I am still picking tomatoes, green peppers, chili peppers, mustard, and basil. I haven't pulled the chili peppers yet, there are still a lot of peppers on them. They are going to have to go soon as I need the room for the lettuce. I picked up a timer in town today so I can begin working on the strawberry towers. I have about 8 catfish left, I moved them to a tank that is a few degrees warmer. I don't know if they will survive or not, they are pretty stressed. I talked to a plumber today, and he is going to help me try to come up with some kind of tank heating system. It has to be cheap to operate, and not contain any material that would be toxic to the fish and plants.

I guess I can add some of the things I have learned so far. I found out, when the large exhaust fan's motor quit that I really didn't need to waste the electric running it. The greenhouse temps got up around 120'F in the daytime. I had a problem with with the lettuce, it wilted during the day.  The rest of the plants did fine. I believe it was the fact that the root systems stayed cooler in the rock and water. The evaporation rate of the fish tanks was high enough that I was adding makeup water every morning, and that in turn kept the tank temps under control.

I have lost just about all of the catfish over the last two weeks. The only thing that I can figure is the water temp dropped too fast. Even with a wood stove running the water temp has dropped from around 75' to 56'. All other parameters are the same, so for now that's the best idea I have.  The bluegill doesn't seem to be bothered by the drop in temperature, other than they have slowed way down on their food intake. They are in tighter schools than when the water was warmer though.

I am ready to start planting lettuce again. The new seedlings are up. I picked the chili peppers today, so I will pull the plants out and replace them with lettuce tomorrow. I harvested a two gallon bucket of Juliet tomatoes, and nine nice green peppers.
I will have to cut back the Juliet's in order to have room to plant the fall crops, as the beds are full of tomatoes right now.

Another thing I have learned is when using 4" pipes to grow in, the plants should be a short season variety of whatever is planted. Once the plants reach maturity, the root ball will block the pipe and slow down the flow of water to the rest of the plants. Also, the pipes need to be flushed out about every three weeks to keep sediment from building up.

I guess it has been a long time since I updated this, huh. Well it has been a very dry and hot summer here. I have learned a lot about the AP system since I first started it. Some good things and some not so good.

    I was worried about the temperature in the greenhouse so I put up the shade cloth, the same as we use in the regular greenhouse, and found out it cuts out too much sunlight. The plants were just sitting there. Nothing was growing like it should.  I started dropping the shade cloth until around mid day, and the plants seemed to explode with growth. That was one lesson.

Another thing I learned was that lettuce would grow all summer long if you just remember to start the seedlings. The direct seeding method didn't work. I am guessing it was because the ambient temp was too high. The seeds that were sprouted in the workshop lived, and produced all summer, till I had harvested them all.
Mustard greens on the other hand do very well by just seeding them straight into either the grow beds or the grow pots.

Redhouse, Juliet, and Tumbling Tom tomatoes, a variety of peppers, celery, cabbage, egg plant, basil, broccoli, parsley,and fennel also do very well.

Here is the tops of the tomato plants. There is not much room left for them to grow, and I'm not sure whether to try and top them or just see where they go.

This is the five tube setup that is being fed from the #1 tank containing 100 catfish. I am growing cherry tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, basil, green beans, and cucumbers. 

 This tank also feeds the grow bed pictured below.

I am growing lettuce, broccoli, beets, bell peppers, basil, and tomatoes in this bed.

I now have a problem. The tomato plants are touching the roof of the greenhouse. I don't know if I cut the tops off if it will grow sideways or just make more shoots and keep going up. I don't suppose I have much choice, I'm not opening up the roof lol. The plants in the grow tubes are doing well, now I just need to add a few hundred feet more. I will have to put them outside as the greenhouse is full. I am going to try and grow more cukes, only this time I am going to put them in pots and raise them a little. I don't think they like the water to well.

