Basement Aquaponics

[JCO]

Hey pniedzwiecki,

I have been waiting patiently for my Christmas wrapped box of lettuce to come UPS but noting yet. I've about decided you kept it all for yourself. Give us an update on you and your system. It was doing great last Sept, how 'bout now?

[urbanfarmer]

[pniedzwiecki]

Hello Everyone,

Y’all thought I was dead? I’m not dead. Just kinda busy.

Hey pniedzwiecki,

I have been waiting patiently for my Christmas wrapped box of lettuce to come UPS but noting yet. I've about decided you kept it all for yourself. Give us an update on you and your system. It was doing great last Sept, how 'bout now?

JCO, you should check with you mail carrier. If they look like they are eating healthier and have lost some weight, that’s probably where the lettuce went. If not, then I probably didn’t send you any (since you haven’t posted your exact address and phone number and social security number and credit card number, etc.) and kept it all for myself. I’TS ALL MINE! MINE!

As far as the system is concerned, we have had an uninterrupted steady supply of very good lettuce , however, I am afraid that the fish may not be doing so well . We haven’t lost any more (still at 38 perch), but I have observed one fish that has one of it’s eyes clouded over and the rest of the fish seem to have “pop eye”. Their eyes are bulging out noticeably. Other than the pop eye, they look perfectly healthy and are swimming around seemingly normal. The water temperature has been a steady 73 degrees (f), ammonia and nitrite levels at 0, nitrate level has been steadily climbing (my fault) to an ultimately unacceptably high level. The ph has been in the range of 6.5 to 7.3.

This past weekend I did a 50% (150g) water change and another 100g last night. Prior to the water change, the nitrates were getting quite high, as I have not been re-seeding enough to keep the plant production up. I am finding that after the water changes, the ph wants to remain around 7.5 (or slightly higher). I cannot seem to get it to stabilize at a lower level. I used the same well water source for the water changes as I have in the past. The nitrates are at a more manageable level now and I have seeded out half of the growbed (a few days ago) and will seed the other half in a few more days, which will help with the nitrates.

For several days now, the fish have no appetite, again. Instead of dumping dry feed in every other day to see if they eat, only to scoop it all out a few minutes later, I think I will splurge on a 100 or so minnows. Much cleaner for the tank and the fish can snack when they are ready. I am thinking that will help me gauge their appetite. If they survive the pop eye and eat all the minnows then I will pick back up with the dry feed again.

This setup is turning out to be a lot of work. Some days I spend several hours just doing routine maintenance. But there are days when all that’s required is feeding the fish. If I lose this batch of fish, I’m not sure if I will give this setup another chance. Probably go back to hydroponics for a little while until I can come up with a better setup. Time will tell.

Anyway, a few pics:

This photo shows the fish with the cloudy eye. He/she is just below and to the right of the center of the photo. As of yesterday, it did not appear to be getting better or worse and I did not observe any other fish with these symptoms. I am thinking I may just get him out of there and fry him up.


This photo was taken today. That’s romaine lettuce at about 4 weeks.


This photo was taken a few weeks ago after the final harvest of some leaf lettuce. I wanted to see how many cuttings I could get from a plant, so I just let them grow. After the final cutting of this one plant I found this strange looking stalk.

Anyway, I was able to get 6 pretty descent cuttings from a group of 5 plants. At that point they were only inches away from the lights and started to go to seed. One problem with the experiment though. The root mass was so large I was barely able to pull the plants up through the 3” holes in the Styrofoam. Actually, I found out later that large bunches of roots had broken off in the process and had started to decay in the grow bed. It turned out to be a bit of a mess in there.

Thanks,

[JCO]

Hey, Glad to see you are still kickin' Keep on Keepin' on and it will all work out.

[Bioritize]

Nice Setup man,

Do you think you would have less work with a media filled Growbed? What seems to be the majority of the work?

I am looking to setup a similar size system in my basement, what would you do differently?

Do you like the wood GB with the liner as compared to say a couple of the 50 gallon stock tanks?


Thanks,