This is part 4 of the Lonetti aquaponic saga (previously posted Parts 1, Part 2 and Part 3) and we are well overdue for an update. We've been busy - out of town for a week and then relatives staying here to celebrate little man's big second birthday! So I fell a little behind on letting you all know the joys of this mini system - and it continues to be a lot of fun to tinker with! :)
This is an overall photo of the growth we've seen (photo taken July 22nd) sorry about the rough splice job:
You can see there are a lot of little fishies in the bottom tank... ok, so I caved and picked up some tilapia from Lisette (thanks, Lisette!). I didn't intend to get so many, but they all just jumped in the net :) I'm working on a plan for as they get bigger since there is no way that many fish can grow up in a 50 gallon aquarium. The goldfish have been moved up to the top tank and everyone has been eating algae like it's going out of style! I had some beautiful filamentous green algae growing in the top tank (see the photo below) that the goldies have been munching on for the last week or so and the big gold goldfish has about doubled in size. There was a nice redish algae growing in the bottom tank that the tilapia have cleared up pretty good, so all in all, they have kept the tank clean. A little snail has showed up in the top tank, I'm not too worried since goldfish eat snails and any snail population explosion should be just more food for the system. I've even seen a baby shrimp in the top tank! Hopefully there is enough cover to keep babies safe while they grow up bigger. I'm excited the eco system is looking pretty good.
Then there are the plants. Here are some more photos of the greens. I think there are too many lacy type greens, I want more spinach and lettuce in the mix! The mint has gone insane. There are runners heading out in all directions into the aquarium and roots coming out everywhere. I'm thinking about ripping it out before it becomes permanently embedded into the system. You may remember the stevia cutting from a previous post I stuck in with the mint, but it didn't take.
Our first salad from the system!
Ok, so that is the good news. Bad news was that we got an infestation of spider mites. I did a lot of research online about how to handle them and decided to just try to up the humidity by misting with water a few times a day. So I filled a little spray bottle and misted all the greens 3-6 times a day, whenever I thought about it. After about a week of this treatment the webs were gone and I couldn't find any remaining mites. I keep the bottle handy in case they come back.
Another thing I noticed, not necessarily a problem, is a build up of whitish stuff on some of the expanded clay balls on one of the three towers. Two of the towers are filled with balls that had been soaked for a few days before going into the system, but the third tower I just filled with balls straight from the bag, hung it from a tree in the backyard and ran the hose through it until all the dust was off. After a few days running the system, this showed up:
It seems this is just a mineral deposit buildup... the salts almost looks like a dusting of frost.
Anyway, the plants in this system are doing just fine, so I don't see any negative effects on plant growth.
The other part that isn't working very well is the floating raft in the top tank. Two of the seedlings succumbed to damping off and the other two have kind of stalled out in growth, although the roots have grown very well. Also the duckweed has taken off! But it is hard to contain the duckweed in the raft.
So here are the numbers I've been tracking for the system and some notes on what happened.
| Test type | | tap fill water | June 5 | June 12 | June 23 | June 25 | June 27 | July 2 | July 10 | July 15 | July 17 | July 24 |
| nitrates | ppm | 0 | 0 | 5 | 200 | 80 | 200 | 50 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| nitrites | ppm | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| hardness | ppm | 250 | 425 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 |
| alkalinity | ppm | 300 | 300 | 300 | 120 | 100 | 100 | 80 | 80 | 180 | 120 | 120 |
| pH | | 8 | 7.8 | 8 | 7.2 | 7.2 | 6.8 | 6.8 | 6.6 | 7.2 | 7.2 | 7 |
| Ammonia | ppm | 0 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 0 |
| temp | F | | | | | 78 | 78 | 78 | 78 | 78 | 78 | 78 |
| NOTES: | | started mint cuttings | Added pond water | Topping off with RO water only after initially using tap water | | | installed plant towers | | Spider Mites spotted | Added eggshells July 13th | Added tilapia July 16 | Quin dumped fish food July 21
First greens harvest July 24th |
So that is all I can think of to let you know for now. As we make more progress I'll post more. All in all, I've been really happy with this project.
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