I woke up this morning to a thunderstorm, the power was blinking off and on, but it finally decided to stay on. I was afraid I was going to have to fire up the generator, had it stayed off. This little event has got me to thinking about putting the solar backup in place. I have most of what I need for it, except a relay.  Guess that will have to go on the wish list for the next trip to town, along with batteries for the camera.  I did get a good start on the pumping system that will be used on the outside grow beds, as well as the front greenhouse. A few more hours and I will be ready to fire up the backhoe, and tear up the yard.  Josh was over and  helped me raise the backup water tank. We raised the elevation 16 inches. That gives the ability to gravity flow water into any of the five tanks if need, plus it gives us a 200 gal emergency backup on potable water at the same time.

I have finally gotten back to working on the AP unit. I didn't think we would ever get the soil gardens finished. The new grow tubes are in and most of the holes are planted. It turned out that I was only able to get 5 tubes into the space I had, but I did manage to make room for 3 half-barrel grow beds. 

There are really 5 tubes here, one is just shy I guess. The barrel beds are visible at the bottom center. As you can see there are still some spare parts laying on top. I will try to get some completed pics in a day or so. As for the rest of the system, it is doing great.

The Juliet grape tomatoes are doing good.

These are the Redhouse Freestanding tomatoes, it shouldn't be long for them either.

The only problems have been the temperature swings with the fish tanks, and not enough grow bed space.  These hot days and cool nights don't agree with the fish. I have added more water to the tanks, hoping this will help moderate things. Time will tell I guess. I may have to come up with some kind of a way to get rid of the heat from the water. Then I guess I will just have to keep expanding the growing space. I would like to try and make some of the verticle grow towers. That would give me a lot more growing area in less space.

It seems like all I have been doing lately is mowing and weed eating. I had hoped to have the next 7-8 grow tubes up and running but they are still sitting on the ground. Part of the reason is I waited to get some of the parts from Home Depot. I was able to save about 60 dollars, so I guess they can wait till next week to become operational. I still need to order the duckweed, but I needed to wait and see how much I was spending on the growtubes. That will be ordered next week as well.

It is time to update. I now have 5 tanks up and running very nicely. The plants in the growbeds are doing great. The grow tube that was added to tank #2 has really impressed me. So much so, that we will be working on adding 7 or 8 more tomorrow night.  I'm not sure what we will plant in them, but I know they will be full as soon as they are completed.  The framework for the duckweed tanks is in place. I will get the starter crop ordered this week.

Today, the first grow tube went into service.

The grow tube is about 15ft long and holds 27  four inch pots. Water from tank #2 is circulated through the tube and returned to the tank.

Inside the tube is the same rock media that is used in the grow beds. Each of the four inch pots is also filled with this media. The pots rest on the rock, allowing a water depth in the pots of approximately 3/4 of an inch.

The tube is attached to the edge of the grow beds using pieces of recycled metal banding.
I ordered more fish today. They are to be here Friday. I am getting another 100 hybrid Bluegil, and 100 channel catfish.

Tank # 5 is online, finally. No fish in it though, hehe .  I did add 10 gal of the water from the bluegil tank. That should help get the grow bed cycling faster. I have 15 ft of grow tube set up and ready to mount tomorrow evening.  It consists of 4in pipe with 3 in holes drilled every 6inches apart. I will put 4in pots into the holes and run the fish water threw the tubes, just deep enough for the water to touch the bottom of the pots. I think we are going to plant strawberries in this run.

You can see the drilling process, and the 5ft section already drilled with the empty pots inserted.

