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Here's some plants I set up in my raft tank aquaponics set up a couple of weeks ago. Tomatoes and peppers. Water enters the raft tank via gravity via overflow from the biofilter, goes up one side of the divided tank to the end, cuts over, goes back down the other side, and exits and drops back into the fish tank. Water is moved by one 60 watt pump and air is supplied to the fish tank via a 60 lpm of air from a linear air pump.  The fish which are mostly tilapia with some female bluegill mixed in. 
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 08/25/13 08:41 PM.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
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Nice start. Since you got a late start growing and to get good or better use of the plants before it gets cold use short maturity plants like lettuce, herbs (basil, dill, sage, etc), or maybe peppers?.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 08/25/13 02:28 PM.
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Neat operation Cecil. I gave one of my IBC tank systems to my younger son this past spring. I got tilapia from Rex that I divided between my two ponds and the aquaponics tank. The little 4'x4'x7" bed of small river rock produced beyond my expectations, and it is still producing. In that small space he had one each Early Girl, Big Boy, and Sweet 100 Cherry Tomato plant. He also had a California Wonder bell pepper and a jalapeno pepper plant. I'm not sure how many cucumber plants, but about 3-4. Everything produced like crazy -- they actually had more cucumbers than they knew what to do with. (I just finished fermenting and "putting up" up 8 of 10 gallons of cucumber pickles/relish/etc., from my garden - so I don't need any more!). Early in the season, while we were getting it setup, he harvested lettuce. Early on, we had a few problems with fish mortality. I'm still not sure why. The water quality seemed to be very good. As far as I can tell, all of the small bluegill died. I think the fatheads got eaten by the bluegill before the bluegill disappeared. While this was happening, my son put in about a dozen $0.10 goldfish. A few died, but most have thrived. I don't know what my grand daughter will do with them when it comes time to shut down for the winter. The 2-3 inch tilapia are now 6-7 inches. My son and 10 y.o., grand daughter are excited by the experience. My DIL has been happy to have fresh cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers. We learned a lot. Next year we will probably make the grow beds bigger. Anyway, yours looks fantastic. P.S. There was an article in this week's local newspaper about all of the aquaponics projects in our local area. The locals have been producing very significant quantities of good quality marijuana.   
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Nice job and good pics as well !
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Nice start. Since you got a late start growing and to get good or better use of the plants before it gets cold use short maturity plants like lettuce, herbs (basil, dill, sage, etc), or maybe peppers?. Ditto! Except peppers may be a bit tricky this late without a greenhouse. Hey Cecil, Is that 60 watt pump one of the Easy Pro rigs? I'm thinking of a few of that brand to keep things rolling, along with O2 when the power fails. Much simpler and lower cost battery backup system then.
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Nice start. Since you got a late start growing and to get good or better use of the plants before it gets cold use short maturity plants like lettuce, herbs (basil, dill, sage, etc), or maybe peppers?. You're not kidding I got a late start! Just one of those things with so many other priorities. Well some of them are peppers. However the raft tank is destined for a high school green house to hook up to an RAS I started for them a couple of years ago. I'll get it back when the school year ends in May. Depending on how far along the plants are and what the teacher wants to do, we may just move the plants WITH the raft tank. I've got about 100 yellow perch YOY that will be in their tank this year. In the past it's been bluegills.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
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Neat operation Cecil. I gave one of my IBC tank systems to my younger son this past spring. I got tilapia from Rex that I divided between my two ponds and the aquaponics tank. The little 4'x4'x7" bed of small river rock produced beyond my expectations, and it is still producing. In that small space he had one each Early Girl, Big Boy, and Sweet 100 Cherry Tomato plant. He also had a California Wonder bell pepper and a jalapeno pepper plant. I'm not sure how many cucumber plants, but about 3-4. Everything produced like crazy -- they actually had more cucumbers than they knew what to do with. (I just finished fermenting and "putting up" up 8 of 10 gallons of cucumber pickles/relish/etc., from my garden - so I don't need any more!). Early in the season, while we were getting it setup, he harvested lettuce. Early on, we had a few problems with fish mortality. I'm still not sure why. The water quality seemed to be very good. As far as I can tell, all of the small bluegill died. I think the fatheads got eaten by the bluegill before the bluegill disappeared. While this was happening, my son put in about a dozen $0.10 goldfish. A few died, but most have thrived. I don't know what my grand daughter will do with them when it comes time to shut down for the winter. The 2-3 inch tilapia are now 6-7 inches. My son and 10 y.o., grand daughter are excited by the experience. My DIL has been happy to have fresh cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers. We learned a lot. Next year we will probably make the grow beds bigger. Anyway, yours looks fantastic. P.S. There was an article in this week's local newspaper about all of the aquaponics projects in our local area. The locals have been producing very significant quantities of good quality marijuana. Ken, Yours sounds cool. I've been following your media based system. Actually pot growing aquaponic systems are also starting up in states where it's legal.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
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Nice job and good pics as well ! Thanks Eric. Pilot system and I have learned a lot.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
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Nice start. Since you got a late start growing and to get good or better use of the plants before it gets cold use short maturity plants like lettuce, herbs (basil, dill, sage, etc), or maybe peppers?. Ditto! Except peppers may be a bit tricky this late without a greenhouse. Hey Cecil, Is that 60 watt pump one of the Easy Pro rigs? I'm thinking of a few of that brand to keep things rolling, along with O2 when the power fails. Much simpler and lower cost battery backup system then. I've used Easy Pro mag drive pumps but anymore I'm buying my pumps on Ebay. Just bought two of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/161085096761?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 Just wish the good quality linear air pumps weren't so pricey. I have to buy three of them for the three high schools, as I need more air to run the moving bed filters and will be discontinuing the RBC's.
