Announcing the new business and web site. It is only just started so expect changes as I improve. I'm all about getting it going with what I've got and improving as we go along. No show would ever go on if it had to be perfect and complete before it hit the stage ya know. I'm already set to sell Aquaponics Valves and automatic feeders. I hope to be adding grow beds and plumbing parts as well as pumps and complete systems. Let me know if you are interested in my services for system design and install.
Well our record fish was 10 Pounds. We had that fish for just over 2 years and it was an advanced fingerling of between 8 and 10 inches when we got it.
She turned out to be female as we found eggs when we opened her up. Even after filleting we had 6 pounds of meat from that catfish. And guess what, she still tasted great.
Contact me if you are interested in help on Aquaponics systems in the South East USA (primarily Florida.) Perhaps also along I 75 between Florida and Michigan.
We Got some new small catfish fingerlings on Christmas eve and put them in the Quarantine system. They were really extra small this time. They gave us 140 for the price of 100 but I fear that the really small ones just did not have the reserves of energy to survive the extreme cold we had for a few weeks after we got them. Their water was down to 32 degrees F so I doubt they were eating much. I've since moved them to a smaller fingerling tank of about 20 gallons in the greenhouse but we are down to about 80 fingerlings now.
So, I expect we will try to get some larger fingerlings come late Feb or March to put into the quarantine tank. In the mean time, the grwo beds are getting full of lettuce and other greens around the base of the peppers and tomato plants. I am working on some rafts to place in the sump tank and perhaps use the Duckweed tank for more rafts or other growing since I won't be growing many tilapia.
I am very happy with the Rubbermaid stock tanks as grow beds and feeding them using the Indexing valve has been working very well. The AP system has not been taking up much of my time but it is starting to produce quite well. We have gotten huge amounts of fish to eat from the system and now with maturity, the plants are doing much better. I'm looking forward to a great productive year.
Yet another page that I had not updated in quite a long time. The Aquaponics system has come a long way and grown quite a lot of food over the past year.
We have harvested catfish as large as 3 1/2lbs. I love smoked catfish, smoked catfish dip, smoked catfish cakes. We also have tilapia and they taste good too.
There has been an article about my AP system in the Backyard Aquaponics magazine Backyard Aquaponics Magazine
I have been testing out some additional methods of filtration and trying to use pipes for NFT growing. I feel my system needs more filtration and I really wish I had
found some way to do CHIFT PIST (constant height in fish tank pump in sump tank) for my system. As it is now, my pump intake has to suck in solids and the pump trap gets
gunked up to the point of requiring cleaning every few days. I know a CHIFT PIST system requires a large sump tank but I now strongly believe it is worth it. I have been
trying to figure out how to modify my current system to make it more trouble free so I can go out of town on occasion without having to worry about it.
