Biggish pond longview..

Why the grate? Two reasons:

One- to protect the fish from coons. Duh!

Two- I have friends living with me that are working hard towards getting their baby back from cps. Cps here in corona have really strange wacko child safety rules-- such as "no butter knives in a drawer". I really doubt a toddler will ever want, or be able, to climb in the pond. I wish my friends the best in their efforts, so I comply.

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Front pond update..!

Had a minor fiasco this week, involving raccoons, so I moved the pot that used to be in the center of the bottom pond to the layer above it. To me, it doesn't look as though the dang critters managed to swipe any fish, but I will be adding grates over the holes just in case they come back again.

Cucumbers and zuccini are looking good. Celery got munched on a bit, by the above lovely wildlife. Strawberries are going wacko.

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Screw the inverter...!

It took 3 days of running just fine, but it drained my battery. Had an idea today. Instead of using the usual cheepo submersible water pumps, I went and got the cheepo solar powered kind-- already dc'd (Couldn't figure out how to wire the ac kind correctly.) Anyhow. It's a nice hot and clear day, and for the first time this week, the pumps are running nicely.
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Biggish pond update..

Hmmm.. Could that be a greenish tint, or do I have my hopes up a tad too high?
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Biggish pond- update.

Slightly better looking now.
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Biggish pond update

By my calculations, this pond, too, will have to be continuous flow. Sigh. The solar array just can't handle the load of a timer and the pumps. :P
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Biggish pond.. Far view.

Eh.. Yep. It's a mighty bugly looking thing right now.
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Biggish pond: siphon test

Not really sure if it's working or not, but it's doing something. Made from a 2 liter coke bottle and a cooler pipe fitting.
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Biggish pond..

Grow bed. The drain hole is something - found at home depot. Up next: my first bell siphon.
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Biggish pond..

Thought I'd share what cheap-ee pumps I'll be using for this project. This is one of two that I hope the solar rig will run, and will give suffient water movement to keep things on an even keel. Up next: the grow bed(s).
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Solar power.!!

For the biggish pond. Barely knew what I was doing while hooking it up. Hopefully, it's done correctly.
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Update!! Biggish pond

As promised, the picture..
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Update!

This week's image of the front, continuous flow aquaponics system. The ivy in particular has perked up.
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biggish pond in back...update

A neighbor brought up some concerns that the pond wouldn't exactly be all that sturdy of a thing. With that in mind, I reinforced the sides by wrapping brick wire around the outside, just in case. Just finished filling it with water, and I can't help but think of it as a giant barrel now. No leaks so far as I can see, which admitingly isn't saying much because the sun is down and it's super dark out there. I'll take a picture in the morning of it in all it's humble glory.

Next up: the algae test. With any luck, there will be some growing in it by the end of the week, and way before the mosquitos get any wise ideas.

Water all tested for the front pond...

Annnnd.. The nitrates and nitrites are ok. As expected, since this is Corona, the water is hard. And, that makes the ph high. And the alkalinity is high too. Always wanted to experiment with high alkaline water...
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Cleaned up..

And goobers nicely disguised. Now if only the fish will survive..
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Big pond..

All tarped up. Not much else going on just yet.
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Pond flushed..

As you can see, the water is much cleaner than yesterday. Just to be sure that whatever toxins were chewing up my fish were gone, I flushed out the pond this morning. I also got a dollar's worth of new fish, since I couldn't spot that many survivors in the murky water. I think 4 managed to make it out of the 12 I had bought last month. Sigh. Good thing goldfish're cheap.
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Second grow bed..is ready for use

I've been having a HUGE problem with cutworms, so the logical choice is to plant my zucc's and cuc's here. I even planted an extra cuc in with the strawberries in the upper growbed.
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Overall view..

Of the front pond/herb garden.
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Good deal

I'm not familiar with drip irrigation, but home depot only wanted a dollar for this split hose thing. I thought it neat, anyway, especially since I'm splurging big time today due to needing the grow bed in the first place.
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New grow bed..

I imagine that I will likely need to put in more. I have no idea just how many gallons this pond actually has, but I know I have to get a 1 to 1 ratio of water to grow bed.

I simply drilled a hole in the side, about an inch up from the bottom, of a standard plastci planter that I found at home depot. Filled with red lava rock, the water jets out nicely.



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Poor sick fish..

I do hope they recover, but they appear to be in shock.
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Growbed expansion.

Today I discovered some of my little goldfish are missing scales. That means my bed is far too small to clean out the nitrate/nitrites in the water. Sigh. Working on it now.
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Future pond..

I think it will be well over 100 gallons, and I think I will be needing more than one grow bed to balance it out. I plan on 2 solar powered submersible pond pumps of the cheap variety, similar to to one I have in the front pond.
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potted plants

Here is one of the potted plants I have in my aquaponics system. It is an ordinary sort of terra cotta pot with the drainage hole in the bottom, and it is filled with red lava rocks. I have transplanted some overgrown strawberries in it, and thus far, they appear to be surviving well. Better yet, unlike the celery I have planted nearby, the raccoons have left them alone.

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What is aquaponics..?

Aquaponics is an gardening method that combines traditional aquaculture-- which is the raising of fish -- with hydroponics -- cultivating plants in a water environment -- in a sybiotic relationship. This is the one affordable hydroponic method that doesn't require the use of expensive chemicals nor really special equipment.


For the past three years, I've managed to have an aquaponic system running with little to no fuss. The current system I put together is run by a tiny ten dollar water pump that I purchased from Harbor Freight, with the help of a bunch of hoses.


This is not to say that I have not lost many goldfish along the way, -- to preditors, like raccoons, low oxygen content or high nitrites in the water, or even a way too powerful water pump. It's all part of the learning experience of this new science.

aquaponic experiment

I will like have to get a better picture of this as I go, but this is my aquaponics experiment. 10 "feeder" goldfish dwell in the bottom most tank, protected from raccoons by the grates I have placed over top. They provide all the nutients for the ivy, celery, and strawberries located throughout the "array", as well as for the bio-filter located at the top most section.
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biofilter

 

This is the "bio-filter" to my aquaponics experiment. It's made from a plastic filing box, and it's filled with red lava rock. Red lava rock is the most recommended growth medium, because of all the nooks and crannies each piece sports. This year, I've chosen to grow strawberries in it.
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