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Backyard Aquaponics Progress

• Mar 26, 2019
• PalaciosAn
•   1170        0      0

OK, so I have made several changes and keep forgetting to update everyone. Also, I have not had much luck with any of the plants that I have grown from seeds other than lettuce. All of the seedlings keep getting burned up by the sun.

I have resorted to adding established plants cleaned off all of the dirt and planted them in the aquaponics setup. Here are the plants that I added:

• Strawberries
• Tomatoes
• Green Onions
• Squash
• Poblano Peppers
• Flat Leaf Parsley
• Green Beans
• Basil

My lettuce and other plants were getting burn tips. So, I started to come into the greenhouse every day and mist the plants with some of the goldfish water. Within a couple of days, I could see a huge difference so it was clear the sun was drying out the plants. I am lazy, so I am looking into ways to automate the misting. I have not done anything yet, I looked into the misting systems but there seem to be many issues with them clogging up. I am leaning towards setting up a sprinkler system. I could attach a pump to a sprinkler and have it go off a couple of times a day but I am still thinking it through.

I purchased a smart power switch to be able to turn outlets on and off via my phone or Google assistant. It also has USB ports, and I can also control the power on them. You can't control the power on each individual USB port it is an all or nothing, which I am OK with. This has been nice how the power switch is in a box to prevent it from getting wet, and it was inexpensive just under $30 (https://amzn.to/2Y6yXq3).

I added an automatic feeder as well, I had one but I dropped it in the fish tank so I had to buy another one. I found one that is powered via USB so I have it plugged into the USB plug of the power which was great. I tried to find one at my Local Fish Store, but they were crazy expensive. Even the super cheap automatic feeders where selling for $50 and they were battery operated. This one was under $20, score (https://amzn.to/2TJcb92).

I have been feeding the comet goldfish 3 times a day pellets and when I go into the greenhouse, I give them a few flakes randomly. When I bought them, I picked up 50 of them and even with the cold weather that we had in Texas in February and March most of them have survived. I would guess that I have around 38-43 of them still but, they will not sit still to allow me to count them. I think its a fairly good survival rate. I have not lost one in weeks now. For a period of time, I was losing one a day it felt like. They started off about 1.5” long and now they are all about 3” long. They seem to be growing quicker then I anticipated.

In an effort to fight the sun I also bought a shade cloth that blocks 40% of the sunlight. I am hoping this will help with the plant tips burning. I also picked up some cheap plastic spring clamps to hang the shade cloth. I am still misting the plants daily for now.

I think that is all I have done since my last update if you have any questions or have any suggestions of plants that I should add or try comment below and let me know.