Yup.  Aquaponics again.  I got it all finished yesterday.  Sort of.  I bought some goldfish a couple days ago and put them in the fish tank.  Then I got the rock and the grow media washed out and loaded into the grow beds.  Then I got the plumbing hooked up and the holes drilled in the workshop wall next to the fish tank.  Then I got the fish tank pump hooked up to the flush tank, and everything going and circulating yesterday evening.  Then we went to bed.


That's right, there are dead goldfish floating on the surface. Yuk.  You can see the water returning from the grow beds into the fish tank.  The black tubing is coming from the fish tank pump that goes to the flush tank on the grow beds.  I added more water later, so the water level is higher now.

The black tubing is coming from inside, goes to the flush tank.  The white pipe is the drain pipe that drains the water from the grow beds back to the fish tank.

This is the flush tank.  When it gets full, the water bottle pulls the flapper open, flushing the tank and emptying the water into the grow beds.  That waters the plants (which will be there eventually) and filters out the fish waste.

Now, back to the story.  Brenda and I were sleeping peacefully.  About 5 o'clock this morning we were awakened by the sound of thunder.  Now, it has been very hot and dry for some time here.  The grass is brown and dry and crunchy.  The grow beds are positioned directly under the eaves of the workshop, which do not have guttering or downspouts.  I am going to be installing guttering to keep the rain from pouring into the grow beds, but that is one thing I have not done yet.


So, you can imagine my consternation when we were awakened by the sound of thunder at 5 o'clock this morning.  I ran outside to find that the rain was already pouring into the grow beds which was already pouring into the fish tank.  If I didn't do anything, the additional water would very quickly overflow the fish tank.  So, I unplugged the water pump, preventing the pump from pumping water from the fish tank into the grow beds, and then I unhooked the drain pipe from the grow beds, allowing the water from the grow beds to drain onto the ground, instead of draining into the fish tank.


Brenda and I were soaked to the skin with the rain, but at least we saved the fish tank from getting too much rain water into it.  Later today I plan to install gutters on the roof, and a shelter over the grow beds to protect them from getting rained on again.  Then, I can re-start the circulation.  I planted bush beans in the grow beds yesterday, so with all the rain and warm temperatures they should be coming up in a few days.


Tilapia.  I plan to get some tilapia this weekend to add to the fish tank.  If things go well, they should be ready to eat in about 6 months.

Why tilapia, you ask?  Well, the idea is, that tilapia are much more tolerant of water conditions than other types of fish.  So, if the water isn't just the right temperature, or just the right amount of oxygen, or just clean enough, or just the right acidity level, and so on, they do just fine, while other fish would just die.  Tilapia are tropical fish, so the water does have to stay warm all the time.  That's why I have them in the freezer.  (The freezer doesn't work)  I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but the freezer is very well-insulated, so it will stay at a nice warm 80 degrees all year-round with very little electric heat input.  Which is why I have the two aquarium heaters in the fish tank.  The water actually feels cool, but that's because a person's skin temperature is 94 degrees, so 80 degree water will feel cool to touch.

Back to aquaponics again.  Yep.  I've been working on my aquaponics setup over the last two weeks, trying to get it all put together before the growing season ends.  I got water in the fish tank, one hundred gallons of water.  At first, I tried using the water from the rain barrels.  Each rain barrel holds 55 gallons, so you would think that would give me more than enough.  Nope.  The problem is, that as you drain the water off, the pressure gets lower and lower until you can't get any more water out.  Then, the drain is not in the bottom of the barrel, it's about three inches from the bottom, so that when I draw water from the barrel I don't get the dirt and sand off the roof.  So, there's always some water left in the barrel.  Anyway, I was only able to fill the fish tank about half full from the rain barrels.  So, I filled it the rest of the way from the well water.  Oh, well.

Fish tank.  It has two aquarium heaters to keep it warm, and an aquarium air stone to add oxygen.

So, this is what a chest freezer looks like when it's filled with one hundred gallons of water.  Brenda says it looks like a baptistry.  Pretty close, I suppose, except for the lid.  The next step will be to add fish, I guess, but that will have to wait until I get the grow beds hooked up.

The new grow beds.