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 08/25/13 09:05 PM.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
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Neat operation Cecil. I gave one of my IBC tank systems to my younger son this past spring. I got tilapia from Rex that I divided between my two ponds and the aquaponics tank. The little 4'x4'x7" bed of small river rock produced beyond my expectations, and it is still producing. In that small space he had one each Early Girl, Big Boy, and Sweet 100 Cherry Tomato plant. He also had a California Wonder bell pepper and a jalapeno pepper plant. I'm not sure how many cucumber plants, but about 3-4. Everything produced like crazy -- they actually had more cucumbers than they knew what to do with. (I just finished fermenting and "putting up" up 8 of 10 gallons of cucumber pickles/relish/etc., from my garden - so I don't need any more!). Early in the season, while we were getting it setup, he harvested lettuce. Early on, we had a few problems with fish mortality. I'm still not sure why. The water quality seemed to be very good. As far as I can tell, all of the small bluegill died. I think the fatheads got eaten by the bluegill before the bluegill disappeared. While this was happening, my son put in about a dozen $0.10 goldfish. A few died, but most have thrived. I don't know what my grand daughter will do with them when it comes time to shut down for the winter. The 2-3 inch tilapia are now 6-7 inches. My son and 10 y.o., grand daughter are excited by the experience. My DIL has been happy to have fresh cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers. We learned a lot. Next year we will probably make the grow beds bigger. Anyway, yours looks fantastic. P.S. There was an article in this week's local newspaper about all of the aquaponics projects in our local area. The locals have been producing very significant quantities of good quality marijuana. catmandoo, do you have a link or the newspapers name the article is in? About the MaryJ, don't use it or need it. I have friends that use it sometimes (maybe more than I know about)but they say it helps with their illness..... Could be a placebo effect or maybe it really works. Don't know. But they own and operate very successful business's. Aquaponics is the "new" hobby for a lot of people plus its a great education tool for people to learn a new way to grow food.
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Nice start. Since you got a late start growing and to get good or better use of the plants before it gets cold use short maturity plants like lettuce, herbs (basil, dill, sage, etc), or maybe peppers?. Ditto! Except peppers may be a bit tricky this late without a greenhouse. Hey Cecil, Is that 60 watt pump one of the Easy Pro rigs? I'm thinking of a few of that brand to keep things rolling, along with O2 when the power fails. Much simpler and lower cost battery backup system then. I've used Easy Pro mag drive pumps but anymore I'm buying my pumps on Ebay. Just bought two of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/161085096761?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 Just wish the good quality linear air pumps weren't so pricey. I have to buy three of them for the three high schools, as I need more air to run the moving bed filters and will be discontinuing the RBC's. Looking up this brand of pump, it's kinda difficult on which of the retailers to believe. Some say this, while others say that. MFG website is down, so can't get the scoop! It's like the Eco 7 pump out there. Can't get a straight answer on what this animal is, even from the MFG (importer) I'll give SC a shot, they have been good to my family. Worst case scenario if this is a piece of crap is I'll drive around the river and plunk it onto Dave's desk.
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Tell me about it. The MFG's can't even stay consistent on gph or gpm.
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 08/26/13 07:29 AM.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
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Hmmm... I bet the WV State Police would be interested in those aquaponics set ups.
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catmandoo, do you have a link or the newspapers name the article is in? About the MaryJ, don't use it or need it. I have friends that use it sometimes (maybe more than I know about)but they say it helps with their illness..... Could be a placebo effect or maybe it really works. Don't know. But they own and operate very successful business's. Aquaponics is the "new" hobby for a lot of people plus its a great education tool for people to learn a new way to grow food. I cannot find the local articles I was referring to, but there has been a lot of reporting on this subject. I certainly don't want to lead this thread towards such a controversial subject. In no way do I wish to jeopardize Pond Boss in such an issue. There are many forums dedicated to this subject.
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Hmmm... I bet the WV State Police would be interested in those aquaponics set ups. The articles I can't find were from Winchester TV Channel 3 and the Northern Virginia News from Front Royal -- both on the Virginia side of the border. Both were mostly about the very high number of local heroin deaths, with sub-articles about the thousands of MJ plants/grows that have been confiscated/busted. That is not to say we don't have issues on the WV side. Like where I live, I have to cross the state line seven times to visit a friend's farm that is only five miles away. Travis -- as I assume you are aware, the I-66 and I-81 intersection area is a very major drug distribution and gang headquarter stronghold.
