New guy from northern New Mexico

[Brian Rodgers]

-1.6 °F (-18.6 °C) outside our converted spa Koi pond. Inside the rotten hay covered Koi pond it is 45.5°F (7.5°C) This is the same temperature it was in the water the day I installed the indoor outdoor digital thermometer a few weeks ago.Sure it's chilly for Koi, at least it's consistent!

 

[Brian Rodgers]

Boy howdy a Brand New Matala L60 air pump for my birthday!!
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We found a wonderful aquatics shop in Santa Fe NM today. http://www.oasis-aquatics.com/
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Michael was super knowledgeable and helpful. We'll go back again, for certain.

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I changed the pipe size to coincide with the large outflow pipe on this powerful air pump. The vinyl pipe was ~3/8ths" now it is 3/4s" and PEX. The 3/4" PEX feeds a tee with two 1/2" PEX pipes which lead over to the Filter area and branch out. I had to turn everything on to handle the large quantity of air coming from this pump. Nice huh?
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Also the unglued PVC from the new SLO blew apart from the extra pressure.Flooded the floor of the greenhouse in a manner of minutes

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Speaking of leaks I better go check on it. See ya!

_________________

Brian's AP
Specs: 2600 gallon (347.56cf) FT. 44cf GBs. 200 gal (26.7cf) ST. 15 gal (2cf) RFF. 50 gal (6.7cf) biofilter.
~14 adult ((16")40cm) Brook Trout. 5 Comets.

 

[krichardson]

See ya.....check back soon.

 

[Brian Rodgers]

Good morning
The new twin-solids-lift-outflow (SLO) is coming together. I'm upping the volume of the water going into the filters, I know that sounds like, "Why didn't I get the input matched to the output of the pump to begin with?"
Anywho, I'm dealing with it now a year after the original build.

The water is clearer after one night with the test plumbing stuck together (No glue yet)



First I tried another air-lift pump like the original. I couldn't get enough flow no matter what I tried. After three different configurations I finally figured out that unlike the original SLO this one was attempting to lift the water up and over the side of the pond.

We bought a new and much bigger air pump and Wow!

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Cool,have u considered some water plants to out compete the algae?

 

[Brian Rodgers]

Thanks! What were you thinking? Winter temperatures; 59°F (15C) to Summer; 69°F (20°C). I've been trying water lilies with little luck.

 

[Brian Rodgers]

For us the tomatoes are dominating the greenhouse and still spreading.
It's been a warmer Winter than normal, so that's mildly disturbing, we'll take it and like it too and that thought is disturbing as well. From last years weather I feel vindicated for spending the effort to get our own temperature controlled micro system functioning and closer to balance every day. It makes me feel great because I feel empowered by taking action.
We love living alongside our fish and plants.
I started eating meat again as my diet shrinks more every tine we research low oxalate diets and find that meat isn't on any of the lists. Then salt had to go. Eating is flippin' boring without salt. That was the last straw dietary straw.
We recently gave our Landowners E-plus Elk permit to a neighbor for half the meat. We don't have ATVs or horses and elk can weigh a 1000 pounds (453.592kgs) so there wasn't anyway for me to hunt.
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Most of what we grow is on the "eat these if you like your kidney stones large and frequent."

Brown rice and peanuts were a huge part of my life.
I'm gong to keep germinating seeds. Not a lot of life from the seedlings I set recently. I'm going to stick with continually planting with a focus on Swiss chard, celery and a few others that are lowish on the scale for oxalates.

I have a lot more air in the DWC now with the new pump, so much so it lifts the raft up. The guy at the aquatics store where we bought it said run the pump flat out; unhindered. I can use a lot in the DWC, unless there is such a thing as too much air. I believe we could have used the next size down (Matala L40) as we have plenty of air, but that's fine because my wife said yes to this after we discussed it. This pump is in my book very near the top of our budget @ $230.00. We're so very happy with the new clarity of out pond water. I don't know if you saw the early posts in my build page, but the floor in the pond is gray. After I swept the bottom I can see the light bottom for the first time in six months.

