Do It Yourself / Homemade Aquaponics - Hydroponics Grow Light Fixture

I thought I would share a quick video how to I made. I was in need of some new lighting for the Aquaponic Basement Garden and did not want to pay hundreds of dollars just for grow light fixtures. I decided I would make them myself using some air conditioning duct, threaded rods and some cheap parts from the lighting section at the local hardware store. The results were great and here is a video on how I made the grow lights. 

New camera. New video. My Aquaponic Basement Garden In HD.

Well I bit the bullet and got a Kodak Touchplay. The video is perfect for blogging and Youtube. I will try to keep up with the updates now. Sorry for falling behind.

Enjoy my first real video.

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.

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.

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.