Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations What's your pet project of the year?

Spring has sprung, and I'm just curious. What's your guy's pet projects for the season.

Mine is Arrowhead and curly eel grass. I had extension dirt work done last Fall, and want to make a preemptive strike on vegetation before random shoreline weeds take over.

My home pet pond project is building a floating pier. Then after that, 2 or 3 1/10 ac or so production ponds that are easily seinable and a well to keep them full.

Rebuild about a dozen hydraulic cylinders on a backhoe and clear some of my land.

Finish my RAS system (probably some time after Trout season).
and
Finish designing my house.

Hold on ....... Let me ask my wife

Add on to my shop. Dozer work finished friday. Planted eelgrass in the pond today. (Cecil B-Thanks for the link you posted on where to buy eelgrass!)

For me....
Getting grass, wildflowers and Alfalfa to grow in the slopes around the pond. Dig a small sediment pond and deal with erosion issues. Find a new spot for a community garden where the pond went. Raise some garden beds up around the house. Make a picnic spot down by the pond (brush clean-out in progress). Install a dock (in-progress). Add prey fish FHM/GS and plants of various sorts. Adopt a dog.

Ok, so a lot of pet projects. I like to stay busy.

1:Build a point out into my pond for a small cabin and picnic spot. 2: Try and grow fish in tanks with garden plants pumping fertile pond water through the tanks.

I have a pet project

Just when I thought it was safe to buy food again, something inside of me ruled the day! Now my paycheck will be sucked dry for another month or so. Of course, I have obligatory expenses covered.

One of these days, I'll bore all of you to death with this

Yeah, I have a couple cylinder seals to replace on the Bobcat. Reinforce the fork carriage for the stump popper. Rip some trees out...

Oh crap.

This will be my automatic timed spray mister to automatically grow wheat grass for healthy juicing and for my cat that loves to eat this stuff.

I don't think that was me Spinnerbait. Just don't want to take credit for something I didn't do.

Aquaponics this spring:

It will be the next step in the fun I'm having with home build recirculating aquaculture systems. Might as well use the nitrate rich water to grow garden plants and use the plants to remove nitrates, some suspended solids, and do some biofiltration for the fish. Verses the bluegills, yellow perch, brook, brown trout, and smallmouth bass I raise for profit, I'll probably use tilapia for the table. The waste water will be used to irrigate a raised garden that is close to where I hope to set up the system.

I'll try and use both media based and nutrient film technique in the system for a range of experience to see what works for me which will include flood and drain, growing beds, satellite pots, and floating rafts.

There will still be biofilter and a clarifer tank but the biofilter will probably be a moving bed reactor with plastic media vs. an RBC. Just a 55 gallon plastic drum half filled with plastic media and a diffuser in the bottom. Water in at the bottom and gravity flow out.

At least some of the plants will be on the deck in the following photos where water will be periodically pumped up to the deck after the biofilter via a timer. Water then will drop back to a sump tank via gravity before going back to the fish tank.





I'll use my waste water from water changes to irrigate this raised garden that is close by here seen more clearly in the following photos.






The fish tank will be under the deck for shade and most likely I will use a UV clarifier inline to eliminate competition by algae.

Geeze Cecil -- it is like we are living in a parallel universe! Your place even looks similar to ours -- rock and log home, with room under the back deck to do things.

Anyway, much has already been started this year.

Chickens. The chicks are now about four weeks old. They will go into the big coup in the next week or two, depending on weather.

Catfish cage. Also, about a month ago, I built a 3' x 3' x 4' fish cage that has 50 (well, 47 -- three died) catfish. It is tied to the end of my dock, and the catfish are feeding like crazy every day.

Feed rings. The first feed ring got built and put in yesterday. The catfish cage is in the middle of it, and it is within the "firing range" of my feeder.

Brood pond. The brood pond with get further expanded. It is currently a triangle about 25 x 30 x 30. It is filled with fatheads now.

A seine-able pond. I plan to dig another small pond about 30 feet wide about 40-50 long, and about 4-foot deep, that can easily be seined when the water is dropped.

More aquaponics. I gave my first IBC aquaponics tank to my son, so I've got to get another one built.

Bigger worm farm. Last night I built what looks like a 5' x 5' x 10-1/2 inch high raised bed. It is actually two 5x5 boxes made from old 2x6s, from my old dock. Maybe I can finish it tonight. It needs landscaping cloth on the bottom -- and then I have to unload my pickup truck, which is filled well beyond capacity with somewhat-aged horse manure. My regular worm farm probably has several thousand worms in it now. I'll take half of what is in there, and use it to seed the new farm.

