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Vegan Day Today.. :)

January 10, 2015, 5:00 am
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Cut most of the greens and what better to do that... gave it to the fish to eat. Too mush for my use so lets not waste anything.
By tomorrow those fishes will strip the branches clean of leaves.
Other that fish feed, expired bread, yesterday's rice and kitchen scraps.. fresh greens is good as supplement to give the fishes.
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Few More Strawberry Runners Potted

January 10, 2015, 9:23 pm
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Potted few more today as compared to yesterday's photo below, they should be ready after Chinese New Year.
I have to make sure that they will grow, especially in these heat the chances of survival without parental support is low.
:)
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Staking Tomatoes

February 1, 2015, 4:03 am
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Tomatoes has grown and they need staking, some already producing flowers and small fruits. Use PVC conduit as stake since this is the cheapest solution and will last a long time.
We can plant eight pots of tomatoes in this small growbed, but here only six since it is sharing space with other plants.
The stake are fan outward to give more room for sunlight and easier to check for pest and other problem that may crop up later if the plants were close together.
Few plants flowering and it's important that we have staking as support.
Forgotten which variety are these, should be cherry tomatoes if I'm not mistaken.
The tomatoes in the ornamental set also needs support and as the ones in the back I stake them fan out to create bigger canopy to give more sun.
The plants in this set also flowering and have a single tomatoes growing. On the ornamental set, the plants are not that healthy looking, maybe due to lack of nutrient because there is only few gold fish in this set. I will need to add more fish to get better nutrient production.

This ornamental set is the one using my smallest siphon, it was an experimental setup. This was the reason why I didn't put many fish.

That's about it on the tomatoes.
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Bettas Pump Replaced

February 21, 2015, 5:54 am
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Having problem with the Betta 6000 pump last few weeks, water flow has drop so much at times it's trickling into the growbeds.
Not good for siphon operation, especially these earlier growbeds which uses the 25 mm siphon.
Since I have a spare pump that I did not use, it is best just to reuse it before I get a more permanent solution. So the Resun Penguin pump re installed to the fish tank and in no time the flow is back at full force.
This pump output exceed what is required for 4 growbed, so I had to provide diversion at before the growbeds one on each side of the water feed.

The crayfish tank is using part of the diverted water.
Good flow, but the Resun pump is rated power is more that the Betta 6000 pump consumption.
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Blooming Strawberry

February 21, 2015, 6:01 am
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It is too hot in February, few of the strawberry plants died and due to heat. All not lost, spotted a few bloom on few of the plants. I let it developed and see what happen.

Nothing to be proud off, but it's something to look forward to.
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Ornamental Set Tomatoes Looks Good

February 27, 2015, 4:48 am
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This set is on 5 fish power and it is doing okay I guess.. 2 photos below was taken on 1st. Feb 2015

The following were taken on 26th Feb, the fruits developing slowly. It is very hot this last one week or two and it shows on the plants straining it leaves.

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Crawfish Update

February 27, 2015, 5:39 am
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Cooling off for Larry & Moe
They like to have water pouring on their head. There are five left out of the initial seven, the two just disappear. I will need to get two males to replace those that is missing.
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He's Eight

March 23, 2015, 1:00 am
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Fresh Seedling For The Growbed

March 24, 2015, 7:25 am
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Got few of these seedling from the weekend market in Pekan, Pahang at a bargain and can save me lot of trouble of sowing them.
Four chili plants and four Salad Eggplant, the chili plant is of two different variety and the eggplant is the type that can be eaten raw as a salad or "ulam" as we call it here.
Put them in individual pots so that I can manage it easily if needed.
Then place them in the growbed so that it can get over the transplanting shock and start to grow, these will need to be spaced once they have shown sign of positive growth.

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Just Photo Post

March 24, 2015, 7:44 am
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Apologize to all viewer of this blog, lately I am not posting much. I've been under heavy stress due to the uncertainties of my employment hence the low volume of interaction with readers either through this blog, via email or in Facebook messages.

This is also the reason why I had to remove the "contact me" link in this blog and will not respond as quickly to query that I have. I am sorry for this and I hope that situation will improve soon so that I can move forward with my career and other responsibilities that I had.

Having said that.. these are few photos of my setup on what happening these last few weeks, and for the time being I will not post much but mostly photos as an update.










