Friday, June 24, 2011

Fruit dropping off stems.

I have been trying to figure out for a while now why every time a flower forms and starts to fruit they just drop off the stem. I know its not too hot in the basement so it can't be heat. I have a fan moving air through the system so I don't think that is it either. I can only guess there is some type of deficiency that is causing this problem. If someone has a suggestion or possible reason it is happening in my system please post a comment. This is happening on the pepper's as well as tomatoes. I have not had a single fruit develop from either. On the other side of it though, my lettuce, and cabbage have done really well.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Averted Disaster

Well I was lucky I came home from work just in time to catch water overflowing from around the cups in one of my NFT tubes. After turning off the pump really quick I started to access the situation. After a few minutes of looking around.  I found the end of the tubes where the 3 collect into one tube and drop down into the fish tank were clogged with beautiful healthy white roots.  After pulling apart the tube collection area I had to trim about 3 ft of roots from each tube. After I did this I turned the pump back on and things seem to be running smooth again. I guess this is something I will need to start checking more often. I really don't know what trimming the roots that much will do. Hopefully there will be no adverse effects from trimming them back.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Suicide Fish!

Well we lost a Koi this weekend. I am going to have to build something over the top of the tank. One of the koi was able to jump about 6 inches out of the water and over the edge of the tank. I walked into the basement to find him dried out on the concrete floor. After a short ceremony with his tank friends he was thrown outside for the cats. Hopefully I can get some kind of screen or something over the tank to prevent this in the future.

Fred will be missed by all.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

More new fish!

 Added some more Koi to the main tank. They are only about 4 inches long but they will get bigger. My cheap cell phone camera just doesn't do them justice. They really are a beautiful fish. Have 8 Koi all together now. Still that 1 little feeder fish left in there. He gets along good so he is going to stay in there for now.

Also grabbed just a few more feeders to start cycling the new 55 gallon setup. It has been running about 5 days with filter and air stones. Its a lot of tank for only 4 small feeder goldfish.





In this picture it looked like the little guy had tank envy of the koi tank. lol 

Picture update of the Aquaponic Basement Garden




Couldn't believe how thick the stalk of the broccoli is getting. Its about as thick as my thumb.


I had to raise the lights a bit. Everything is getting so big.



New lettuce coming along nicely. 

Another small lettuce starting.