NO Gator Ponics is not as Safe as Aquaponics

ACK. I don’t like to do this but…….. a popular aquaponics newsletter has just gone out with a statement I believe is dangerous so I have to speak up.

Here is the statement I must disagree with.

Gator poop, and the alligators themselves, should be totally safe in an aquaponics system. Alligators are cold-blooded animals, . . . → Read More: NO Gator Ponics is not as Safe as Aquaponics

Muck not too bad

So we have removed 5 grow beds. The Big system and tower system are tied together to utilize the filtration in the towers. There is still quite a bit of gravel online but we are working hard to remove the shells and get the pH/water chemistry into better order. So after two years of heavy . . . → Read More: Muck not too bad

Impromptu Workshops!

This week Jan 1-5, 2012 sudden changes impromptu workshops, moving gravel. Hi All. It was a while back that I had said I would be inviting people out to see what was down in the bottom of some grow beds. Well I’m not gonna be able to provide a lot of notice here as things . . . → Read More: Impromptu Workshops!

Kiddie pools on pallets

I posted a while back about how I often test out ideas to see how they are going to work out. Sometimes it takes a little time to discover what might not work so well. Last spring I tested out kiddie pools as grow beds for my duck-a-ponics system.

Well, I’ve got some results from . . . → Read More: Kiddie pools on pallets

Testing things and ideas so other’s don’t have to

Just a quick note to everyone to remind you all that I’m here testing out ideas (not all of them turn out to be good ideas so you might want to leave some of them run with me for a while so I can report back) so I can share the results with the world.

. . . → Read More: Testing things and ideas so other’s don’t have to

Fish Kill

Ya know my post yesterday? I spoke too soon. I have now experienced a total fish kill in a system. Let me explain.

Fishkill

This was in my 300 gallon system (the big system is still doing fine and the really big fish are still living.) It is winter here and my systems . . . → Read More: Fish Kill

Heavy Rain

heavy rain

Something that crops up occasionally in aquaponics or hydroponics is what happens with an outdoor or greenhouse sump tank that is sunk into the ground. See if the water level in a barrel or other light weight tank that is sunk into the ground gets really low while there is a . . . → Read More: Heavy Rain

Lumber and Liner termite damage

Wet corner

wet under liner

before emptying the bed

Well, I finally discovered my mistake in building with lumber and liner in Florida. Termites have caused some of my grow beds to begin leaking. Time to make a change. We will replace the middle leaking grow bed with two . . . → Read More: Lumber and Liner termite damage

More Big system changes

With the addition of the new Big CHIFT PIST fish tank, I decided to remove the waterfall tank and add a new grow bed in it’s place.

removed waterfall tank

Frame for new bed

This change to the aquaponics system will give a place to filter the excess water flow from . . . → Read More: More Big system changes

Aquaponic Bananas

Don’t they say it takes 14 months to get fruit from a banana? Well apparently my Aquaponics system and my banana plant didn’t read that book.

Aquaponic banana Planted May 6

I was lately going through my pictures from this past year and discovered that I didn’t even set up the grow bed . . . → Read More: Aquaponic Bananas