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swamp creek farms
05-12-2010, 07:23 AM
Hello awesome-ponics ! I'm down here in south Georgia, on the Florida state line. I have had my system up and running for about a month or more now. I've got all kinds of goodies growing. If you have Facebook, you can see more photos there. Feel free to add me as a friend too. kristophtaylor@hotmail.com

GreenPhoenix
05-12-2010, 07:53 AM
Welcome!!! Keep the posts coming and tell us more about your system - design, plantings, so forth... I want to learn from everyone here, and maybe even my newbie self will be able to add a few suggestions from time to time!

Phoenix

swamp creek farms
05-12-2010, 09:53 AM
As you can see in the pic, my AP is from an IBC container. On the left side I have two 10' X 4" PVC pipes, with 6 holes in each. The GB is a constant flood and drain, no timer, use of an auto siphon. (bell siphon) Everything in my setup is from recycled materials, and purchased with recycled beer can money.

Last week I added a bio filter to the system. It seems to be working great so far. I made it from a couple 3 gal nursery pots, and a 5 gal bucket, with crushed concrete for a filter medium. Untill I find something else that will work better, any ideas ?

I have planted : okra, sweet corn, running beans, cucumber, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, mustard greens, collard greens, basil, roma tomato, betterboy tomato, cherry tomato, iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce, crooked neck squash, and zucchini squash.

As for the fish I have about 25 channel catfish a local fishfarm donated, and about 15 bream I caught from my pond.

stucco
05-12-2010, 10:09 AM
Welcome! If you are on the Georgia side of the line you can get those fancy Georgia giants that we are not allowed to have here. Not many choices for the Florida people. For filter media I’ve heard of folks using hair curlers from dollar general also green scrubbies work too. I’ve heard that ibc containers will break down in the sun without paint or some sort of cover.

swamp creek farms
05-12-2010, 10:35 AM
That is what I hear. We recycle them, so they are easy to come by at times. I'm in search for a tank to put in the ground, around 1,000 gallons. Eventually going to build a greenhouse around it. We also recycle the plastic from greenhouses, so it's free for me. This is just my first run with AP. The reason I got into this is because i was too late plowing my field this year due all the rain. Very glad I did !

Keeping in mind, I have no money tied up in this yet, other than electricity. The pvc fitting were the only thing I had to buy so far.

The Georgia giants are great, the fish farm only had catfish. But I do have a stocked pond with them in it, maybe I'll add them one day as well.

GreenPhoenix
05-12-2010, 01:10 PM
OK, this might be a dumb question -- but what is a "Georgia Giant"???

Phoenix

davidstcldfl
05-12-2010, 02:12 PM
Last week I added a bio filter to the system. It seems to be working great so far. I made it from a couple 3 gal nursery pots, and a 5 gal bucket, with crushed concrete for a filter medium. Untill I find something else that will work better, any ideas ?

I used some shade cloth, from a shade/green house that I tore down for someone.

badflash
05-12-2010, 03:03 PM
OK, this might be a dumb question -- but what is a "Georgia Giant"???

Phoenix
http://www.kens-fishfarm.com/t-bream-history.aspx

jackalope
05-12-2010, 08:02 PM
I would think that the lime/cement in the concrete would affect the PH of your system greatly, unless you really needed to bring the PH up ;) I've pretty much been under the impression that putting fish in a concrete tank would eventually kill the fish becuz of the lime and cement :?

davidstcldfl
05-13-2010, 05:06 AM
I've pretty much been under the impression that putting fish in a concrete tank would eventually kill the fish becuz of the lime and cement :?

A friend of mine has a concrete pond in his yard. It's un-sealed. He's had fish in it for years, and a few plants. The fish are what ever he caught out of the small lake on his property. He does water changes on a random basis.

He only has a few fish in it. I've been meaning to take my taest kit up there and test the water.

swamp creek farms
05-13-2010, 07:05 AM
My PH so far has been around 7.0, I check it about every three days. It has been the same since I started.

I checked the rain water one day for the hell of it, it was around 5.5 - and the ponds I have are all around 6.

The concrete I used was from an old chicken house my family had on the farm about 100 years ago. It's been sitting in the woods for a long time. I changed the filter medium to plastic cleaning pads this morning. Some folks suggested using oyster shells, which would change PH. Since the oil spill in the gulf oysters are getting scarce around these parts.

evie
05-31-2010, 06:12 PM
Last week I added a bio filter to the system. It seems to be working great so far. I made it from a couple 3 gal nursery pots, and a 5 gal bucket, with crushed concrete for a filter medium. Untill I find something else that will work better, any ideas ?

How about lava rock... I would be afraid of the concrete... could it have unhealthy chymicals in it?

jackalope
05-31-2010, 06:25 PM
I would think that the lime and cement in the concrete wouldn't be too good for the fish, hair curlers, kitchen scrubbies, shower body scrubs, easter grass, baling twine, poly rope - almost anything that has a lot of surface area would be great! I buy those shower scrubbers from the dollar store, 5 for a buck ..... and when they get too dirty for you, just throw them into the washer, and they come out real nice, ready to go again! I buy enuff to refill while those in the washer get a chance to air out for a few weeks ;)

When you buy lava rock, make sure it really is lava rock ...... most of what's sold today is not lava, it is actually a man-made clay product .... I bought some from Ace and it broke down in the growbed so bad, I had mud in the bottom of the FT and in the bottom of the GB (which caused it to go septic) .... also, with lava rock, you have to wash it several times to clean off the powdery stuff .... I'll never use it again for sure!

badflash
05-31-2010, 06:33 PM
What he said...
Just plain old large gravel works fine. I don't think there is much in concrete that is harmful though.