Successes (beans) and Failures (peas)

Fish update - had a couple more floaters last week.  The nitrogen levels (bad stuff) were off the charts.  I added some bacteria (aquarium starter found at Petsmart) to hopefully take care of the nitrites, and turned the water pump on 24x7, instead of running it for a half hour every hour.
The nitrogen levels are back down near zero now.  I don't think it was because of the bacteria.  It was probably the water pump.  Running it half time just couldn't keep up with the waste from the fish.

Plant update - I think I will harvest as many of the beans as I can tomorrow to make room for leafy greens (probably spinach and lettuce).  The beans are looking good, but the plants themselves are starting to wilt a little.  I'm pretty happy if I just end up with a few beans.  I really didn't expect any, since it's not recommended to grow flowering plants for the first year.  I really just wanted to see a plant growing, and that's what I had at the time, so I planted them.  Plus, it seemed less likely that the beans would wash away than something smaller, like a lettuce seed.  Here are a couple of pictures.

Beans - October 6

Beans - October 24

The peas, on the other hand, aren't doing so well.  Actually, the ones that are near the window seem to be doing OK, but they are not flowering.  Not sure if that's because they take longer to mature, or if they're just not happy plants.  The ones furthest from the window wilted and turned brown.

October 15 - Dead Peas :-(

I also recently planted some strawberries.  I know, another flowering plant.  But I figured they make good potted plants, so what the heck?  Plus, I think they were on sale at Gurney's since it's the end of the season.  The way they are shipped, they don't look like much.  But they are doing surprisingly well so far.  Guess we'll see what happens this winter.  I think I bought ever bearing, so even if they don't flower any time soon, they should survive the winter indoors.

October 6 - Strawberry plants received

October 15 - Strawberry plants

October 24 - Strawberry plants - doing pretty well

And here's one last picture which illustrates why I am doing this as an indoor project.  This was a big storm for the first one of the season, but once the sun came out around 3:00pm, it almost completely melted.  I thought we were going to lose some tree branches with this storm, but the sun came out just in time.

October 8 - First Snow of the Season

One Dead Fish and Blossoming Beans

Went to Vegas last weekend and put an automatic feeder on the tank.  Came back and had one floater.  I wasn't really surprised. I was actually expecting closer to a 50% mortality rate when I thought I was going to get fingerlings, so this isn't so bad.  The only problem was that I'm not sure how long it was dead (it was pretty stiff), so I don't know how long it was decomposing and contaminating the water.  I took ammonia and nitrite readings and they were a little high, but not too bad.  I held off feeding until the next day, then my readings were normal, but the water is still a little cloudy.  The rest of the fish seem to be doing OK, though.  They love feeding time.  I turn on the light underneath them and I can see a bunch of them start swimming all crazy when I drop the food in. 

BTW, Fishcam is dead.  Uh, I guess my Ziplock idea wasn't so airtight after all.  At least not the last time (and I do mean "last time") I used it.  At least I got one sort of good little video.

The bush beans that think they're pole beans are finally starting to blossom, which means I should hopefully have some green beans soon.  Peas are doing OK, but no flower buds yet.

The beans are still growing crazily toward the window, as expected, to the point that they're pretty much lying flat on the ground.  Not sure what that means for bean production, but I guess we'll see.  I put a full spectrum light in the room and leave it on for a couple of hours a day (when I remember).  Hopefully that will help even them out a little.  Here are a few pictures.

30 Sept 2011

Green Bean Blossoms

Green Beans in Growbed 1

Green Beans in Growbed 2




 That's all for now.  Thanks for reading! 





Fishcam1

Since I can't really see very far into the tank, I decided to try taking a video of the fish.  I don't have an underwater camera, so I took an old video camera that has a "night vision" setting, sealed it in a Ziplock bag (the kind with a double seal), and sealed the top of the bag with duct tape (good old duct tape).  I tried to hold the camera in the water near the light so the camera could "see" better. 
As you can see in this video, I didn't get a great picture, but considering my resources, it's not too bad.  You can see a couple of fish swim by a few times in this video.  Sorry for the camera movement, but I was doing this blind, with both arms submerged past my elbows in 56 degree water.
Maybe with a little practice, patience and a brigher light or two, I'll get better at this, but for now, here's Fishcam1.

I've seen a picture of someone else's tank with a section of the tank cut out and a piece of plexiglass somehow secured over it.  I don't really want to introduce more possible leak sites, but if I can find out how to seal it well, I might do that next year between sets of fish.

Fishes Be Crazy

Got my fishes yesterday. 

