System gone mad

We 're been away as you know. Things have really grown. No dead fight but the system seems to have stabilized and the plants are loving it. A picture tells a thousand works is so true in this case. The blue pipe work is 55mm diameter so you can say the fish are about 110 to 140mm long. Couple of more months before Bar B Q time.

Added Misters/Sprinklers

Just added 5 mist sprayers on a timer to help with keeping the salads a bit cooler and hopefully disrupt the insects. Had a few leaves start to get chewed already so this must stop....'ll give it another 24 hours then check the water quality.

Must also let you know. Having reduced the flow through the system the 99% of solids are now dropping out in the first settlement tank. Such a big difference.

Maintenance

Spent the morning doing repairs to my raft system.  I built it on an old set of hydroponic frames. So it seems a good idea at the time. However the additional weigh of the raft system has resulted in the frames sinking into the ground. The local soil is a very light clay.  Hard as rock and dusty when dry and slippery mud when wet. So any slight moisture and the system collapsed... Bummer.

Still today we  redid the frame supports and added some angle iron to sides and undersides of the  polystyrene raft.  Should be good to go. Unfortunately we lot our stock of plants which as it happens were doing abysmally...

So time to move on. Next crop.  We'll keep recirculating to keep the fish happy.  Should commence reseeding tomorrow.

I'll reset everything back in its rightful place tomorrow and also sort out the seedling table and tidy up the area.  It has all been a bit full on recently and a very hectic time. Finishing the house, Work prospects etc so this has not received priority. Cold beer this evening and start again tomorrow.

Update

My existing system is doing well. Yesterday afternoon we caught some big fish in our pond. Decided we would eat them later. i.e. Bar B Q them tomorrow or  Friday.  To keep them alive and fresh I added them to our system. Little extra nutrients being added to my plans for a couple of days cannot do any harm.

Changed My Filter System

The water has been getting a be dirty. The filter system did not work properly.  So I've added to half barrels, one with baffles and one with the pump.  The one with baffles also has a toilet flush in the bottom so I can drain it when needed. Not so good but best I can do with a DIY, no cost solution.  WIll monitor progress over next few days to see how water responds to this.

Progress

Yesterday I redid the plumbing changing the big sump tank into exactly that. By removing the cat fish and using it as a proper sump and additional settlement pond. So this morning after taking the dogs for a walk I had a good look at it all again.  Very pleased with the result. The sump tank is replete with clear water and the overflow filter bucket is doing a good job.  I can improve on this with some better shaped and more filter materail. Thats a job for me to see to in next few days. First find some filter material....
But this morning I could not stop myself adding a few progress photos.

A Moment Of Madness

Disaster

Disaster. That's right a disaster. I went to Laos for four days only to get back and be told by the guy looking after the system that over night (last night !!!) it, the system had somehow run nearly dry. I suspect it is the local cats playing around on the top, maybe the pipe from the pump to the reservoir had become dislodged. Can't think of anything else or any other way it could have happened. I had noticed the cats around before but though little of it. So the result of all this is that bigger Tilapia died. That's 7 of them leaving me with 4 small ones. I'm am really disappointed but am taking it as part of the learning curve. How quickly things can go wrong. One day all is good and the next?..... Well I am really down about it.
I had been so excited to get back and plant the new seedlings. Probably still can plant them and maybe just maybe it will be OK but, ...not sure on the balance of fish and veggies any more.
Must get some more fish ASAP.
Imagine if it had been a fully commercial set up. A whole crop lost.... Well I am planning this weekend to add a few more small spry and see how it all goes. Major disappointment all the same.

Replanting and general progress

Been busy just doing nothing... Watching fish grow is not so exciting. However this weekend I decided it was time to clean up the reservoir tank. I try and make a habit of doing this every weekend. This time there was no internal filter tank have removed a few weeks back. The reservoir was full of green algae and suspended fish waste. So rather than remove it I stirred it all up.

Then I opened the flush unit and let it flow into the gravel beds. Works really well. We had also the same day removed several Thai herbs and chili plants from the garden and placed them in the system. They seemed to thrive almost immediately. I had expected some wilting but actually very little. Checking this morning (Monday) all looks good and the fish water is clear.

I also planted a a small tray several chili, tomato and Chinese cabbage seeds. We'll see how they do later in the week.

As a small note my air blower/stone finally gave up on Friday last week. I opened it to see the rubber plunger had perished. Its lasted 5 months at a cost of Baht 300 so approx 150 day. That's 2 Baht per day. At 34 Bath to the dollar I am not complaining!!!

