Problem Solved!

I went with the cheap and easy option - elbows! Found a neat little piece of conduit in the electrical department for the overflow ($3). Kinda looks like this:

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Happened to have some 2" pipe and a 2" elbow, and had some leftover aquarium caulk.

So, I put in the piece I bought (middle), put in the 2" elbow (and a lot of caulk), had to move the pump outlet over a little (the pipe on the right was longer, so that the pump was centered in the skimmer) to make room for the previous two items (and added a lot of caulk), and voila!

Did all of this just in time for the 2.5" of rain we got yesterday. Now the pond is at an all-time high level, with probably an extra 300+ gallons in it from before.

Took the opportunity to update the veggie photos.

Broccoli looking really good. I cut a bunch of it already, fearing that I would somehow let it sit too long again and have it flower.

Tomatoes, broccoli, strawberries, squash, etc.

Basil, tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, etc.

Small Problem - Losing water on the drain cycle

OK, so flood/drain is definitely working out well for the plants, and I'm pretty sure that the fish like the bubbles when they kick on. It reminds me of Finding Nemo ... "bubbles!!!"

However, and this may be a problem unique to my set up, the cycling is causing me to lose water, and the equilibrium level of water is less than optimal. Here's what's happening...

In my pond, I have a skimmer with the pond pump at the bottom. The idea behind the skimmer is obvious - it allows you to catch stuff floating on the top before it sinks and then gets sucked into the pump. Now, whether that works as well as it should is another matter that I don't want to get into here. At the back of the skimmer is an outlet for the electrical cord from the pump to go underground to the outlet. There is also an overflow outlet that goes out the back, travels on a french-drain like gravelly-path to a small pit that I dug underground and lined with gravel and sand. This works quite well for keeping the pond from overflowing.

Here's the catch, though. While the pump is pumping, the 3 tubs with plants are filled with water. When the pump shuts off, that water drains out from the tubs and into the pond, raising the water level. When the water level reaches the overflow drain, the water flows out of the system.

I am most comfortable with the water level when it is just below the level of the drain, but as you can see, this is not currently possible for very long. Every time the tubs drain out and the water level comes up, I lose water until the maximum water level (when the pump is off) is below the overflow drain.

What I need is a way to automatically seal the overflow when the pump kicks off - or, better yet, seal the entrance to the skimmer. This way, the pond can handle the extra water, as there's plenty of space in the pond before it overflows.

If not that, I need to re-engineer my overflow so that it can somehow store the water while the pump is off and the level is higher until the pump kicks back on and it can handle the additional volume.

Any suggestions?

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Just a quick update on the garden:

Things are growing quite well. I've got about 6 different heirloom tomatoes in, some broccoli that's starting to crown, strawberries, basil, sweet and hot peppers, eggplant, and yellow squash. I'm using leftover 1/2" pvc as support for my tomatoes, which is nice, 'cause you can keep building on to it if you need more height. Other than that, I'm waiting for a call from Foster Lake and Pond about the tilapia. Should be sometime this month.

Oh yeah, I also replaced my water inlet piping, 'cause I had it going from the 1.5" feed lines down to 1/2" when I was trying a drip grid. The problem with 1/2" pipe is that it's the perfect size for hydroton to get stuck in. So, I got some 1.5" PVC. Shouldn't clog now!

Snow Camp Aquaponics Has Gone Flood/Drain

I purchased a timer relay, and after some consultation with my electrical engineer of an uncle, managed to set everything up nicely. As we speak, I've got my pond pump running for 60 minutes, which runs the waterfall and floods the grow beds, and as that switches off, an aerator switches on for 30 minutes, allowing the grow beds to drain fully while still providing the fishies with oxygen. As a bonus, the aerator only uses 15W of electricity, which is a fraction of what the pond pump uses. So, for 8 hours a day, my electricity meter will be spinning a little more slowly.

