jestep

One more bump. Reefbrite strips are on ebay for about double the price here but will still honor this price if anyone is interested locally. To summarize: ADA 48 gallon rimless tank w/peninsula style overflow - $200 24" actinic LED strip $75 36" 50/50 daylight/actinic strip $75 Vortech MP10 ESW $150 Par38 (Cree LED) refugium lights $20. Have 5000K and 3500K available, 5 total. All grow macros very well. I can bring any of this to my office near south mopac and 290 if you want to pick it up during the week. Will be gone the next 2 weekends, otherwise can typically meet on Saturday or Sunday within a reasonable distance.

I'm more in the doubt it will work group but I think it depends on the clowns. I tried, but can't keep any other clown with my darwin ocellaris pair. The length still isn't enough to get some good distance between them. If you were able to add them all at the same time it would probably be fine. An established pair may think the whole tank is theirs. Is the established pair hosting something that you could locate far to one side of the tank?

Posting prices and sources for equipment. There is a local hydroponic supply store that a lot of this can be purchased from. http://www.texashydroponics.com/ My NFT channels are from crop king. They also offer other supplies, but shipping can get expensive. https://www.cropking.com/catalog/nft-system-components Cost so far is about $120 for the 4 complete 8' channels. McCoys is the cheapest source for stock tanks that I can find. $70 for a HDPE 100 gallon tank. I may just go for a 350 gallon right out of the gate, which is quite a bit more at about $260. https://shop.mccoys.com/farm-ranch-yard/farm-and-ranch/stock-tanks-and-accessories/poly-stock-tanks I can also get 300 gallon IBC tanks on craigslist for about $150 delivered, so that may be a better route overall.

Awesome. I've been wanting to do one for a long time, but haven't had the space until last summer. This one is pretty small, but a lot can be grown much denser than traditional planting. Really hoping for some sort of success without need a climate controlled greenhouse. Not quite ready to make that purchase.

Anyone know what kind of conduit this is? This line runs out to my shed across the yard (buried). I want to wire a 4 plug outlet on this so I don't need an extention cord. I've never messed with flexible conduit so not sure how to approach this.

Overhead plan. Orange are dutch buckets for peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes. Theoretically this can all be run from the same tank, assuming it has sufficient nutrients for the plants and assuming there is sufficient volume to prevent the tank from running dry when watering the non NFT plants.

Rockwool cubes. Seeds are planted directly in these. A single cube sits in the channel in the square hole in the lid.

Actual dimensions are 1.625" x 4.75" so definitely shallow. There's quite a few ways to do channels using drain pipe or PVC pipe, but these were the cheapest I could find including making my own from PVC or something else. These come out to about $20 per channel including the top plates and the end caps. 3" PVC came out to about 2 times that plus a lot of work drilling holes and more work plumbing into a smaller drain. Circular pipes aren't ideal either because they are too deep for most of the growing pots. Will post prices and parts sources in another entry.

Here's the spot where this is going to be. After cleaning up the rotting wood (bonfire time!), will dig out a 4 x 4ft space and lay sand and some pavers for a solid surface. NFT trays are here already so just need to plumb feed lines and make a common drain line that goes back to the sump. Planning on taking an extra canister filter from my FW tank so I don't need to cycle the stock tank. With this type of system, the incoming water to the NFT needs to be free of debris to prevent clogging the channels and gunking up the roots, so will probably just feed the channels straight from the canister output.

Going to find out. Most of the ones I have looked at personally were in greenhouses, so will be interesting to see how it performs in full sun. The biggest worry is the water temperature might get really high, and generally, if it is too warm, lettuce is going to go to flower way too fast. The other herbs should be fine in full sun though.

Was looking into other fish. If I am able to do the larger one, I will definitely be looking at a larger / tastier fish species. 100 gallons is definitely limiting.

