Aquaponics - Cooling a fishtank

I found a source of really inexpensive trout fry from my local fly fishing association, but it's already half way through the trout season, If I were to buy them, ($30 per 100) I'd need a way of cooling my aquaponics system through summer.

A while ago, we had a burst water main in front of our house, and it got me thinking about the possibility of shedding a bit of heat into the water main. Given the foot path is currently dug up, and there are a couple of orange cones alerting people to this fact, it might be possible to run some plastic tubing around the main supply pipe, and pump some of my system water through it.

The temperature of the water and the underground pipe will be roughly the same as the earth around it. If you dig down a few feet. the temperature is much more stable than air temperature in the same location. If you think of a cave, you'll see that the temperature is pretty close to the average yearly temperature of the location. This is because stone (dirt) holds a lot more heat than air, so it takes a lot longer for the rock to change temperature because so much "temperature" can be stored within it.

Because the pipes on my side of my water meter are open to the main pipe running down the length of the street, it might even be possible to use the pipes within my property.

It's just a vague thought, but it was in my head, so it had to come out.


120 things in 20 years just thought of something else, but it's too naughty to post about.

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Thinking - Old people's hands

I got old peoples hands yesterday.

I've never had old peoples hands before.


Wear Levi's, pick guitars and go riding on trucks.


I'll be right back in just a sec...

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Aquaponics - Silver perch eat Kale

I grew some kale that turned out to made of leather and task a bit like canvas.

But it turns out my single, enormous silver perch eats it.

Even in winter where the water tends to be too cold for silvers to be interested in anything except worms.

You learn something new every few months.

I have some health stuff to deal with, and then I'll start some kind of exciting new thing.

I promise.

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Aquaponics - Direct composter success

I just got back from my trip to the East coast of Australia, and was happy to find the system ticking along nicely.

Some of the dried duckweed in my direct composter looks like it might be trying to live again, but I cant tell if it's greening due to life or mould.

There must have been some heavy rain while I was away, as it was soaked through.

I think I'd better put a lid on it.

When I lifted it up I saw a stack of worms going to ground into the growbed, and some more hanging from the little composter.

The worms seem to like it.

It was also very easy to grab a handful of worms for the fish, so the fish seems to like it as well.

It should also be adding some nutrient back into the system, and also saving some because of the duckweed I removed, so the plant will like it as well.


All in all, I count this a complete success, and it seems like quite a good solution to my problem of only having one fish.



120 Things in 20 years thinks flying around in helicopters is a pretty good way to spend some time.

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Aquaponics - Duckweed - direct composter

Having dried some duckweed by spreading it out on some concrete for a few days, the next stage in creating my direct composter is using my cheese press to bring it all together. My PVC cheese press has seen a few different purposes in it's lifetime, but this one looks like it might be the one it retires to.

The duckweed shrunk down to a quarter of it's former live self.

I found my PVC pipe with holes that was formerly a cheese press, and rinsed it thoroughly.

I filled it with the dry duckweed, and planted it into the growbed.











The day after tomorrow, I'm off on an adventure to the other side of the continent, but tomorrow, which is really the day after tomorrow a far as this experiment goes, I'll check to see if the worms like their new feeder. But really I'll be somewhere else.




120 Things in 20 years is wondering if anyone is actually following this convoluted narrative.







120 Things in 20 years thinks that as far as it can tell, it's made a worm motel.

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Aquaponics - Direct composter - duckweed drying

My system has only one fish, and I'm getting a little worried about my growbed's worm population. I'm not confident there's enough fish waste going into the system to feed them all.

What I thought I might try is creating a small compost bin directly in my growbed to make sure the worms have enough to eat.

I have a lot of duckweed growing in my system, and that one fish has to power the new bigger growbed, and the duckweed.

Duckweed uses quite a bit of useful nutrient so I thought I should remove some, and add it back into the system via the composter.

 I pulled out a quarter of a bucket or so of my duckweed from the system, and dumped it on some dry, sheltered concrete to dry.










I need to dry it first to kill it, because the direct composter will be a small container full of holes, sitting directly in my growbed. That means it will be damp, and the duckweed might just stay alive.

As I understand it, worms feed on the stuff that feeds on rotting vegetation so live duckweed wouldn't work so well.


120 Things in 20 years seems to be growing plants for feed to grow other plants. I think I finally developed a way to make growing vegetables as inefficient as growing beef.

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Aquaponics - New system at two months

In a couple of days my new system will be two months old.

I wasn't sure how it would go being on the wrong side of the house and in shade for all but a couple of hours a day, but it looks like it might be ok.

This is the original empty growbed two months ago.

And now it looks like this.

The lettuce in the foreground went in as store bought seedlings, and the rest was from seed, but I wasted a lot of time before I actually sowed them.

We have started harvesting leaves from the lettuce and within a week or two we should be picking rocket as well.





The growbed is around two metres long and a little over a metre wide, so it should keep us in salad greens with ease.

I've also planted a few sugar snap peas at the back because I like to eat them when I'm doing anything with the garden. There's not enough to harvest but I enjoy picking something and eating it at the growbed.

Also at the back I've planted quite a bit of basil, some coriander (cilantro), and a few other herbs.

That's all. Just a quick update.

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