Alright a lot has happened since the last post. I now have a total of 4 fish tanks and growbeds up and running. I have also learneded a few things from mistakes.  Lets just say that I added the fish too soon, and they all became chicken feed. The information on starting up a system, says it will take up to 6 weeks to cycle a tank. I waited 3 days, so I was in a hurry.  The next step was to cycle the tanks adding small amounts of ammonia. The tanks were doing fine, we added the plants. Now everything was doing just what it was supposed to. Then, the fish arrived. One hundred bluegil and one hundred catfish. I let them get accustomed to the water in the tank, mixed the water with what they came in, and then set them free. The bluegil all went to the back of the tank and stayed there. The catfish, swam around like they had always been in that tank. The next morning there were 3 dead bluegil and 1 dead catfish. OK I wrote it off to shocking their systems with the move. The bluegil wouldn't eat, but the catfish ate fine. I was really impressed with how they had taken to tank life. On the second morning, 3 more bluegil dead, and only 1 catfish. Seemed like a repeat of the morning before. I fed the fish, the catfish ate but not the bluegil. I ran all the tests I could on the tanks, everything was in the proper range. Day three, no dead bluegil, but about 20 dead catfish.  The bluegil attacked their feed, looked like piranha. The catfish just layed around on the bottom. If I tried to stir them up they just moved out of the way, and settled back to the bottom. Day 4, no dead bluegil, but the catfish were dropping like flies. The tanks are still in the given parameters, all test are good.  I split up the remaining catfish between 3 tanks. One of the tanks had gold fish in it and they were doing fine. Day 5, more dead catfish, only this time in all 3 tanks. The bluegil are doing great, eating, swimming around, but the catfish just sit there. Needless to say, by the tenth day there were no more catfish on the farm.  We called the place that sold us the catfish, to ask questions to see if there was anything I may have missed. All they could tell me was they don't warranty catfish in a tank, and they belong in a pond. We still haven't figured out what happened to them, but I moved some of the bluegil into the original catfish tank and they are doing great. There is another fish hatchery that will be making deliveries in this area on the 20th of the month.  We are going to get more catfish, and try them again. I think I will also add another 100 bluegil to the system.

The first tank has been cycling just fine. I added 3oz of a fish/seaweed extract to help get the bacteria growing. Today I put 48 gold fish in the tank.  Sunday we put 20 lettuce plants into the media growing beds. Now we will wait and see what happens.

The gold fish are here.

Headed for their new home.

Free at last.

The first tank is up and cycling. There were some moments on trying to get the bell siphon working right, but once a solution was found, tada it worked fine.

This is the inside of the bell siphon. The top of this piece regulates the water level in the grow bed.

This is the rock guard used to keep the rock medium out of the siphon.

This is the completed bell siphon, with the rock guard in place.

Filling the grow bed to make sure the siphon works, and it did.

You can see the water coming out of the bottom of the siphon drain.  In a couple days we will be adding the plants. I am using a seaweed solution to get it going as the fish wont be here till later this month.

The second tank system is coming along. I need to adjust the siphon level and get the gravel ready.

It has been an on going process around here. Cutting wood, sifting rock, arranging tanks, changing tanks, and getting the flue all hooked up for the backup stove.

the rock and the screen we used

the flue is in

the smoke goes out

More will come I'm sure.

The wind is blowing and its going down to about 10 degrees tonight. Tomorrow it is only going to be in the 20's with a strong NW wind. It looks like winter has hit. It will be a few nights of keeping the fires stoked up.

The pumps arrived this evening. They look to be in good shape, I will unpack them tomorrow.

It's been a few days since the last post. I have changed the flue on the big furnace, it wasn't drawing right.  I have most of the ground cloth down. There are two tanks set up with the next two in the process of being installed. I will have to put a support beam in to hold the ends of the grow beds, as I have changed the basic design again. Tomorrow is a ride to the big city with a neighbor. He is going to get some material for his house, and I am going to pick up the greenhouse supplies I have on order. Here are a couple pics of the progress so far.

 Here is the back up heater, that will double as a water heater if need be.

just so you know, the heater is the brownish thing in the middle with the fan on top  :)

It rained yesterday, so it was off to town. Most of the plumbing fittings and pipe are here. I have the pumps on order and should be here in a week or so.  I need to find two adapters for the valves that come on the IBC's. Two of them came with NP threads, but the other two came with what is called camlock threads. The PVC pipe will not connect to these without the proper adapters. (Note to self), next time check the threads :)
I was finally able to get the threaded centers out of the fill caps. Now it will be time to build the bell siphons.  I still need to find a tap to make the threads in the blue barrels. Then I can assemble the siphons for them. This project is taking a lot longer than I had figured on, but then I guess I have never done anything around here that went just right.

