Day 62... Everything is Blooming

With days in the 70s and nights over 50 degrees, I've taken the plastic off of the hoop house and tied up some tomato stakes above the growbed.  All 4 of the tomatoes are tied with string to the stakes.  All of the tomatoes are blooming.  No noticeable fruit though.

FYI.  I pulled off some tomato suckers and "planted" them by putting the 2" suckers in the media about an 1".  They are both about 4" tall now.

The single strawberry plant has 4 strawberries on it, all green and growing.

The banana peppers (3 plants) have blooms and one pepper is about an inch and a half long.

The ruffle lettuce is over 8" tall and the bibb lettuce is about 5" tall.  The ruffled lettuce is broad but not huge.  The bibb lettuce looks more like baby spinach leaves.  There are ALLOT of bibb leaves.

The bell pepper is recovering from the aphid infestation.  New leaf growth.

The red beans have not only flowered, but there are little red beans popping up all over.

The chili peppers are still tiny.  A VERY slow growing plant.

It Is "If You Give a Mouse A Cookie" Time

Let me start off by saying... brim are pigs and picky eaters.  There is not enough water movement to properly clean the fish tank.  So what do I do?


In my existing setup, my water pump feeds a top growbed with a gravity fed water return into the fish tank AND a straight feed back into the fish tank with a venturi (for air).

This is where the "give a mouse a cookie" comes into play.

• If I build a solids filter to clean the water a bit, then I have to add a sump tank and the water pump will move to the sump. 
• If I build a solids filter, I could build a bio-filter too.
• Since I'm adding a sump, I might as well sink the sump and build some extra beds.
• If I build some extra beds, I will need a larger water pump.
• If I add a larger water pump, I could use the existing pump just to cycle water and add air to the fish tank.

This week I ordered a bunch of Uniseals in different sizes.  Tonight, I built a solids filter based on the YouTube video, "Aquaponic radial flow filter for solids removal..", which is based on this guy's design, "DIY Solids Filter".  Uniseals are awesome.

Tomorrow, I have to go buy some PVC pipe because I bought the wrong diameter.  I used 1 1/2" fittings and Uniseals, but bought 1 1/4" pipe.  Luckily, I had enough pipe on-hand to build the filter itself.

I also contacted a local manufacturer of expanded clay media AND a local billboard tarp dealer.  The tarp should be available this weekend and I can get the media as soon as I have the new bed(s) ready.

Day 53... Warm Temps = Growth. Aphids.

 It has been a week and the weather has been warm.  Warm weather and sunshine in a aquaponics garden equals GROWTH.  I'm harvesting ruffled lettuce at six inches high.  I've had 3 big salads out of that.  The bibb (boston) lettuce is almost ready to start picking.  The leaves are thicker and greener than the ruffled lettuce.

The red beans have 3" by 3" leaves and the plants are about a foot and a half tall.  The beans are making a canopy over the strawberry and the lettuce plants that I moved around.  I'm planning a trellis to attach them to.

The growth spurt by the tomatoes was almost as impressive as the red beans.  Three of the four plants have started flowering.


The banana peppers are 6 to 8" tall and have LOTS of flowers, but no fruit yet.

The chili peppers are taking their time... 6 plants from seed and the largest is 1" tall.


Aphids.
Okay. The bell pepper has a problem.  What I thought was dirt left over from the original transplanting was actually aphid waste.  I noticed lady bugs the other day.  The article I read about aphids said that lady bugs can eat a 1000 aphids a day.

I have a ziplock bag full of cayenne peppers in the freezer from last year.  I chopped up about 12 of them, put them in a old small sock and tied off the end of the sock. I filled a jar full of water, put the sock in it and put it in the microwave for 2 minutes on high, 3 minutes of medium.  After the back steeped for a bit, I put the water and some dishwashing liquid in a small sprayer.