New greenhouse on pond dam. Actually, I've decided I'm going to use a 10 x 10 chain link dog kennel that the chicks are in now. I'm going use PVC hoops over the top. During the warm season it will all be open. During the cool season, I'll cover the hoops with 6-mil clear plastic sheeting. I may make removable sides with corrugated clear plastic roofing that would be off during the warm weather. The inside will have more raised beds that will be irrigated with pond water, using a 12 volt bilge pump, powered by a solar charged battery and timer. It will be easily expandable in 10 foot sections.

Lots more raised beds. Right now, my little greenhouse is filled with big containers and lots of shelving. Things are growing great. The outside is surrounded by 4 x 4 raised beds. I want to raise the current beds, and build a bunch more.

RETIRE from my "real job." That will happen sometime between October 15 and January 15!

Oooh! I think it is time for a nap!

Ken

I'd like to get the pipeing in for my microhydro generator system and maybe get it completed.

working on my aquaponics system as well.. just ordered 3 yards of gravel for my growbeds.. it's going to be less than fun hauling it all into the basement, but i gotta get it done

That should put you in shape for your summer speedo while showing off at the pond! :cry

I unfilled mine by shoveling the gravel into my front end loader. Even that was a lot of work. I'm thinking it was less than a thousand pounds, and maybe a quarter of a yard. It was a lot easier filling it with the loader. Cleaning it was the hardest.

I may tackle digging a 1/10th acre (or less) bluegill grow-out pond. Only need to dig down a couple of feet then build up a levee a couple of feet around it to protect it from a very nearby river when it floods and jumps the banks. I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions when the time comes.

I'm hoping to forego the gravel for some clay fired media. I've heard the gravel is not only a pain to move, and weighs a lot, but it's hard on the hands to to maintain.

Cecil, you're doing some pretty amazing stuff there. Keep it up.

Dave thanks but not any more amazing than the rest of you here.

Keith and Ken,

Are you doing flood and drain? What plants are you growing? How does your configuration work? I'm totally new to this and would like to compare notes.

i've been looking for expanded clay/shale, but what i've found is pretty costly! in the small system, i used half gravel, topped off with hydroton
right now i'm using "flood and drain", pretty much the way Travis Hughey outlines it in his barrelponics book..
but in the expansion, i'll probably go with "constant flood". with constant flood, the standpipe should allow the water to come up to about an inch from the media surface, after plants are established, i'll swap out the standpipe so that the water is flowing about 4" below the surface - i can send you a link to some tests of "timed or intermittant flood and drain" "always pumping flood and drain" or "constant flood" side by side trials
when my system was outside, i tried lots of stuff,, radish, carrots, corn, tomotoes, basil, parsely, dill, chard, lettuce, broccoli, cukes, sage, thyme, ..everything i put in grew, but cukes and 'maters had trouble early on until i added more fish
in the basement, i've grown swiss chard, lettuce, sage, thyme, basil, carrots, a couple plants i tried went crazy and i had to take them out because they grew so much that they took over the growbeds (tomatoes and cantaloupe)..

My pet project is completing all my projects.

Mine is my first Garden..

20 raised beds 25x3' all irrigated and covered with weedmat then strawed the walkways.. Just cut holes in the weedmat and plant the plant hopefully no weed problems..

Last year I used a timer to flood the media 8 times in a 24 hours period. The media portion had a bottom drain and an overflow drain. I was using a pond/fountain pump (like for koi ponds). It would take several minutes to get to the overflow, and when the pump turned off, the remainder of the water would drain out bottom. I don't remember how long I ran it each time, but I believe it was for 10 minutes.

This year I plan to use a "bell siphon." I have all the materials to build several of them, I just haven't put one together just yet. Here are plans if you aren't familiar with them: Bell Siphon Instructions I'll then run the pump continuously.

Last year the only thing I harvested was salad greens -- spinach and lettuce. This summer I plan to use it mostly for tomatoes and cucumbers that I plan to let drape over the side. I may also try some strawberries. Everything else will be in raised beds -- I'm comfortable with them.

Also, I plan to use bluegill as my tank fish since talapia are difficult to get around here. They did well last fall, although they didn't grow a whole lot.

Ken