crystal-clear water

Because of the crystal-clear water, Flathead Lake in Montana seems shallow, but in reality is 370 feet in depth.

Turquoise Pool, Chile
 

Starting Seeds

starting seeds

Billboard Tarps

The vinyl is chemically unstable and unhealthy for fish.

My used tarp leaked, but the company refunded my money including shipping.

Each of the circles and squares drawn on this tarp indicate a hole!

Quote of the day

While reading through the AP (aquaponics) forums this morning I came across this from Vlad.  It made me laugh.  Vlad has a way of hitting the nail right on the head.  This was in response to a questionable ad  -

"...Well, OK maybe it's even a bit less hokey...somebody please just shoot me in the fucking head if I ever start rambling about how some overly priced, energy intensive AP system is going to feed some poor backwater village in the middle of the African desert...I mean it's nice for middle class white folks to have a 'feel good' hobby and all, but when folks use the very real and legitimate suffering and misfortune to tug at the heart-strings of Mr. and Mrs. Jones of Lakewood in order to sell them something...it kinda gets my goat. Sorry for the rant..."

Vlad and I are on the same page concerning AP.  Quoting Vlad again (sic) "Aquaponics is a romantic attraction".   

You may wonder where my allegiance lies. This is of course a blog about aquaponics.   I do like aquaponics, but it's not the only way to garden (Bioponics or Wicking beds may better suit your needs), and by no means is it cheap or as easy as some would have you believe.

A well managed AP system can out perform a soil based garden, but well managed is the crux of the matter and the term that requires definition.

In any case don't let the lure of technology lead you into grand ideas of easy profits and abundant crops of fish and vegetables.  It may not be rocket science, but it is a science that requires a fair amount of attention.

60 Minutes story about aquaponics

Automation

Comment by Iowa Aquaponics -

We've created a series of tutorials with some of these features using the Arduino and Google's cloud infrastructure.
Online Temperature and Humidity
Real-Time Graphing Online
Online Relay Control

Building Plywood Tanks

I get these 40"x47"x36" plywood boxes from a juice factory for $5.00 each.  I cut the shipping boxes into thirds or in half, and add bottoms to the sections as needed.  I look for discounted irregular plywood to save money (generally 1/2 price).

To build the basic plywood box would cost about $60 if you used 3/4" plywood at about $25 per sheet.  These come banded with heavy metal corners.on a pallet.  It's hard to beat these juice boxes built with high grade 3/4" - 5 ply plywood. It takes about 2300 ml of resin per tank at $50/3.5 liters

Fiberglass makes these tanks durable and clean.  Cost was about $60 per 40"x47" tank.

I'm filling this tank with water to test for leaks

The deeper tanks on top will be wicking beds.  The shallow 12" tanks underneath will be bioponic grow beds. 

I'm not concerned about toxins from the fiberglass resin.  If you are then use LG-730 Mono Epoxy Pool Paint or Pond Shield. for the finish coat  It will add $10-$20 per tank

These same tanks would cost only  $20.00 each if pond liner were used.
Box        - 5/2    =   2.50
Liner     - 100/9 = 11.00
Bottom - 12/2   =   6.00


After one year of use I found that the bulkheads needed to be tightened.  I expect the wood expands and contracts with changes in humidity which eventually caused them to loosen.

Micro Greens

Today I purchased a Sure To Grow pad and seeds for a salad mix.
I will follow the instructions as detailed in the videos at Growing Microgreens.com.

This is the first of seven.  They also sell seeds at a very fair price.

Below is a commercial farm.


At this point (4 days) these radish sprouts in the Bio-Char taste pretty good.  Two days later they began to loose their bite.

2013-01-04

2013-01-04

The Sure to Grow sprouts above have been growing for 3 days and have been exposed to light for just 2 hours


Here they are two days later.

2013-01-06

2013-01-06

They are not ready but they taste good.  I'm keeping them covered with a clear plastic dome and continuing to spray twice daily with clean water.   The sprouts in the Bio-Char are past their prime as sprouts.  I'll thin them out and let them grow into radishes.

I like the way these guys grow without the mat in the bottom.  This produces a product that does not require trimming and there is no added cost of the mat.