Aquaponics System, Passive Solar Greenhouse build

[pinballlooking]

I just ordered 200 foot ¼” vinyl coated cable. I plan putting three cables over each grow bed this will allow me to tie up plants a lot better. It is time to have something that will be up forever.
I bought crimps and turnbuckles for the cables.


I will use this cable to tie the front and back rafters together in three spots. Every 6'

I was able to bring the fish water to 79.7 degrees today. This is exactly where I want the temp to be.
The heat exchanger is working very well.

[pinballlooking]

We have some new plants cilantro some strawberries. A lot more tomatoes we have not bought or planted one tomato they have all just came up from last year crop. I am at the point I am losing 2-3 degrees at night on the fish water and gaining that back in the daytime using the new heat exchanger. Fish are very happy and eating well.

I am setting it up to get 40 more tilapia next Friday

Fish water is up to 80.5 degrees so I turned off the heat exchanger early today.

[pinballlooking]

I am so pleased with the heat exchanger performance.

Last night’s outside temp was 37 Degrees F @ midnight down to 32 degrees @7:15.

The greenhouse never went below 64 degrees F. This is a big improvement to how low it would have gone without the heat exchanger. It is only using 138 watts for both the fan and the pump. It is running 6 or less hours a day.

The fish water was 80 F @ 5:00 yesterday this morning it went down to 75.4 F.
I will use the heat exchanger to heat it back up today.

[Geo NR Gee]

What kind of observations are you getting from the fish with below 60 degree temps to the 70's and now in the 80's? They need more food I imagine too? The plants tend to pick up the pace with the extra nutrients too?

[pinballlooking]

I fed the fish three times yesterday. With the water 75-80 I try to feed twice a day.

I have been learning how the fish act with different temps. I have three types of fish and each one acts different at different water temps.
Catfish seem to be able to handle the cold the best and still stay active and eat. The catfish does not like to be seen or come out in the light much at all.

The bluegill are ok with cold water but don’t eat much at all. 75-80 they will eat much more and be nice and active. The bluegill will not die from the cold around here like the tilapia.

The tilapia do not like the cold at all. I had some die in 50’s low 60’s they don’t eat and are not active.
75-80 they are all happy and active and eat well. Once that happens the plants take off.

The plants need fish byproduct for nitrates and they also get some nutrients from the fish food. It is pretty cool right now when the fish are eating well. I can see plant growth from morning to night in the same day.

I do find it hard to get good pictures that show the plant growth.

[pinballlooking]

I have been welding the stands for the DWC bed. I ran out of welding gas over the weekend so I did not finish. But I made good progress. These stands look so much better than the front stands. I now have a 14” chop saw and a hand band saw. My welding has improved so much I know what to look for when welding and what it should sound like and what the pool of molten metal should look like. I now have a hand full of clamps. This all improves the process.



Now that I have the fish water warmer and the fish eating the plants are just taking off. In the last week the greenhouse has not going below 62 at night.



Pollinating tomatoes has been going well I have about 7 more tomatoes starting.

[pinballlooking]

I have a new Swaging Tool (1/8", 5/32", 3/16", 1/4") coming today. Amazon prime has helped so much with this project. I need to do 1/4" Swags and the hand tools to do this are not cheap.



This will help me put up the cable I bought for hanging the plants.
My welding gas is now filled back up. So I can get back to the Deep water culture DWC stands.
The plants are doing so well and I see growth every day. I have a bunch of green tomatoes on the vines.

[jeff5may]

I hope you don't have lots of cables to string up. That tool will work OK for a few at a time, but if you have lots of work to do, the ones that look like bolt cutters are SO worth it.

[pinballlooking]

I have a set that looks like bolt cutters but it will not do ¼”. I know this is the cheap version. I am putting up 9 cable runs if they don’t last that long I will send them back and buy the other one.

These were $48 shipped the other ones are so much more expensive. I was not sure about buying this one but I did not want to have as much money in the tool as the cable.

But I know exactly where you are coming from I was hoping to find a cheap hydraulic set.

This is the review that talked me into trying them out.
"I've crimped probably 50+ 1/4" aluminum crimps with 3 crimps per crimp so a total of 150 cycles"

[jeff5may]

I hear you. 9 cables isn't enough to justify spending money on the tool.
Hey, while you're at the dealer getting more shielding gas, pick up some fluxcore wire. it's like baby stick welding, and you don't need shielding gas. Should work just as good for those stands.