_________________

Brian's AP
Specs: 2600 gallon (347.56cf) FT. 44cf GBs. 200 gal (26.7cf) ST. 15 gal (2cf) RFF. 50 gal (6.7cf) biofilter.
~14 adult ((16")40cm) Brook Trout. 5 Comets.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

For us the tomatoes are dominating the greenhouse and still spreading.
It's been a warmer Winter than normal, so that's mildly disturbing, we'll take it and like it too and that thought is disturbing as well. From last years weather I feel vindicated for spending the effort to get our own temperature controlled micro system functioning and closer to balance every day. It makes me feel great because I feel empowered by taking action.
We love living alongside our fish and plants.
I started eating meat again as my diet shrinks more every tine we research low oxalate diets and find that meat isn't on any of the lists. Then salt had to go. Eating is flippin' boring without salt. That was the last straw dietary straw.
We recently gave our Landowners E-plus Elk permit to a neighbor for half the meat. We don't have ATVs or horses and elk can weigh a 1000 pounds (453.592kgs) so there wasn't anyway for me to hunt.
Attachment:

food-oxalate-graph-768x680.jpg [ 100.57 KiB | Not viewed yet ]

Most of what we grow is on the "eat these if you like your kidney stones large and frequent."

Brown rice and peanuts were a huge part of my life.
I'm gong to keep germinating seeds. Not a lot of life from the seedlings I set recently. I'm going to stick with continually planting with a focus on Swiss chard, celery and a few others that are lowish on the scale for oxalates.

I have a lot more air in the DWC now with the new pump, so much so it lifts the raft up. The guy at the aquatics store where we bought it said run the pump flat out; unhindered. I can use a lot in the DWC, unless there is such a thing as too much air. I believe we could have used the next size down (Matala L40) as we have plenty of air, but that's fine because my wife said yes to this after we discussed it. This pump is in my book very near the top of our budget @ $230.00. We're so very happy with the new clarity of out pond water. I don't know if you saw the early posts in my build page, but the floor in the pond is gray. After I swept the bottom I can see the light bottom for the first time in six months.

_________________

Brian's AP
Specs: 2600 gallon (347.56cf) FT. 44cf GBs. 200 gal (26.7cf) ST. 15 gal (2cf) RFF. 50 gal (6.7cf) biofilter.
~14 adult ((16")40cm) Brook Trout. 5 Comets.

I was thinking Canadian pondweed,or basically anything that can grow in Canadian waters.

On the meat factor:u should hunt some deer,and maybe introduce some pheasants and such for some healthier meats.

 

[Brian Rodgers]

Getting ready to receive half an elk, which is one of the reasons I decided to give up my vegetarian diet.
I'm unprepared of course, I did buy this little meat grinder...
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and watched a youtube video on butchering elk...


When I was young I helped a neighbor butcher a cow. All I really remember about butchering something this large it is that it was one of the hardest things I ever helped with and it went on and on all day and into the evening.
Even half an elk is huge. I gave our landowner elk permit to a different neighbor who is a hunter & guide.
I know the grinder is going to be small, but we don't have funds for a bigger unit and considering it is seldom used, I pulled the trigger on this deal.
So there's that...
One of the many great things I can say about attaching a greenhouse to the home is the constant contact with our fish and plants. Feeding this morning I noticed the pond level low and the sump level high, something I have not seen before. So I asked myself, "what is different?" Well the dual SLO is new...

Cool, the new design created this weekend has increased flow so much that the pond had more water removed than replaced by the growbeds!

That means the flow through the filters can handle what our Laguna 660gps pump can deliver with room for more flow if I decide we need the next size up from Laguna.

I slowed the air to the dual air-lift pumps and had the water increasing in the pond. Now I'll need to tweak the air-lifts for equilibrium. Finally I can tweak this flow. Before I could only hope for 1/3 to 1/2 the water going though the filters.

Now I can use a technique I use as a trouble shooter (for analog systems) to find a sweet spot. Go past what you think is good and watch for the effect we are after, drop off and come back to where it drops off again and then you know the best condition is in the middle!

Yes, I'm loving being home most of the time now. So there is something good coming out of the down-scaling of "Average Citizen's share of the pie we used to call Reaganomics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics. Of course I put most of my energy over the last ten years into preparing for a worse president than Bush. It appears that prophecy held up better than the Peak-oil prophecy did, too bad about our luck.
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Happy grower
Brian Rodgers

 

[Brian Rodgers]

I was thinking Canadian pondweed,or basically anything that can grow in Canadian waters.

On the meat factor:u should hunt some deer,and maybe introduce some pheasants and such for some healthier meats.

Thanks for the help. Disclaimer: I'm no expert on aquaponics, but the consensus over on Backyardaquaponics is the twenty or so tomato plants are munching all the nutrients produced in this system. Perhaps though the tomatoes are only depleting a certain type of nutrients and the algae is using different nutrients?
I'm home more these days and I'm able to focus on the aquaponics system. I need to figure out which nutrients are missing or being blocked and try and correct the imbalance. I was doing a foliar spray of potassium which seemed to help the plants get their color back. I just need to do tests and experiments.

We do have a healthy population of turkeys, but yeah I would love to introduce pheasants.