update better pics to follow

Sorry to all of my 4 followers for not updating or blogging recently its been the holidays and I've seen at least half of you anyway! Ok sillyness over, a friend of mine gave me their terrapins with tank/filter / rocks etc. And I obviously thought "can I use this for aquaponics?" When I look up terrapins on the internet or mention them to anyone they all say they stink and make loads of waste (2 -3 times the amount then that of a similar biomass of fish) so I thought great more waste = more nutrients. So I looked up terrapins and aquaponics but there does not seem to be any examples or anyone else doing it. Now the owner did warn me to wash my hands after handling them as they can carry salmonella. This might be an indicator to say don't pump their waste onto plants that will grow to be food! However there is not really anyone saying not to and the few websites that mention terrapins and aquaponics together don't say anything about it either. Anyway ill put pics up and carry on searching the interwebs for answers. Who knows I might try it and be a pioneer and have great plant growing success or might have a trip to an er!

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Trail and error

 I made a couple of minor changes, as the system is now circulating water to the seedlings I added the water from the other tank so that there will be some nutrients for them. I may now be getting fish for it until after Christmas so this should hold them over til then.

 I moved the now empty tank while i still can, now tucked away in the corner, you can also see in this picture how dirty the water is this is OK and will settle down.

 I have planted out 2 small strawberry plants into the aquaponic tray just to see how they do compared to the ones in soil. I have also planted 2 of the germinated Cantaloupe seeds in the tray to see what happens.

 This is the view out of the window right next to my system, obviously no place for cantaloupe melons to grow, it got to about -10 last night!

 Trail and error... I discovered that the pump on the automatic timer was going for too long. It was set to go on for 15 minutes (minimum time with a mechanical timer) every hour for the time the lights are on (10:00 - 20:00) but I discovered that it was flooding the tray too much and for too long. I have now swapped the timers so the pump is on a digital one and now only runs for 5 minutes which is enough to fill the bottom of the tray then it drains on its own after. The expanded clay pebbles (growing medium in the tray) stay moist and retain loads of the water until the next flood cycle. I also changed a few things with the watering tube. I found that he water was coming out but running along the tube to the lowest point before dropping into the tray. This meant that only the middle was getting directly watered. I buried the tube in the pebbles so they touch the tube where the water comes out breaking the surface tension and allowing it to flow out evenly across the tray. This has caused me another problem in that the water will now travel upwards past the holes to the hanging pots. I will be devising another watering method for them...watch this space.

 One last thing I did is lower the light and create a makeshift reflector for it. Its now hanging with a bungee much closer to the plants/seedlings and can be raised when they grow. the reflector is a white tray...

And so it begins...

 So the tank is now filled going to leave it for a while before putting fish in, blah blah you know...

 Looking at what others are doing (youtube etc) I decided to have more growing space rather than a couple of pots. This is a 99p cat litter tray from home and bargain, fits perfectly on the top of the tank, resting on the side ledge it tilts downward so water will drain from one end.

 Holes for drainage that I put in the tray.

 The sponges (12p for 5 asda smartprice) are to collect gunk and solid waste to get a little bit of bacteria which will help purify the water a bit and keep large bits from going in the tank.

 as you can see the pump is putting the water in and the water is draining out of the holes.

 I have made holes along the tube for the water to trickle out. I'm not yet sure on the flow rate needed so for now its a slow trickle if needed I can make the holes bigger.

 the tube is held in place with cable ties

 Here are mixed salad seeds that I have had in damp paper towels, they have germinated and sprouted roots so im going to put these in the main tray to start and see what happens.

 Just maximising space with the pots I have planted a couple of ready germinated lettuce seeds in the pots. Ive set up some other things since taking these pictuers like light timers pump timer etc also a couple of fans to keep some nice airflow over the growing plants. The airflow will simulate wind and encourage the plants to grow stonger stems and therefore larger plants...

 Back to the other tank I have planted the canteloupe seeds from the last post in the bio pots these will feed from the old fish water until I can move them to large containers in the conservitory.

The black pot was used for passionfuit seeds but they are going nowhere so I have planted other ready germinated lettuce seeds (from the same batch) as a control these will be grown in soil but under the same lighting as the ones in the tray. I also planned to plant lettuce seeds in soil in a window sil as another control to see if the lights are more effective but we have just had a huge snow fall and the window is white-out so thats all for now. I might post about the electronics as you must be wondering how many watts i'm using? my aim is the whole setup will be under 100 watts, when put into perspective the average computer uses about 300 watts (mine is 600) and well some old fashioned light bulbs were 100 watts so this should be quite cheap to run once going...

Starting in aquaponics

This is the first post I'm doing from the PC as I wanted to load multiple pictures to explain my progress so far. As you can see still a work in progress. The fish tank on the right is still being used as a plant nursery with a thin layer of gravel/old fish tank water that the roots of the plants are sucking up (this means I don't have to water them)

 This is just some of the seedlings I have. These ones only Germinated when I put them in the fish tank they had been planted about 2 month ago and I was losing hope they would ever sprout but as soon as I put them here well there you go...

 These lights are meant for aquarium plant growth, I'm not sure if they will suit for a whole growing season but the plants in the right fish tank seem to love it. The green frame in the window was last seasons greenhouse I got from Home and bargain for £7.99 (£19.99 in B&Q) I wish I had got more as they no longer sell them.