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Travis -- as I assume you are aware, the I-66 and I-81 intersection area is a very major drug distribution and gang headquarter stronghold.
Yes, MS-13 likes to go out there and play and leave dead bodies floating in rivers... I-81 is a large drug running route. These days, prescription drugs are becoming more prevalent in the abuse catagory. Oxycontin is commonly called hillbilly heroin.
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Travis -- as I assume you are aware, the I-66 and I-81 intersection area is a very major drug distribution and gang headquarter stronghold.
Yes, MS-13 likes to go out there and play and leave dead bodies floating in rivers... I-81 is a large drug running route. These days, prescription drugs are becoming more prevalent in the abuse catagory. Oxycontin is commonly called hillbilly heroin. Cecil -- I apologize for hijacking your thread, especially over such a nasty topic. Travis -- Apparently your colleagues have been fairly effective in cutting down on the availability of oxycotin. The articles I was looking for said that because of the shortage of oxycotin, we've had 44 local heroin overdose deaths so far this calendar year -- as opposed to only 13 for all of last year. Two were found dead from heroin overdoes late last week in Winchester. Now, back to aquaponics relative to fish and edible vegetables, spices, and fruits ...
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Cecil -- I apologize for hijacking your thread, especially over such a nasty topic.
No problem I've been known to hijack a few threads around here too.  Stay tuned for a picture of about 1500 to 2000 bluegill fingerlings in one of my RAS tanks my dad and I seined out of the bluegill production pond in the last two days. Can't find the camera this evening! Probably another 5 to 10 thousand left in the pond but the weeds and algae took over the pond making it hard to get them all out, and I don't have room in the tank anyway.
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 08/26/13 09:17 PM.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
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Sorry here also Cecil... Now back to your system, some questions:
How deep are your tanks?
Length and width? I'm guessing 2' by 16' (per side).
Do you have some kind of bracing system around the tanks? (to keep water pressure from bowing it out)
How big are the tilapia?
Is the black tile just to hold the liner down?
One more thing, is that enough water movement to keep the fish tank fairly clean and nitrite levels down?
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Sorry here also Cecil... Now back to your system, some questions:
How deep are your tanks?
Length and width? I'm guessing 2' by 16' (per side). No reason to be sorry! Sides and divider are 2 X 12's with the tank 8 feet long and 4 feet across. Water depth is probably 9 inches or less due to the foam board and plastic culvert pipe that holds on the double layer of greenhouse plastic. Do you have some kind of bracing system around the tanks? (to keep water pressure from bowing it out) No need. Sides are all 8 feet long 2 X 12's with a 1/2 inch plywood bottom. There is also 2 X 6 ribbing under the plywood to support it. The water really isn't deep enough to produce much out pushing pressure. About a pound and half or so. 11 to 14 inches. WAG. Is the black tile just to hold the liner down? Yes. It's black tile with a slit cut lengthwise that wedges the plastic down. One more thing, is that enough water movement to keep the fish tank fairly clean and nitrite levels down? Yes! The fish provide movement, and the center plume from the diffuser pushes water up and down toward the center drain. I once used a horizontal and vertical spray bar but have found in tanks this small it's not necessary. (4 to 5 feet in diameter). A gate valve in line with the external stand pipe is pulled a 2 times a day to flush solids near the drain and in the drain. This waste water is used to water the conventional raised garden that is adjacent to the fish tank. Since the tank is so much higher than the raised garden, I can water the garden with it via gravity by opening the gate valve and directing a hose anywhere I want. Same goes for water changes as there is not only an external stand pipe and drain line that comes from the center drain, but also a drain line from the clarifier tank.
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 08/27/13 07:03 PM.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
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About 1500 bluegills seined out of the bluegill production pond that last few days. These are in the basement. There were many more times this left in the pond which has been drained and will be limed soon. Just don't have enough room for them all, and my operation isn't set up for retail fish sales. My goal is just to supply my needs and sell any extra. 
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 08/28/13 08:12 AM.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
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Thanks for your reply Cecil...Great info! One more question, how big are your raft tanks? My bad for not making myself clearer on my first question.
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What are you feeding your bluegill fry? are they big enough to eat powder/crumb commercial feed, yet?
brian
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Thanks for your reply Cecil...Great info! One more question, how big are your raft tanks? My bad for not making myself clearer on my first question.
Sides and divider are 2 X 12's with the tank 8 feet long and 4 feet across.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
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What are you feeding your bluegill fry? are they big enough to eat powder/crumb commercial feed, yet?
brian I'm feeding them Aquamax 5D03 I have left over from feeding my yellow perch fingerlings, which have moved up to 5D04. However, I'm crushing it as some of these fish would probably be better off with 5D02. I'm not buying a $52.00 bag of 5D02 when they will be big enough for the 5D03 very soon. Yes, they are big enough for commercial feed and past the powder size feed stage. Smallest about an inch, which is big enough for commercial feed.
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 08/28/13 08:29 AM.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
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