The weather has been great here for the last few days. It is hard to believe this is the last day of Jan. I have been giving a lot of attention to outdoor activities. I did figure out how I wanted to set up the cages for my system. It will require some lumber to support the grow beds, but it will work. The cages are cut, and 3 out of 4 tanks are cut and scrubbed. The first rain day I will head to town and pick up the plumbing parts to start piping. I still haven't come up with a pump set up. I will look at the pet store when I go to town. The Harbor Freight pumps don't have a head pressure chart, at least not that I can find. I like the prices, but if it wont do the job, price don't matter. I will try to post some pictures tomorrow.

The back-up wood heater is in the building. Now I can get busy setting tank supports. I have one of the IBC's cut, and I have my first problem. If I set it up the way the book and video's say to, I can't use the main drain valve. I am putting a submersible pump in each tank, but also need to draw off the bottom valves for the rest of the system.  As it stands right now there will be 4 IBC fish tanks w/grow beds. Then there will be 10 grow beds made from 55 gal blue barrels cut in half longways, and finally there will be about 60 ft of pipes  to grow in.The biggest challenge I see is keeping the water all going down hill :) I have a short wife so my elevations are limited. I may end up adding a sump tank and another pump.

The wood furnace is in !!

Now if it will just heat the greenhouse, we are on our way. There may be a few too many air leaks in the framework of the building to get my hopes up to high. The other thing I need to do is add 2 more feet to the flue pipe, it isn't drawing like it should. I will work on it again tomorrow and see what I can work out.

Another warm day in the Ozarks, 69 today. We have had a strong SW wind all day, gusting over 30mph. I spent the early part of the day cutting wood. Some for the house and front greenhouse, and the beginnings of the pile that will be needed for the back. The greenhouse is all closed in now, I finished the east wall tonight.  Tomorrow I will work on getting the primary wood stove hooked up and going. Once that is done, I can actually begin building the AP system.

Not much done in the AP greenhouse the last couple days. Been busy cutting wood and getting the front greenhouse ready for use.  I did get to chat on the Aquaponics Gardening website tonight. That was very interesting, talking to others that actually do what I am getting ready for.

It was cloudy and cool today. It looks like a little rain may move through overnight. It did get up to 44 today.
I managed to talk my son-in-law into helping me move the outdoor wood heater into the kennel building. It isn't piped in yet, but I can do that by myself. I will need to get electric to the blower, the flue pipe ran and the duct work in place. Then it will be, build a fire and see how it does.

Not much done today. I did get some of the electric rerouted. It was another beautiful day in the Ozarks though. Tomorrow may be a better work day, time will tell.

Another beautiful day in the Ozarks. I am so glad too.  We got the first delivery of wood for the Aquaponics greenhouse today. There is about 4 tons of wood out there to be cut up. We moved a wood rack into the greenhouse. We also now have all four IBC's inside. I took out the wall on the inside of the kennel building, and moved the 300gal water tank into it's new home. We scrapped the water tower idea, for now. I can use this tank with a 12v pump to push water back into the potable water system. This area will be heated, so for this winter it will have to do. This will at least help with the water problem if we should run into an extended power outage.  I have two more tanks to move into the greenhouse, then I can close up the end wall and begin setting the equipment in place. We still have to move one more heater into the kennel building and run the duct work. Every day we are getting a little closer. Claygirl has gone through the seed locker and ordered what we need to get started. I hope by the time the plants are ready to go into the new system, the system will be ready.

Happy New Year everyone.

The weather was ok today, 50 degrees and sunny, but we had 40 mph winds. That lowered the temp quite a bit. I did manage to get two IBC's inside the greenhouse, and room for two more. It appears we are going to have to recalculate the positioning again. One of these days we are going to have to stop trying to add more items.

I have these inside now

and these will be next

and then these.