So this is the tank on the left, I haven't filled it yet so if I need to move it or make changes I still can. I was really keen to get going with this hopefully to have a few plants up and running by the new year so I've filled a bucket, which is an old flower bucket from lidl costing £0.00, (I went in and asked for one I now have about 15 of them!) with water.

 This is the growing medium, expanded clay pebbles, again cheap but I will be ordering more from eBay as it is cheap ER. Just waiting until after Christmas and after the bad weather so I can actually receive what I order. The seeds, apparently, will just be placed in the pebbles and will grow from there.

I have attached some clear PVC hose to a small pump (all very cheap and/or free stuff I had lying around) and submerged it in the bucket.

 The pots were bought by Mrs C. from Ikea as she thought they may be useful for another Ikea system we have which is an office type thing and the pots would normally house pens. I noticed the holes in the bottom and thought these will be perfect! they have a small hook on the back that hangs perfectly on the fish tank. I have placed a thin sponge on the bottom to catch solids and help filter the water before it falls into the fish tank again.

 The light fixing was a cheap one I bought a while ago that I had planned on using in a storage cupboard, I replaced the standard florescent tube with one from a fishery specifically for plant growth.

 I have hung the light with cable ties (for now) as I can tighten them to raise the light when plants grow.

 Here are some seeds I have had on a damp bit of kitchen roll. I have mixed salad and lettuce that have already started sprouting. When they are a bit bigger ill just put them into the pots and weed out the weaker ones.

 This is an optimistic attempt at growing things a bit more exotic. The black seeds are from a passion fruit and have been there for a couple of weeks to no prevail. The light ones are from a cantaloupe!

as you can see they have germinated!

x factor final SPOILER ALERT!

They have released who the guest stars are and who is singing with who. They have also said what the winners songs will be, yes songs. This year they have changed the format and instead of them all singing the same song they have an individual song that they will release if they win.

Matt will be releasing many of horor by Buffy clyro and he will be singing live with rianna (I think they will do umbrella)

One direction will be doing forever young Jay z and will sing live with Robbie Williams (no regrets would be a good song for them)

Cher will be singing a song by chantelle ive never heard of it but its something to do with dream. And will be performing live with will I am (probably doing the Cheryl Cole song with him)

And finally Rebecca is doing a Duffy song (just an album track ive never heard it but should be good) and will be singing live with Christina agillera (no idea what song of hers they could do)

So I think this is right it came from a reliable source, ill be posting Facebook comments all throughout the show, Matt for the win!

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hydroponics, well sort of!

This is the temporary Answer and the start of a indoor growing system for some plants.

The last of my Malawi chiclids has died, no tear was shed as it had killed all the others and wasted loads of money! So now I'm going to try and use the fish tank to help grow plants using aquaponics. I explained this in another post so ill just explain what ive done so far. I syphoned out most of the water so that I can lift the tank and i placed in under a south facing window. I haven't cleaned it out as the waste from the fish is what the plants will thrive from. The light is a florescent tube specifically for plant growth even though its a low wattage bulb I'm not sure how well the plants will do under it but its all I have. I had to buy it some time last year as my previous light tube died and when I went to the shop to buy one that's all they had, so I paid a little extra even though I wasn't growing aquarium plants.

The tank came with a heater which is meant to be submerged. I might adapt the tank so it can be used as its kind of cold and the light doesnt generate much heat ill also add a fan as the movement of air will help make the plants stronger.

So the pots are in a thin layer of water full of fish waste that I hope will be soaked up by the roots. The plants in there are strawberries, kiwi seedlings, passion fruit seeds (I don't know if they have germinated yet) and a pineapple top, ambitious but you never know!

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life imitating art?

This is why I don't watch the news. I just turned over to the news to see what was going on in the world. It felt a little like the Guy in clockwork orange forced to watch all that bad stuff (slight exaggeration). Riots, cuts, and bad weather. Really bad weather, the word is this is what we should expect every winter now, so global warming not going to make it any warmer for us?

when I heard students were marching on Parliament I thought "I wonder if its going to be like a Facebook flashmob, they should all wear the v for vendetta costumes that would be cool" however watching what I just saw on the news, not cool. In all seriousness people were getting hurt, they are still calling it demonstrations... but even that time they turned off the England match on the big screen in town (Liverpool city centre bbc jumbotron) was technically classed as a riot, although we were all told otherwise.

I know I'm getting a bit political with all this, and I know plenty of other people are a lot less fortunate than us, but it really gets you down the state we are all living in. I think I have started turning into a hippy and I blame it on a Few things...

Not only do i drive a prius but on my first visit to California I saw 'into the wild' on the plane. visiting California itself in many ways can open your eyes to a culture you didn't even know existed. My love for post apocalyptic, survivalist films and tv shows have made me interested in... well surviving. A friend once said he will come and stay with me for the nuclear apocalypse, a compliment I think.

Harry chapin music has also played its part, not to mention cat Stevens before he changed his name. If you haven't heard any Harry chapin music then go and buy some now, or type into youtube, whatever.

Thinking of my top 100 all time songs somewhere there is Tracy Chapman, Bob Marley, Micheal Jackson (man in the mirror, earth song) malverna renalds (little boxes) Joni Mitchell, Eddie vedder... to name a few.

Anyway I posted a picture of 'man standing in front of tank' (the famous one from Tiananmen square) on my face book and just to see what happens I've asked my friends to tag themselves in the picture if they feel like it. Knowing my friends people will tag the tanks!

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