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Post by Valerie on Feb 27, 2013 18:17:00 GMT -5
It sounds like a good idea. When you use all those chemicals, they say you have to be careful where you drain them too because they can mess stuff up. I would think manure tea would be pretty much harmless.
Hey, Gayle, I was reading up on the shrimp/prawns. The thing with them is they need square footage, rather than gallons of water. They fight each other, so if they don't have enough room, they'll kill each other off. I think that's why they're so suited to the raft type of aquaponics. You still have to have the fish, though, because 1) the shrimp eat the fish crud, and 2) the shrimp don't make enough waste to feed the plants. If a person already had that raft type of setup, adding shrimp or prawns would be a great way to double the output without changing the system or adding much expense.
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Post by Granny Smith on Feb 27, 2013 19:00:15 GMT -5
Maybe it would be a good idea to set up a big pool for plants and breeding prawns and a smaller one for the more agressive prawns. You could make money letting people bet on which prawn will win the fight to the death. I am pretty sure there are no laws against prawn fighting.
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Post by Valerie on Feb 27, 2013 19:17:20 GMT -5
LOL!
In this neck of the woods, there's not a whole lot of concern about laws re: fighting anything. I don't know of any dog fighting, but I've heard of some cock fighting here and there.
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Post by Valerie on Feb 28, 2013 18:37:23 GMT -5
The little plants were just perked right up today! I guess they really liked that little dab of compost tea. I think all but one of the lettuces are going to make it and everything else looks good. The radish seeds are sprouting, too I put in a few more lettuce seeds yesterday, just in case the others didn't make it, and a few spinach seeds, too. I think dripping a little water on the rocks each morning helps. I tested for nitrites this morning, and it appears that a little bit of color was beginning to show on the test strip! I'm not real sure, though, so I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing over the weekend and then check again on Monday. It's supposed to pretty cold this weekend, which is not conducive to good bacterial growth.
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Post by Valerie on Mar 2, 2013 10:37:53 GMT -5
I couldn't resist. I had to test again today. Ammonia levels have dropped from 5 to a definite 3! Nitrites are absolutely on the rise! So next I'll cut my daily ammonia dose to 1/2 a tsp, and keep testing. Sometime in the next couple weeks, the ammonia will drop to 0, the nitrites will rest at about .5, and the nitrates will come up. Then we know the bacteria are at home and doing their jobs, and we can start adding fish! The plants are still very small, so I'll have to add the fish gradually so as not to overwhelm the system with too much waste at once. I'm thinking 2 at a time. My small volume of water can only support 6 or 7 6" fish.
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Post by Granny Smith on Mar 2, 2013 12:29:57 GMT -5
Valerie, you know those little goldfish you get from the store get pretty big, right? Most fish grow to comfortably fit the size of bowl or aquarium.
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Post by Valerie on Mar 2, 2013 12:34:27 GMT -5
Yeah, I was looking at them not long ago and they listed their average adult length. Most stopped at about 6", but some went up to 8" or 10"! Koi get huge! They say not to use the little feeder goldfish though. They often have diseases. They don't really bother keeping them healthy at the stores because they're just destined to become snack. If you get them and they are diseased, you have to completely start the whole system over, after sterilizing it all. No thanks!
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Post by Valerie on Mar 2, 2013 12:46:15 GMT -5
Aaaagghh! Those store people lied! These things get up over a foot long! I think I better stop with 3 or 4! I was just looking at breeds again. I like the faintails and stuff, but the plain old goldfish seem to be less picky about temps and stuff, and much more friendly.
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Post by Granny Smith on Mar 2, 2013 13:01:31 GMT -5
You can freeze regular goldfish and have them suffer no ill effects. Not sure how too-warm water would affect them, though.
The most common disease in store fish is Ich. If you get the fish now, and keep them in a bowl or jar, you can get drops to treat it so they'll be healthy when you're ready to add them to the system.
Have you ever seen big fantails? They get really big and they're so fat! Since you're not going to eat them and probably won't overwinter them, I'd go with those. Might as well get a little aesthetic enjoyment out of it if you can.
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Post by Valerie on Mar 2, 2013 13:09:08 GMT -5
I do like the fantails and the ones with the big hoods. I do plan to overwinter them, though, since our water doesn't freeze here. There's a little pond in my mom's front yard that the people before her left. There are 2 tough old fish still living in there! Nobody even feeds them; they just eat algae and stuff and bugs and grass that blows in from the mower. They even lived through those two super-cold winters we had a few years ago!
I noticed that the prettiest ones are pickier about water temperature. I was just reading that the comets are the most recommended for outdoor ponds because they're so tough. Long as the water doesn't ice completely over and doesn't get more than 75 or so, they're good. My pond is up on my porch, on the concrete on the cooler shaded side of the house, so I think it'll stay plenty cool in the summer.
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Post by Cyngbaeld on Mar 2, 2013 13:09:42 GMT -5
Why not go to a bait shop and grab some live minnows?
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Post by Valerie on Mar 2, 2013 22:18:41 GMT -5
Cause they're not pretty!
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Post by BigM on Mar 3, 2013 7:49:13 GMT -5
You could paint them!
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Post by Cyngbaeld on Mar 3, 2013 9:05:51 GMT -5
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Post by joanfromzone6 on Mar 3, 2013 10:18:16 GMT -5
Cause they're not pretty! you wouldn't say that if you were a bull minnow -
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