This is the new grow beds system.  On the right end is the flush tank.  The fish tank has a pump that pumps water from the fish tank inside the building through the wall next to the door on the left, over to the tank on the right.  When the tank on the top right fills, a mechanism in the tank trips, sending the fish water through the pipes on top of the grow beds to water the grow beds.  When the tank is empty, the mechanism closes the valve and the tank starts to fill again.  The grow beds fill with the fish water, which filters through the grow media (clay pellets and rocks) and then it empties by gravity through the white plastic pipes at the bottom back to the fish tank, now clean.  When I have this all finished and going, I will have the grow beds filled with those bags of clay pellets that are sitting there at the bottom, and they will be planted with vegetable plants.  The vegetable plants will help to filter out the goo from the fish tank, which, of course, feeds the plants.  You have to have the right combination of plants, bacteria, worms, and fish all going together in harmony in order for this to work properly.  And, of course, it helps to have warm temperatures and sunshine.  As soon as I have the outdoor system up and running, I plan to get started building the indoors system.  Hopefully, having done it all once, it will go a bit smoother the second time around.  Also, I will already have the fish tank part done, so only the grow beds will need to done.  Hopefully, I will be able to get the indoors part put together before the weather gets cold.

New chickens.  Today we have new chickens.  We had chickens last year, some production reds, and then we had some Old English Bantams.  The rooster was real pretty, but he disappeared one day.  Since then the girls have not had a fellow around to give them protection.  Earlier this week we had an opportunity to do a trade, so we traded one of our production reds for three roosters.  The fellow who had the roosters said he was getting tired of all the crowing.  Since we have ten young hens that will be laying here in a few weeks we can afford to let go of one of the older hens.  So, we did the trade.  We got two barred rock roosters and one big dark colored rooster of uncertain breed, but he is pretty.  Now the girls have plenty of guys around to give them protection and, well, companionship.

Mark giving the chickens their daily afternoon scratch feed.

It didn't take long at all for the fellows to get very well acquainted with the girls.  One of the roosters has been following the big production red hen around ever since we brought him home.


This is a tomato hornworm.

You may ask, what does a tomato hornworm have to do with chickens?  Well, I noticed that something has been consuming our tomato plants.  With some investigation, I found this creature.  A tomato hornworm.  I fed the thing to the chickens.  They ate it.  It did take them a while to figure out that the thing is good to eat, though.  With more checking I found more hornworms.  Lots more.  So I have been feeding the chickens.  They have figured out that tomato hornworms are tasty treats.  That big production red hen and I are real good buddies.  She comes along with me when I check out the tomato plants.  Yesterday when I was checking the tomato plants she kept jumping and snapping at a tomato leaf.  I couldn't understand why until I found a big hornworm attached to the underside of the leaf.  I pulled it off and gave it to her.  She ate it.  Then I found a great big one on a potato leaf.  I gave it to her, but the rooster snapped it up, instead.  Why are they called hornworms?  Because they have that bright red horn-shaped thing on their tail end.  When they are completely still on a tomato stem, they are almost invisible.  You grab them and pull them off, and they squirm and try to bite you, and hit at you with that horn thing, and then they throw up nasty green stuff to make you let go of them.  They are like a big fat balloon.  The chickens snap at them with their beaks, and work on them for a while until they deflate, like letting all the air out of a balloon, and then down they go.

This is the chicken house.  Two houses.

We have three chicken houses.  I know, it is a lot.  The small one on the right is the one we started with many years ago.  It is heavily insulated, so it is very warm in winter.  I recently re-sided it with new plywood all over the outside, and new roofing material, and a new nesting box on the back.  The big chicken house on the left was there when we moved to the new place a year ago.  It is a metal building with a fiberglass roof, not insulated, but well-ventilated.  I did a lot of work recently to get it all cleaned out and renovated.  I built some new nesting boxes for it.  So it is in good condition now.  It is much larger and it will accommodate up to twenty chickens.  The one on the right will hold only about six or seven.  So, right now all the chickens are housed in the big house.  The small one is unoccupied.  When it gets cold,  I might try to move some of the hens to the small house, but chickens don't like change, so we'll see how it goes.  The third chicken house is what I call my summer house.  I built it at the last place.  It is a metal building.  I painted it white to keep it from getting too hot in the summer sun.  I haven't used it, since we have this metal chicken house that works just fine.  I may end up getting rid of it since we don't use it.