Finally getting around to starting my NFT aquaponic build. Figured I'd track it here in case anyone else is interested in doing something like this. This is my first hydro/aquaponics build and is more or less something to play around with and decide if I want to set up a larger system on the backside of our property. Sort of a pipe dream at this point, but would really like to eventually be able to grow vegetables year round. Starting small initially. Going to be a 4 channel 8ft NFT system, with a 100 gallon stock tank. An NFT type system is basically a set of shallow plastic or metal troughs where plants sit in an inert growing medium and water slowly flows over the roots of the plants providing nutrients. Since the growing base is shallow, NFT is suitable for smaller plants with limited root structure, like herbs, lettuce, and spinach. Will probably add on a small dutch bucket or ebb and flow containers so I can grow tomatoes and peppers at the same time, but initially starting with NFT. The benefit of NFT over just growing in the ground, is that water consumption is reduced by about 90%. Each channel will have 12 spaces for plants, so the entire setup will allow growing 48 plants at a time. Currently planning on several species of lettuce, spinach, arugula, and basil, oregano, thyme, and dill. Summer heat may prevent growing lettuce but there's a few species that are supposedly more bolt-proof than others, so will give those a try if needed. Can also grow more robust leafy vegetables like kale, collards, mustard greens, but they need to be harvested before they get too large. Instead of using a water and chemical nutrient mixture like traditional hydroponics, I am using a stock tank which will be stocked with bluegill or another native fish. Tilapia are essentially illegal in Texas and the ones that are legal can't survive water temperatures lower than about 70 degrees, so trying a native fish as an alternative. The fish waste contributes the nutrients to the plants which continuously filter the water. Ideally, the fish can be eaten as well once they are mature. Picture of a large NFT system at epcot. NFT channels are ordered and picking up a stock tank in the next week. Using pressure treated 2x4's for the stand to hold the channels. Will post pictures as the project progresses.

I saw the pictures of your small turtles in your other post. We were doing yardwork this weekend and found 2 of these little guys in our wet weather pond which is almost dry. I guess I'm a turtle owner now as well. Have them in our patio pond until they get too large. This is the larger one which my daughter named Chester. He's missing an eye but seems to be in good spirits.

Grew up in Colorado so used to mountain bike a ton, and raced up to sport class, I believe the same as current cat 3. I'm a physiological tragedy when it comes to VO2 potential so have always been much better at less aerobic sports like climbing. So busy and with other hobbies, rock climbing, paintball, traveling, owning a house, reef tank, I hardly make it out anymore.

You may want to make sure to run carbon with them as well. They are one of the outright leaders in chemical warfare, and from what I've read it's something other than the terpenoids that soft coral use to destroy their neighbors. There was an article about the ORA goniopora operation, and the people that worked with the coral all became extremely sensitive to them and couldn't even put their hands in the water after working with them for just a few weeks. You can buy phytoplankton or start your own culture. You would want to disable any mechanical filtration while feeding phyto or other suspended foods.

LED strips and fuge PAR38 lights, MP10, and ADA tank still available. All are OBO within reason. Come on folks, I might have to start another tank if I can't get rid of this stuff...

The glass hydor ones are decent and cheap. Make sure to confirm the temp with another thermometer no matter what you use. I definitely wouldn't use an always on with SW.

http://kxan.com/2015/01/19/vandals-cause-10k-in-damage-to-lubbock-fish-store/ Some seriously messed up people, not just in the sense of random vandalism, but killing animals as a result. Hope they catch these idiots.

You could also do a somewhat quick bath in vinegar to dissolve the outside layer and then back into some RO.

Just PM'd you. Currently out of town. Sorry about the delay.

What type of rock did you start with? The initial cycle that eliminates ammonia usually only takes 20 - 30 days. If there was substantial die off or organic matter, you might be dealing with high nitrates for a few months after the initial cycle. Also, if it was previously used rock, and some dry rock, it might be leaving PO4 back into the water. Both of these will significantly contribute to diatoms and cyano, although I consider both to be natural progression in establishing a tank. Post an ammonia and or nitrite readings if you have them, just to get a better idea of exactly where you're at in the whole thing. Personally I wouldn't do anything with the sand yet, but definitely keep light out of the tank, and increase flow if possible.

Pretty sure they have a $50 minimum as well, at least they used to.