Earlier we had eaten the Cat Fish but I did not post any photos. Dead fish do not make for good Photos but here goes... From-tank-to-grill

April 24th 2010. progress

Well... Progress. nothing much to report. All going well and no major problems.

I did have a minor difficulty with the flushing system. Seems for no apparent reason to stop 'flushing' and just act as an over flow. Made me loose a few plants which dried up and died as a result. These were leaf plants but the tomatoes and chili plants survived. However it was an easy fix done by reducing the size of the outlet pipe at the bottom of the bottle outlet. Worked well since then.

We ate 5 cat fish a few weeks back and left the Tilapia to carry on in the tank. All fine and seem happy enough. Interestingly the amount of solid waste has reduced considerably. Not surprising as I had reduced the Bio mass by approximately 50%. (I.e removing the cat fish). So much was the difference in water clarity that I decided last week to dispense with the filter system and see if it made any difference. It consists of simple netting and some old geotextile I found laying about on my construction site.

So after 1 week I checked the pH. It was 7-7.5 today so that's OK. I do suspect that the plants are a bit short of nutrients as they appear a bit pale. But that could be me and my imagination just looking for something..... Produce has continued with chili, tomatoes and greens. My single paw paw is still hanging on in there. I really need to make a separate container for it to enable the roots to grow better. New project.

Recently I planted some coriander and last week some new narga super hot chilies. Will wait and see progress.

New Filter = Clean Water

I've been quite worried about the bad smell and dirty water. So much so that I visited several local aquarium shops to look at different systems and review the options. But I wanted to opt for a home made one. It's easy to buy one but having made my tanks and the rest of the grow beds etc I wanted to also do this myself.
I spend most of Saturday morning thinking about all I had been reading and the local systems I had looked at. I opted for one I had seen on the web. Simple bucket with a central pipe and filter cloth arrangement. Works really well. The water cleared in a matter of hours and the fish started eating again!

Now I'm going to improve on it and make some simple 'liners', bit like a vacuum cleaner filter. It will make for easy removal and cleaning. That's the next development in this project.

Major Smell

Got home last night and the smell from the fish tank was high!! I mean high. No dead fish but several gasping for air. I also noted they had not eaten the food I had put out in the m0rning. So mentioning this to Wanna, "Yes I fed them this morning", 'So did I' chirped in Owen. Well they had had a good day in terms of food. Three times more than necessary.
Only problem is too much food is no good for them. I recalled that Travis in his manual stated if the water smells stop feeding. Done....
I removed the uneaten pellets and also the various leaves etc which had been added.
Later in the evening I decided to also remove the water. Yes the water. Pumped away about 80% and refilled with fresh tap water.
Seems to have worked OK as this morning the water was clearer and the fish still swimming, (the right way up!). I tried a few pellets but not much interest so will lay off the food for a few more days.

System Progress Update

Been a while now since I posted anything on my system progress. The past few weeks its just been a day to day routine thing, where I have been feeding the fish and at weekends emptying out the fish waste. We use the fish waste on the garden and the plants seem to like it.

Its not so exciting at the moment. That makes it difficult to write a lot but .... Today we had a good clean up and checked the water quality, pH of 8.0, bit on the low side but OK. I'm still looking for DO and Nitrate test kits. So if any of you out here can point me in the right direction please do!

The plants are doing well. Tomatoes are turning red and the chillies are surprisingly hot! Also thinned out a few of the basil and will be planting some more in next few days.

Wanna is beginning to take an interest which can only mean one thing. They are nearly ready for the Bar B Q!!!!

On a separate note I've been looking into a commercial system and will be getting round to my business plan shortly. Need to decide just how big to be and as long as it is sustainable I can employ someone to look after it up on our farm. Will keep you updated on developments.

No Prawns.....

It is now a safe bet to tell you the prawns did not survive. I had a good look this morning and no sign of any. All gone.
The cat fish on the other hanad of course look 'frisky', that is, if cat fish can look such a thing.
This weekend will see me clearing out the accumulated sludge that has built up in the header tank. Might also be a good idea to install a bottom drain tap to make it easier for cleaning the next time round. I'll buy the fitting this afternoon and see how I feel on Saturday about doing anything!!!
I'm also thinking about adding a second tank for prawns but really I do need to let this set up work its way through one cycle first. Its only been on the go for 40 days. What I will be doing is weighing the fish and from here on in will be checking them on a weekly basis. Should be an interesting  exercise and indeed I will also start to monitor and weigh the food I give them. Make it all a bit more scientific.