The garden this year will feature heirloom tomatoes. We've been enjoying the spinach, arugula, and cilantro. And with such a warm start to spring, it looks like it won't be long before the first fruits of summer!

Rainbow Trout Harvest Summary

So, out of 30 fish delivered, this was the end result, with all fish harvested by 3/31/10:

- 1 fish died during/as a result of delivery on 12/4
- 5 fish were 10" or under at time of harvest
- 3 fish were in the 15", 2-3 lb. range
- 5 fish were in the 13-14", 2 lb. range
- Most fish were around 12", 1 lb.
- 6 fish were pregnant females. I didn't keep the roe, as I have no way of raising fry/fingerlings. The roe looked like those little corn on the cobs you get with asian food.

Total number of fish cleaned and ready to eat: 23
Total number of fish under-sized and not worth the effort: 5
Total number of missing/unaccounted for fish: 1 (where the heck could this fish be?!)

All in all, I think this was an extremely successful trial run! I am shocked at how quickly the trout get to marketable size. In only four months, several fish basically doubled in length and probably tripled or quadrupled in weight. I hope I'll have the same success with tilapia this summer!

Update (4/6/10): There are still 2 trout in the pond! So, instead of getting shorted one fish, I've got one extra! Both appear to be around 13" in size. I'm torn - part of me wants to see how long they can make it in > 70 degree water. What if one is a pregnant female? That would be a great way to get trout for next year... But the other part of me just wants to catch them and eat them before they die of heat exhaustion.

Trout fishing!

Well, it's happened a little sooner than I had hoped, but the water temperatures in my tiny little pond have reached the danger point for the trout. With 70's and 80's predicted today through the foreseeable future, I decided it was time to start harvesting the trout.

Even as I made this decision, I saw a trout on the bottom upside down, but when I tried to net it, it swam away - not quite dead.

Due to the fact that I have goldfish and koi in the pond in addition to the trout, I thought that I would try to catch them with a hook and line. I called over the neighbors, and we managed to catch a couple using artificial worms. I had hoped to be able to bait the hook with some of the floating food, but it didn't work out. Too hard when dry, too sloppy to stay on the hook when wet. All in all, it was pretty fun catching the fish, but it wasn't as easy as I had thought it would be. I figured since they were so used to eating anything that landed on the water, they would throw themselves at the hook. However, it seems that genetics and instincts are present, even in "domesticated" trout!

So, after pulling in 3 fish with the hook and line, I went with a net I used to bring fish into my kayak. I was surprised to see that the goldfish and koi seemed much more net-savvy than the trout. I easily caught another 5. 4 fish for the neighbors, 4 for me. There should still be 21 trout in the pond for me to catch.

The biggest fish so far was 15" and at least 2 pounds - maybe more! They range from 10" to 15", with the majority in the 12-13" range. I am blown away by how much they grow!

Quick Update

Weather has warmed up a little, and we had a couple of near 60 degree days. Both the trout and the veggies like things a little warmer than what it had been. Broccoli is still growing. I lost a few, though. Their trunks would sometimes get squishy in the middle in a 2-4 inch section, while everything else looked OK.

I think that if I was able to maintain a temperature inside my "greenhouse" of 30 degrees during those colder nights, I think they would be fine. This little experiment has given me a lot of hope for winter-time aquaponics with an outdoor pond. I don't think it would be too expensive to have a small greenhouse and a little heater of some sort that would be capable of keeping the air temp around 30 degrees. Day time heating on sunny days, would, of course, raise the temps in there greatly. It's just those cold nights and cold/cloudy days where you have to worry.

The trout are still very shy in sight and sound, but it's not a big deal to stand a little bit away and toss the food in from a distance. I've also noticed that, at night, they are afraid of normal flashlights, but seem unconcerned about LED lights. That got me to thinking that it would have been cool to have installed an underwater LED light in my pond for night time. The fish don't seem to notice the light at all. If they do notice it, they certainly don't seem to be afraid of it.