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Dividing Chives

April 17, 2015, 9:08 pm
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All the previous Tomato plants has finish their season, those are determinate type and only lasted for a few months. As usual if I am too busy or while waiting for another plant to grow, I will use buffer plants like Mint, Vietnamese Coriander or other simple plants to get the growbed filled in shortest time possible.

This time at the back aquaponics set, I am dividing the Chives to have it on the ex Tomato growbed while waiting for other plants to grow or maybe just have it there for these next few months.

Before sub dividing the Chives for propagation it is best to trim all its leaves and letting it grow for at least two weeks.
After two weeks the leave are long enough for it to be easily handle. If its too long or too short then it will make it more difficult.
This one pot I usually split it into two, it is not a problem to sub divide more like into three or four separate pots.
If you divide it into more pots it will takes longer to grow and may be a waste of growbed space since the pot will take up those area.
Average Asian family will only use half of the pot for their cooking at a time the most and I uses less,  so you don't need to have many pot of Chives. I would recommend the most is two,
Above are six pot from initial three, and today I manage to subdivide ten pots making a total of twenty pots.
This growbed above have twelve pots and after about three month it will double in quantity.
Chives is one of the easiest to grow in Aquaponics, it do not require any insect control since there is no pest attacking it. This plant do have good demand in Asian dishes and a worthwhile cash crop that we can grow densely in a very small space.

Ideal for urban surrounding.
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"Bird Eye" Chili

May 14, 2015, 6:37 pm
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Apologize to all viewer of this blog, lately I am not posting much. I've been under heavy stress due to the uncertainties of my employment, hence the low volume of interaction with readers either through this blog, via email or in Facebook messages.

This is also the reason why I had to remove the "contact me" link in this blog and will not respond as quickly to query that I have. I am sorry for this and I hope that situation will improve soon so that I can move forward with my career and other responsibilities.

The chili plant that I bought from saturday market in pahang fruiting. It somehow slower growth, or maybe this is normal for this type of chili.


This particular chili plant bear very hot little chilies.






Hot stuff.
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Ornamental Set Redo.

May 23, 2015, 11:20 pm
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Its has been long overdue that I should set up these as it should. I was doing a lot of testing for the last 1 year on the various siphon sizes and pump capacity to get a trouble free set.



The three set was made last year and its been a troubling period that has most of my Aquaponics work on hold. These set above I finally able to set it up as it should and what's left are just the wiring to be tidy up.



Siphon used are the 20 mm and the 15 mm strainer bell, the one in the far end uses the 20 mm siphon with a 1000 liter/hour pump.



Water inlet is quite large for such a small set, and the cycle period is very rapid.



Center and the one on the right uses 15mm siphon with 500 liter/hour pump. Both these 20 and 15 mm siphon has been tested for one season and it did survive being in a small growbed with massive root all around.



At 500 liter/hour, the inlet flow is very small. The 500 liter/hour pump is very finicky and requires constant maintenance. I am still not satisfied with its performance.



There you go, next to plant... :)
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Pegaga Gajah

May 30, 2015, 7:17 pm
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On one of my ornamental set I planted this Pegaga Gajah, since the set was near a shaded area.


There are other variety of this plant, but the Pegaga Gajah is the best for Aquaponics set up.


Very soon they will colonize the entire growbed, and it will be a good test for the siphon to cope with massive root growth.


The metal  bracket is for a temporary shelter to ensure they survive this next few days after transplanting.
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Overhauling My Aquaponics Set

May 30, 2015, 7:30 pm
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Two of the growbed at the back were still having pebbles as the media. This makes it very heavy and I was so busy in getting it replace. Manage to replace the pebbles on the two with Hydroton and now its settling down to get thing growing again.


Pebbles growbed is heavy and making the container buckle under pressure and shear weight of it.


Plants in pots, this make it very easy to get things done.


The plants were temporarily place in the shade waiting for replant in the "fresh" growbed.


Emptied growbed, with the 25 mm siphon with the modified base. Internally this siphon still have the bell enclosure but without the crown cutting.


Close up of same, it work flawlessly without problem, to the extend we may forget that this siphon exist.


The second growbed, with same fixture.


Plants replanted, just shift it from another growbed. The pots make it easy and a quick way to get instant plants.


The other growbed with Garlic Chives, it was just temporarily removed to accommodate the overhaul.


There you go... :)
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We will never forget !!!!

May 31, 2015, 6:20 pm
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Aquaponics - Up Close And Personal is a Hardware

December 6, 2014, 9:40 pm
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A spare Microsoft Lifecam Cinema HD was laying around not use much and gathering dust. Why don't I make something useful out of it, all the PC, Tabs, Phones even the Ipad in the house has its own camera so this webcam is extremely redundant.