I called Liley Fisheries earlier in the week to see if I could come pick up some trout and we decided on Thursday morning for pickup.  Originally, I thought I would get fingerlings (very small fish), but the smallest they had were 4-6 inch fish, which makes sense since the fingerlings they had earlier in the summer would have grown.  Anyway, this changed my original idea that I could pick up the fish in a big bag inside a box.  The man I spoke with (K.C.) told me I would need about a 30-gallon container and that I would need to have a way to aerate the fish during transport.  Apparently, cold-water fish are very sensitive to low oxygen levels, so even the two-hour drive would be too long for them to be without some kind of aeration.  So, I went to Walmart and bought a power inverter so I could use my aquarium air pump.

Power Inverter

I also purchased a 35-gallon trash can and drilled holes in the top so I could run the air hoses into the container.  I packed my air pump, air hoses, tie downs, and my trusty roll of duct tape and at 6:45 Thursday morning, I was on my way.  I knew driving through Denver at 7:30 wasn't a great idea, but I needed to be back by 11:00 for a meeting.  When I got to the fish farm, the guys were expecting me.  The guys at Liley Fisheries are awesome!  Very friendly and helpful - nice guys!  I was worried about having to tie down the trash can and get everything prepared for the drive home, but the guys at Liley were awesome.  They filled up the container with water, added the 40 fish, tied down the trash can and set up the air pump for me, ensuring that everything was secure.  And, of course, the duct tape came in handy.  :-)

Tied down and taped up



Air pump and hoses running into container




















The ride home was uneventful (and much faster than the drive up).  I tried to get a few pictures of the fish, but the container was so dark, I couldn't see more than a couple of inches into the container.  Even with a polarizing filter, I couldn't see very far into the water.  Here are a few pictures.  I adjusted the brightness and contrast a little, which helped.  I used the green bucket to move the fish a few at a time from the trash can to the fish tank.

Silvery 1

Silvery 2

Silvery 3

Silvery 11, Silvery 25 and Silvery 31

I was worried that the pH of my water was going to be too high, but a few days ago, it actually lowered a little.  When I got home, I checked the pH and temperatures of the water from the fish farm and the water in my tank.  The pH of the water from the fishery turned out to be as high as mine was when I first started cycling the tank (about 7.4), so apparently the theory that the pH is more important to the plants than it is to the fish must be true.  These guys grew up in high pH water and they seem to be fine.  The temperatures happened to be almost identical.  I replaced some of the water in the trash can with my tank water a few times, but when the pH level in the trash can didn't change, I got impatient and just started moving the fish over. 

I was upstairs working from home for the rest of the day.  Within the first hour, I started hearing fish jumping.  Not good, since the water level is only a few inches from the top of the tank, so they could easily jump out.  Apparently, trout like to jump, and are especially prone to do so when they're introduced to a new environment.  So I went downstairs and covered the tank with chicken wire.

Fishy Lockup

I was so excited to get my fish so I could watch them swim around and name them (Silvery 1, 2, 3...), but unfortunately, this tank is really dark and I can't really see anything.  I bought a submersible pond light and put it at the bottom of the tank, so now I can see a few of the fish.  They actually like to swim up to the light and look at it.  But I can't get any pictures of it.  Maybe my next purchase will have to be an underwater camera with a light.  :-)

BTW, the fish cost $1.21 each.  And I highly recommend Liley Fisheries to anyone who is in the market for trout and other game fish.  They're great guys!  They stock public and private ponds (and other bodies of water) and perform other types of services, such as pond aeration and consulting services.

Bizarre Beans

The bush beans seem to be growing freakishly tall.  It might be because they're trying to find full sunlight, so they're growing toward the window and won't branch out much until they find the amount of sunlight they want.  That could make for a really strange sight from the outside of our window in a few weeks.
  

Beans want sunlight

 





Growing toward the sun













In contrast, below is a picture of several bush bean plants.  You can see they are a lot shorter than the indoor ones and they branched out a lot.

Bush beans growing outside in full sunlight

Since we're going to get even less daylight until next spring, I might need to consider supplemental light.  Maybe I will use some high-watt fluorescent lights in the overhead light fixtures and keep them turned on for several hours per day.

Below is a picture of what I think are tomato plants.  I planted them several weeks ago, and they're just now sprouting.  Maybe it was too hot for them before, I don't know.

Tomato plants (maybe)

Plant Pictures and Water Data

Here are a couple of pictures of the growbeds today.  The lettuce in growbed #1 had stopped growing and started wilting right after it sprouted.  I think this is because of a heat wave we had.  That was the same time the mature lettuce we had outside had turned bitter and started bolting, which is what lettuce does when it gets too hot.  I was about to give up on the lettuce, but once the weather cooled down this weekend, it started to grow again.

Growbed #2, which had tiny pea sprouts on Sept 1, now has lots of peas and beans, and I think even some tomato sprouts.



