Get to the point

Sometimes we see a few critters wandering around the farm and they usually keep their distance.  This guy didnt care that I walked right up to him to take this video.

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Aquaponics Disease Strikes and Future Plans

Can we recover from this tragedy? The aquaponics system has been producing food for us for almost 2 years already and I couldnt be more happy with it. However, I have had my share of issues with the fish! Here is an update on the aquaponics system and a few thoughts on a future revamp of the entire system. Summer is coming to an end and I can finally get back down into this system!

Early this spring I purchased 30 Tilapia from an online company. I couldnt have been happier with the support I received from them and I am in no way blaming that company for the issues I have had. However, I added the Tilapia to the system in a separate (but connected to the system) tank and they slowly all died off. I tried to raise temps and meticulously checked water quality and could not figure out why they didnt make it, not one single one. they only thing I could come up with at the time was that the water was too cold (about 70-75 degrees) for the Blue Tilapia which do like warmer temps especially when they are young. So I shook it off and kept moving forward, planning to add some new fish later in the summer once outdoor gardening season died down.


At this time I had about 70 goldfish in the other barrel and they were doing their job nicely eating up the food and fertilizing the aquaponics garden through the various natural processes that take place. Each day I would go down to the system to add the daily allotment of flakes and on occasion find a dead fish. This continued on throughout the summer with the fish population getting down to less than 15 by August. I again, kept checking the water quality, did not add any supplements, kept feeding regular, and moved fish between the barrels to see if there was some issue in the tanks with no result. At this point I have come to the conclusion that there was a disease introduced into the system by the Tilapia that slowly killed off all of the fish, I just cant come up with any other reasonable theory that makes sense.

But the beauty of the aquaponics system is that it is so forgiving and still chugging along using up the residual nitrates and nutrients in the water and producing excellent Kale, Rosemary, Cilantro, Lettuce, and pepper for us. And now it is time to look to the future, to a cold Michigan winter where I can spend my evenings tinkering, redesigning, and rebuilding a new and improved version of the indoor aquaponics system. I plan to incorporate all I have learned into a more efficient, sleeker, easier to use system that will hold more fish and eventually incorporate so nifty new design features and grow beds. Stay tuned for more on that but for now, pray for our tough little goldfish workers that laid down their lives in the pursuit of fresh vegetables and in the name of science!

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Aquaponics Nitrogen Deficiencies

Why are all of your plants dying? Well, if you are just starting your system or have other fish related issues you might see some of these symptoms - Burnt leaves, slow growth, dark yellow spots, plants dying. Nitrogen is the most important nutrient of all!

If you have been following along with the system we have here you probably already know that I have had my fair share of issues with various things. Most recently I discovered that my fish were slowly dying off, each day one or two. After several months of trying various remedies the fish all eventually died. So, here I am with an aquaponics system with no fish! This leads to quite a few issues but mainly (since I am still growing plants) I am starting to see the signs of major nutrient deficiency system wide.

With an aquaponics system the main nutrient that the fish provide for us through the nitrification process is nitrogen. This is (in most cases) the #1 nutrient for plant growth overall and when it is deficient you will surely start to notice it. The easy signs are burnt edges of the leaves, curling under of leaves, leaves falling off, stunted growth, and plants dying. If you start seeing these things it is time to think nitrogen!

In aquaponics this deficiency is normally not an issue with a few exceptions. When you first start cycling your system you will undoubtedly be short on nitrogen. Small fish, not enough fish, or underfeeding could be another cause. Lastly, if you just have too many or plants planted in the system you might not be able to keep up with supply of nitrogen for your crop.

So, how do we correct it? This is the easiest nutrient to supplement, just add ammonia. Regular old, off the shelf, unscented, cheap ammonia. I would recommend starting very small and testing a few hours after you add some (just a few capfuls at first). See if your system is efficiently converting the ammonia into nitrates in a decent amount of time. Should be less than 3-4 hours after adding ammonia that you can test and it is all gone. Keep increasing the dose until you start to get some left over after about 3-4 hours and then you now know how much you can safely add without hurting fish. Make sure to add to your sump or directly to bell siphons in the grow beds but never in the fish tanks.

Update - I have been running my system for two months now without any fish and all plants are doing great! Fish will come back to the system soon but I have a few redesigns in the works first.



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Nutrient Deficiency Guide - http://ammanutri.com/images/Symptoms%20of%20Micronutrient%20Deficiency%20in%20Plants.jpg

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Finally staring the foundation hole for the dome

Its been a long time since weve had a dome update but weve finally started digging for the foundation hole.  More info in the near future!

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Invest In The Future!

We have a new product that were preparing to launch! To help offset some of the expense of the molds and dies, we decided to seek outside funding and chose to use KickStarter.com. There are many pledging tiers that offer generous rewards once the project is complete!

Click here for project details

 

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