Simple close up video shots is what I have in mind, so decide to make a quick retrofit to the Lifecam and make it able to focus further and at the same time giving better magnification shot.
Modifying the camera with an Eye Loupe, so got myself one of those cheap Loupe (ok the box says "LOOP") to use the lens as a magnifier for my Lifecam Cinema.
Doing a quickie check whether it work.
Just a quick twist the loupe is easy enough to dismantle and all I need is this lens.
The lens is loosely placed on the camera, wish I had bought a bigger loupe so that the lens will fit snuggly, but this will do. This lens is at 5x magnification, I will try other multiplication next time.
Use a simple tar putty that they use in Car accessories shop for fixing anything that rattle, this putty is sticky and removes cleanly. Next time I use other lens this can simply be removes and replace.
The camera came with its own flexible bracket, I use a GoPro base that has tripot 1/4 inch screw thread to use with a mini tripod. Need to secure it better, this is just a trial.
Not bad for a dollar modification, the intent is that I can make a close up video using various lens magnification value and at the same time keeping the camera as a distance where I can work with the subject like this watch for instance.
Yep, it works... need to buy few more Loupe to get other magnifying factor to test. Other webcam should work, just that I have this Lifecam Cinema handy that's all.
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Ornamental Regrow

June 19, 2015, 3:51 am
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Last month I redo the ornamental set then plant Pegaga Gajah or Java pennywort as a simple plants to start with.



It starting to colonize the small growbed and show good growth.



After the other beds had stabilized putting pepper plant on this smaller unit for trial.



Two variety one is the Cili Padi kampung or Capsicum annuum 'Bird's Eye'


The next variety is the Indonesian Cili Bara.



Pepper plant are sensitive to water and they may suffer if the drainage is not correctly control. Will post the progress of this trial.
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Testing New Pump For The Ornamental Set

June 20, 2015, 12:14 am
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Few types of pump tested on the ornamental set ranging from Alpha 1000, Alpha 500 and the Venusaqua E3302. Since I am trying to use the smallest siphon for the Ornamental set the Alpha 1000 and Venusaqua pump were not suitable due to the large flow rate.

The Alpha 500 works with the small siphon (15mm) but this pump construction make its maintenance high. The rotor is held by a shaft anchored at one end leaving the other unsupported and it is prone to cavitation. However it has been tested for almost eight month and still running. It only requires constant up keeping.

Test a different pump today a Sunsun HJ-600, an 8 watt pump with a flow rate of 600 Liter per hour maximum at zero head.

List of pump parts below.

The HJ-600 Specification.

The HJ-600 output verses height.

This pump has a front dial to adjust output. It does work, on my ornamental set with 15mm siphon I set it to slightly above the minus mark.

Side view, this pump is in 3 section, the front is the intake with the grille and flow adjuster. The mid section where the pump impeller vane and the front spindle support, with the back part house the motor coil and the permanent magnet rotor.

On the body it is rated at 10watt, oh well.. and the height max is 1.5 m, not bad for a small pump.

The other side of the pump.

Mid section after the grille removed.

The front part where the grille and flow adjuster.

To remove the mid section, quarter turn it anti-clockwise and it it detach from the body.

Exposing the impeller and rotor.

The impeller is different from Alpha series where this design reminds me of turtle climbing from a hole.

Shaft is stainless steel, to small for a ceramic but it is significantly larger that anything in its class. With larger spindle shaft pump will last longer.

Rotor removed exposing the housing which has a hols ad the beck for the shaft pivot point.

The back with hold for the shock mount rubber. This design should makes it easier to clean the mousing since we can have a water path right through.

All the attachment came with the pump, not in picture is a filler sponge.

Pump assembled, ready for installation.

What's left not required for operation.

In the water and will be tested for few months under actual aquaponics setup.

First flush.

Water in rate as at slightly above the minus sign and only after prolong use I will know how good is this pump for this set.

There you go,
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Fresh Fish For Ornamental Set

June 20, 2015, 12:34 am
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After a redo of the Ornamental set, it's time for some fish. Bought few Pacu and Barb for the two set and the third already has few tilapias.


Pacu above are at about 2 inches, they can grow big. Later I'll move them if needed.


 Barb


Leaving the fish to adjust to water temperature.


The water due to smaller space are warmer as compared to my larger sets.
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