July 10, 2013

I have been making some changes in the AP system. I am raising the circulating pumps from the bottom of the tanks. I have the tanks tied together with a 2 inch line from the bottom, where the original drain valve is. I have installed a sump pump 12 inches below the surface of tank #2. I tied it into the top of all tanks to discharge above the surface level to help in oxygenating the w3ater in the hot weather. The Blue Gill that were in tank #2 are now in tank#1. That puts the loading rate at 50 fish, all of which are at the 1/2 to 1 pound size. I am trying to eliminate the need to clean the filters on the pumps. This is an every 3-4 hour event that I need to stop. When I am all finished I am hoping to turn tank #2 into a giant swirl filter that can be cleaned every couple of days.  I will try to get some pics so you can see what I am talking about.

Well it has been a long time again since I posted on here. I don't know why, just lazy I guess. I have been spending most of the winter cutting wood, stoking furnaces, and wondering why I am doing this. LOL It's not been that bad, just a lot of crazy sleep times. There are no more catfish on the farm. I have expanded the amount of Bluegill that I have. Claygirl has had a few of the fish, she says they are very good. They are a nice white fish, which we fillet. There are several more that are getting up to eating size. In the picture below you will see the tomato plants that have been growing since I started this. I was going to pull them all out but thought I would see how long I can keep a plant going. I have cut these back to almost nothing twice now. If you notice the 2 tall plants in the plastic sleeve's, they are celery.

I do use a lot of 2-liter bottles. The rest of these pics are just random shots.

These mustard plants are on their second year. The tall one is getting ready to bloom. I will try to keep this more updated for those of you that followed it.