Aquaponics Flow On
Please find my initial post on my Aquaponics system here. Within a couple of days, the tomatoes and onions were already too tall for my setup. I had to come up with a solution that would allow them room to grow, but still have some support for the grow lights.
Long Tubes, “Short” Legs
I had done some research about how tall my tomatoes would grow, and Dr. Google said that they would grow to about three to four feet tall. My first thought was to remove the shelving above the plants and just hang the lights from the ceiling. I thought about this a little, and thought that my system should be self-containing, so that if I had to move it, I wouldn’t have to move where the lights were. There I ran into the problem that the shelf’s legs don’t extend far enough to get three to four feet above the last shelf, so I had to figure a way to raise the shelf. My solution was to get two ten feet long pvc pipes that had an outside diameter of one and a half inches. I then cut the pvc pipes into four four-foot long segments with two two-foot segments left over. I then took out the previous legs and put the new pvc ones in their place. Since this large structure wasn’t very stable, I ziptied the front two legs to the heavy media garden tub. You can also see I added a couple of new lights as well.
Sucker Fish in the Waste Bucket
I decided to buy the sucker fish to eat the algae and fish waste in the waste bucket. In order to have this, I needed the piping to not be an untimely exit for the fish into the media tub. I researched some other waste bucket systems, and found one I liked called a swirl filter, where the water spirals around the bucket and the solid waste falls to the bottom of the bucket. Even though I set up the system like this, the algae eater decided to go for a dirt swim. I caught him in time and put him back in the bucket. Now I was faced with the problem of keeping the sucker fish out of the tube. I remembered I had some pantyhose from when I first set up my waste bucket, so I covered the outflow tube. This seemed fine until I woke up the next morning and found that the pantyhose had some sediment on it, and blocked the waterflow. This blockage caused water to leak all over the floor out of a hole in the side of the bucket. I then decided that the sucker fish could go live with the goldfish and removed the pantyhose.
Up Next
I am having some gnats that have taken up residence in my media bucket. That is my next issue to tackle.
I also would like to setup sensors and start some Internet of Thing devices to monitor and notify about sensor readings. Stay tuned for more!
As of Right Now
The plants are growing very tall and I have a few pepper sprouts starting to grow. I am hoping by the next post the tomatoes will flower. From the picture, you can also see my goldfish are growing quite fast.