Growbed #1-beans, peas, lettuce and basil



Growbed #2 - beans, peas and tomatoes

I had to add a little bit of ammonia last week because the nitrate levels dropped.  I need to keep the nitrate levels up until I get the fish.  Once the fish are introduced to the tank, their waste should produce enough ammonia to keep the nitrate levels up.  Here is the data I've collected since starting the tank.  Note that our tap water pH is about 6.5. 

Date	pH	Ammonia	Nitrite	Nitrate
17 Aug 2011	7.2	0	0	0
18 Aug 2011	7.6+	4 ppm	0	0
23 Aug 2011	(not taken)	2 ppm	0	0
24 Aug 2011	7.6	1 ppm	0-.25 ppm	5 ppm
27 Aug 2011	7.4-7.6	0.5 ppm	5 ppm	8 ppm
31 Aug 2011	7.8	0 ppm	0+ ppm	2 ppm
NOTE: added about ½ tsp ammonia powder on 31 Aug 2011
06 Sept 2011	7.4-7.6	0 ppm	0+ ppm	30 ppm

Room and water temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit -

Date	Room Temp	Water Temp	Notes
16 Aug 2011	70	56	This is fresh from outside tap
21 Aug 2011	70	65	9:30 am
24 Aug 2011	75	68	8:00 pm
25 Aug 2011	68	65	7:14 am
25 Aug 2011	75	68	6:00 pm
27 Aug 2011	75	66	1:00 pm
30 Aug 2011	72	64	6:00 pm
06 Sep 2011	66	62	9:30 pm – closed window at 7am when room temp was 62

30 August 2011

Here's a picture of grow bed #1 today.  Peas are back against the little fence, lettuce is in the middle (tiny plants), and bush beans are in the foreground.

I just ordered trout feed - would you believe there's such thing as Purina Game Fish Chow?  LOL!!!  That's actually not what I ordered, but I thought it was funny.  I ordered BioTrout from a nice man named Walter at Bio-Oregon.  BioTrout contains more protein. 

I'm hoping to add fish in a week or two.  My ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are all good, and the water temperature has finally gone down a little.  According to what I've read, trout don't like water to be over 68 degrees Fahrenheit, and last week when our outdoor temperatures were getting high, so was the temperature of the water.  The water got up to 68 degrees, but I was afraid it would keep getting hotter, so I didn't want to introduce baby fish to a hot tub.  Unlike some parts of the country, though, I think the danger of an extended heat wave is pretty much over in Colorado Springs, so it should be safe to get the fish.  If trout prefer cold water, just wait a few weeks, they will love it here! Now I just need to wait for the feed to arrive and figure out how to get up to Fort Collins during the fish place's business hours. 

I was hoping to get brook trout since I think they would be more content to hang out in a pool of water, but the fish place only has rainbow.  Besides, I was going to name them Brookie 1, Brookie 2, etc....Now I have to think of new names.  Rainbowie 1?  That just doesn't have the same ring to it.  Silvery 1 through Silvery 40?  ;-)

Whatever, they will all taste good on my plate next year.

Life!!!!

It might be kind of lame to do all these different posts on the same day, but I wanted to break them up into useful posts, instead of one giant blog.

Once I had my pump and drain set up and one grow bed full of gravel, I planted a few test seeds.  The cycling kit arrived the next day, so I wasn't really depriving my future plants of nutrients for long.

Lettuce and bean sprouts appeared only four days after planting.  Once the beans sprout, they grow at an amazing rate.  Well, maybe it's not amazing to the seasoned gardener, but it's cool to me to see everyday.  :-)

Here are a few pictures.  I tried to line them up better, but I gave up.  :-P

Lettuce Sprout Aug 20

Bean Sprout Aug 24

Bean Sprout Aug 25

Bean Sprout Aug 26

 

Preparing for Plants and Fish

After building the system and adding gravel, I purchased a tank cycling kit and a start-up test kit. 

It's important to cycle the tank before adding fish, otherwise your fish may be in a lot of distress, and might even die, due to high levels of ammonia.  I won't go into a lot of detail about that, since you can find plenty of information elsewhere, but it's an important consideration before you get your fish - especially if you have to travel several hours to get your fishies.

The Aquaponic Source has a good overview of the cycling process.  This is also where I purchased my kit for $15.  I suppose I could have tried using regular liquid ammonia, but I figured this would be safer and faster.  I also purchased a test kit from Aquaponic Source.

I'll post some of my readings and dates in a later post - maybe when I get my fishes. 

Lessons learned - I should have tested the pH of my water BEFORE I added the gravel.  I think there is a lot of limestone or something in our rock, because adding the rock raised the pH level in our tap water from about 6.4 to about 7.6.  Luckily, although the 7.6 is a little more alkaline than recommended, I don't think it's dangerously high.  However, since I had to carry in several hundred pounds of gravel one bucket at a time, I would have been pretty upset if I had to find another media source, empty the grow beds and haul in more of whatever I ended up using. 