The recommendation is to hose off the plants with as hard a spray as you can.  Let the plants drip dry for a bit and spray again.  After the next drip dry, spray the tops and bottoms of the leaves and the stems with the cayenne water.  I had to be careful not to mace myself.

I sprayed everything except the lettuce.  I'll spray again tomorrow and the next day.

Day 45... Worms and Better Numbers

Yesterday, I stopped by Walmart to pick something up so I stopped by the sporting goods section and bought some live earthworms. Let's see if the fish are hungry for some live food today!

The worm container had about 20 worms in dirt.  I rinsed off one and tossed it in.  A small brim came over and got it before it fell a foot into the water.  He then zipped around the tank with half the worm trailing behind him.  I tossed another and another.  The other small brim got those.  After about 10 worms I noticed 3 worms have made it to the bottom and the large brim aren't touching them.

After about 5 minutes, the large brim still hadn't went after a worm.  Oh well. 

Today's Water Test
The water test came out much better today.  The nitrates dropped to 80, but the big change is that the nitrites dropped to 5 ppm.  That is in the NOT KILLING FISH range.

I didn't have any worms left from yesterday so I tried feeding them some of the sinking worm meal pellets. The little fish were ready.  They came to the front wall quickly, but were cautious.  The larger brim actually came over and caught some mid-sink.  Another few just waited and got them off of the bottom of the tank.

The weather, water temperature and tank water chemistry may finally be right for them to eat a bit.  This week is supposed to be warmer.  Heck, NOAA says we may have 82 deg on Monday.  The plants will LOVE it.

Day 44... Water Change Results/ FIRST SALAD

I changed 55 gallons of water yesterday.  I siphoned the old water into a 50 gallon bin and dumped the 2 day old water into the tank.  The temperature of the old water and new water was within 5 degrees so the fish shouldn't have been that shocked.

Before the water change I noticed that one of the ten bluegill is swimming at an odd angle.

I also flushed the water pump and cleaned the intakes.  I think I'll need to adjust the flow rates again because the growbed was filling faster.  I want the growbed to flush at 15 minute intervals and the circulation line back into the tank takes the excess at whatever pressure is left over.

This morning the PH is the same, the chlorine is down, the nitrates are slightly lower (80) and the nitrites are slightly lower, but still higher than 10. I didn't check on the fish

The Taste Test
My ruffled lettuce is about 3" tall... time for a taste test.  I made a salad out of a handful of lettuce cuttings, but it wasn't quite a "salad" worth of lettuce, so I added 2 romaine leaves, some tomatoes, a few mandarin orange slices and some cherry cranberries.  It was great.  The lettuce didn't have the slightest hint of fish shit.

Day 42... Nitrites Still High, Planning for 25% Water Change

With fish in the tank and nitrites high, the recommendations from the web.... which means they have to be right.  Right?  Bonjour!  I'm a French Male Model.

I have 3 buckets, a 20 gallon tote and a 30 gallon tote in the yard full of tap water, I just have to wait a few days for the chlorine to dissipate.  The fish tank is 200 gallons, so the change will be just over 25%.  Baton Rouge water is low in chlorine and, usually, neutral in PH so I will do the water exchange tomorrow or the next day.  We are expecting storms so you never know.

Maintenance and WEEDING

Since the weather was nice I pulled the top off to do some maintenance. The last picture in this blog is a weed.  Yes, a weed.  Okay it is grass, but in MY weedless garden?

I decided to thin out the green leaf lettuce by moving some plants around the bed.  I also moved a few of the chili pepper seedlings.  The boston lettuce is still too small to move, but it has come up in several dense groups.  As the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart would say if he had a speech impediment... "I have THINNED."

Veggie Stats
The bell pepper leaves are still not to the pre-aquaponics level, but the plant has been flowering and even has a small pepper (about 1/2" in diameter).  The strawberry and banana peppers are also budding out.

That Storm I Mentioned
As I am typing, the winds have kicked up to over 20 mph and the hoop house has flexed so that the outer hoop has bent under the 2nd hoop... gotta fix it.

