The Koi are doing very well and becoming more friendly every day.
Here is another short video looking at the mess I made.

The big advance was busting a hole through the greenhouse wall for the drain. Now I can gravity drain anything in the fish room, YAY!

It was recommended that I not do a lot of digging, but I think it was worth a little pain for this new drain in the fish house.

Oh man I struggled to get this section of pipe setup properly. I should have used a union, but I didn't have one. When it leaked in two places because the angles weren't quite right, I sawed it off again and added this rubber sleeve to make up for imperfect fit. Plus this gives me a way to take it apart if needed.



Even when I used this new wet set glue it leaked, but not enough to discourage me. I'm keeping an eye on the drip.
The air-lift pump is so effective at this level it acts like a little geyser in the RFF. I'm thinking of ways to contain the water even better. It doesn't seem urgent though, so I'm at ease.

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Brian's AP
I don't understand all I know about this
Specs: 2600 gallon (347.56cf) Masonry fish pond. 44cf GBs. 200 gal (26.7cf) ST. 15 gal (2cf) RFF. 50 gal (6.7cf) biofilter. Brook trout and Comets.

Good to hear from you Brian and I like the progress.

" I'm thinking of ways to contain the water even better"

Maybe place some fibreglass flyscreen over the gusher to contain it a little better and to dissipate the water into finer Oxygen absorbing droplets? Just a thought.

I like that idea Nhibbo, thanks
I was talking with a friend, actually the guy who aimed me at air-lift-pumps to begin with, and he was saying I might try decreasing the air volume. I will try this as well, but I suspect the gurgling comes from that short section of nearly horizontal pipe coming from the SLO. At least I have something to experiment with now, after this project fell by the wayside after the previous failures. I am happy about this success.

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Brian's AP
I don't understand all I know about this
Specs: 2600 gallon (347.56cf) Masonry fish pond. 44cf GBs. 200 gal (26.7cf) ST. 15 gal (2cf) RFF. 50 gal (6.7cf) biofilter. Brook trout and Comets.

Glad everything’s ok Boss, thanks for the update.

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Skeg In The Hills.

Good to hear from you.
Fall will come with a bang this week in my area.
Temps will drop to the lower teens, when that cold front comes in tonight.
Have to winterize the outdoor system today.

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3 Dogs, 2 Pigs and a Bier

Hi Brian,

How are you coping with the big freeze?

We are having the opposite problem atm with temps in mid 40's and rampant bushfires across the entire country. My daughter in Sydney has had a constant bushfire smoke haze for about 6 weeks now. Fortunately here in Melbourne it's only been a few odd days but that was bad enough. Not good for asthmatics.
On the good side, I tried the first of my SP's today. Delicious! I'll be bumping 3 more on the head for New Years Eve entree.
Keep warm, keep well.

Hi Brian, how are you and Nell? I hope we haven't heard from you because you are both feeling great and too busy enjoying life to post. Anyhow there was a time I would follow you daily, and now silent for over 6 months? Please be healthy and stay safe! Some of us AP'ers are better positioned for lockdown than other mere mortals. I hope you are both doing well.

Cheers

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800 gal sys 2016
IBC system 1/2015
simple flood & drain
5 growbeds

9 kW Solar Electric 2011

"Aquaponics...solar-powered nanotechnology that produces fresh vegetables and meat, while purifying water..." - Rick Op, Houston Texas.

Hi Brian, hope you guys are safe and outside the Luna Fire zone.