Water Circulation

In this post, I will document the specific configuration of the pump and drain system.

Pumping water - Here is a picture of the submersible pump I'm using.  We weren't sure how to connect it, so I tried to take a close enough picture that you can see how it's connected.  We used a small section of old garden hose and zip ties to connect to the little tube that comes out of the pump.  At the top of the section of garden hose is a standard garden hose attachment.  I didn't want metal in the tank, so I bought a male hose end at Walmart for about $2 and attached it to the hose section.  It's probably more difficult to find this piece in the winter, but you might be able to find one online or at Home Depot or Lowe's.  There is a female adapter attached to the PVC pipe that allows the hose to be connected to the pipe.  We purposely chose to have the little section of hose so there would be some play if we needed to move the pump once it was all hooked up.

Here you can see the pipe coming up from the tank and splitting off to each of the grow beds.  The pipe coming up from the tank is 3/4 inch that splits into two 1/2 sections going into the grow bed.  There's a 3/4-inch-to-2x1/2-inch tee at the top of the 3/4-inch pipe.  On each side of the tee, I cut a small section of 1/2-inch pipe to connect to one end of the valve.  Another section of 1/2-inch pipe on the other side extends over the bed, then an elbow is attached to that section and another section of 1/2-inch pipe goes down into the media in the grow bed.  The extra section going into the bed goes a couple of inches into the gravel in order to prevent splashing.

Draining - The water is drained from the grow beds back into the tank using a bell syphon.  We followed the instructions in a paper entitled "Construction of Automatic Bell Siphons for Backyard Aquaponic Systems," written at the University of Hawaii.  This is an excellent step-by-step document that includes detailed pictures at each step.

               

The picture on the left is the stand pipe, as described in the University of Hawaii paper.  Note the Uniseal fitting at the bottom of the pond.  This is what seals the pipe and the pond so there is no leakage.  I had a hard time finding this part without having to pay quadruple the cost of the fitting to ship it.  However, I found this great online store that not only charged a reasonable price for shipping, but they even had a useful video clip showing how to use the fitting.  Bulk Reef Supply sold me the fitting for under $2, and I think shipping for three fittings was under $3.  Here's a link to the fitting I purchased, but you might need a different size.  Check out the video, though, it's pretty cool.  The picture in the center is the bell syphon, and the picture on the right shows the syphon in the grow bed with the larger pipe (gravel guard) around it.  I also added a piece of screen on top to keep unwanted material or bugs from falling or flying in.

Drain pipe

The picutre above is the drain pipe that comes out of the bottom of the grow bed.  Note the section of pipe that extends from the lower elbow.  Adding a section of pipe, instead of just leaving the elbow by iteself, will reduce the amount of splashing. 

I also added a little home made filter to the drain pipe for the first few days, just to try and eliminate any particles that might have made it into the pipe.  I don't want anything being sucked into the water pump and clogging it.  I actually did have a coupe of pieces of gravel get into it (I think they got sucked in when I shut it off one time) and jam the pump blade.  Luckily, I noticed it and shut it off before the motor burned out.

FIlter

Filter

 The pictures above show the filter I made.  I just got some filter material and filter carbon from the fish section at PetSmart, put them in the bottom of a planter, and hung it under the drain pipe for a few days.


Timing - A lot of people write that when using a bell syphon configuration, they leave their pump on 24x7.  That was my plan, but after listening to my husband gripe about paying 35 cents a day to run it, I decided to put mine on a timer.  Also, I think using a timer will prevent possible overflow if the drain gets plugged up or something else unexpected happens.  We got a $6 timer that can be "programmed" in half-hour increments.  It's not one of the digital programmable timers, but it was cheap, and there isn't a limit on how many events you can program.  Well, other than the 48 half hours available in a day.
Also, don't forget to use GFCI connections for anything near your tank!!!!  I replaced the old outlet that I was going to use for the water pump and air pump with a GFCI outlet that doesn't require any changes at the circuit breaker box.  If you don't feel comfortable doing this, you can buy a plug like this one that plugs into your existing wall outlet and makes it GFCI compliant.  This is cheap safety for you and your family and pets!!!

Lessons learned - First, as I mentioned, I think the pump I purchased was too powerful.  That's OK, since I'm using the valves to control the flow, but I wonder if that will eventually put too much strain on the pump.  Guess I'll find out. 
Second, I should have used larger pipes for the drain pipes, stand pipes and bell syphons.  When I don't control the flow from the pump, the tubs fill up more quickly than the pipes can drain.  This means the syphon never breaks and it could lead to potential overflow in the grow beds.

That's it for this installment.  I hope some of these tips help you in the planning and construction of your system!