Day 40... FISH!

I was thinking about throwing some goldfish in the fish tank and continuing the cycle with fish.  I've been looking at hatcheries that grow native Louisiana brim since I started my aquaponics setup.  Tilapia requires a permit from a state agency and I just don't want the hassle just yet.

During the week I started thinking about the ponds in my area that are maintained by the city.  There is one in a nearby neighborhood, so I decided to go by and check it out.  I brought a bucket, a small net and some stale bread from Walmart.  Ducks.  2 ducks, both all white and annoying as hell.  They wouldn't let the bread hit the water.

Soooo... what about the pond in my own neighborhood?  The pond is 6 or 7 years old and was supposedly stocked with brim and bass when they dug it to build up the properties around here. 

I don't live on a lake lot, but the "green area" that leads up to the pond is right across from my house.  I walked over, walked out on the pier and threw a piece of bread into the pond.   Dang it.  A couple of Canadian geese saw me and started over.  BUT, the bread chunk is being devoured by dozens of brim. I dropped a couple more pieces of bread in the water and leaned down with the net.


TWO SCOOPS.  I kid you not.  Two scoops of the net and I now I have 10 brim for my aquaponics setup.

Day 35... Something Odd. Chlorine Up / PH Down

Eggshell Container

The cold last night doesn't seem to have done any damage.  Heck, the water was 62 deg. at noon today.

The water has consistently been testing with no chlorine.  Yesterday, chlorine registered on the test strip.  I thought that it was just a fluke.  The test showed 1 ppm today.

The PH has dropped to 6.2 - 6.4.

What is different?  I have been adding a 1/4 cup of ammonia every other day in the morning.  On the afternoon that I add the ammonia, the strip shows 1 ppm.  The next afternoon is .5 ppm.

I added a bag of eggshells to the growbed this afternoon and took a bunch of pictures.

Day 34... Freaking Cold For Louisiana

It is March 2, 2013 and the high today is supposed to be 55 and the actual high was 45.  Since my son is home for a few days from college (Louisiana Tech, Go Dogs!), I asked him to help me add a layer of plastic on the hoop-house.  2mm + 2mm ought to hold a little more warmth.

Last night got down to 32 (4am to 6am).  At 2 pm the outside temp was 44 and the tank water was 62.  The odd thing was my 75 watt bulb that I use for heat was out.  Not burnt out, but blown out.  It had to have blown after 4 this morning because I was up for a bit and noticed the light was on.  A half inch hole right on the side of the bulb.  Now I'm on my last 75 watt bulb.

The interesting part of putting on the new sheet of plastic was feeling the heat of the water coming up from the top of the tarp.The tarp is connected to the edge of the growbed and the plastic is on the outside of the tarp.  The heat rises and along with the light bulb, the plants are keeping warm.

Tonight is supposed to be right at freezing or slightly below (31 or 30) again for two or three hours. 

Update: It was below freezing for 10 hours last night with a low of 27 for 3 hours.

Day 33... Thinking About Adding Fish

Tilapia or brim (sun perch)?  The hybrid brim is known for being hardy, but has a problem with breeding only males.  Not really sustainable, is it?  Louisiana requires a permit ($25 from Wildlife and Fisheries) and a sealed environment.  ie. a greenhouse.  I have that, don't I?

I found a cool article on adding fish, http://tilapiafingerlings.com/Faqs.aspx They talk about the perfect water and feeding.

If you're wondering... Nitrates are almost 200 ppm, but nitrites are > 10 by several shades of red.

My beans have taken off.  23 plants at last count.  Remember, that is 23 plants in a single row, 3 1/2' long. Too much?

The new chili pepper and Bibb or "boston" lettuce seeds are popping up.  I scattered the lettuce around the bed because Boston lettuce is usually small and tight. 

A friend warned me about the chili peppers heating up the other peppers.  This is LOUISIANA, dude.  BRING IT ON!