Monday, July 25, 2011

Aquaponics Update 25July 2011 - Death of a Pangasius






Bad news.....another one of my Pangasius died. It's the 2nd one in less than a month.






The first casualty was the smalled one. I noticed it was swimming afloat and not on the bottom as they usually do.... after 48 hours in quarantine, its dead.






The 2nd one is the bigger one, it's almost 10" and like the smaller one, has been with me for more or less 3 months.






The same symptoms but in this one, there was more. I noticed the usual color (albino) became more pale and there were small lesions on the skin in the stomach area. It also appeared bloated or like the food it has eaten were not digested and were bulging. Immediately I put it in quarantine, bottled water, a lot of aeration and a little sea salt.






One day, two days, finally it died this morning. It looked gruesome. I don't know what it is and why it happened and I will not stop searching for information.






Friday, July 15, 2011

Aquaponics in Jeddah update 15July 2011

It was a sad weekend. Thursday was the funeral of my grandson (through my niece, the elder daughter of my oldest sister). Jam suffered childhood leukemia for a few years and his young fragile body (only 6) couldn't take it anymore. Inshallah and with all my heart's faith in Allah, that he is now safe in the arms of the Creator. Couldn't help but had a few hours in Thursday morning just on the net, crying while listening to some sad songs. Inshallah, I pray that my family will draw strength from the inspiration of our faith in Allah and His promise of eternal life.

On my Aquaponics, I also lost my bell pepper and one small pangasius in Aquaponics sytem 2. Actually it was since early last week. The pump broke down, water was in the growbed and it probably drowned. I tried my best to revive it and in a few days it seemed to be recovering but it just gave up. I took it as a good chance to clean the growbed. This is my Aquaponics system #2 where I couldn't grow any new seeds and there are some insects that seemed to be eating the seeds before they can germinate.

After cleaning it, i replanted a watermelon, a few brocollis, a cloned basil and threw in some new seeds of Bellpepper, hoping they would germinate.

My other two systems are doing fine. #1 have the ampalaya, basil, okra and tomatoes. #3 have the ampalaya, spinach, bush beans which are drying up again - huhuhuhuh, parsley/cilantro just dried up...... but, but but... swiss chards germinated only after 3 days of sowing... huh.... very fast, i hope they tolerate the heat...

No pictures or new video yet.. there will be inshallah aftter a few days or next week....

Just started my Aquaponics system 4.. which will be indoors and will be some sort of germinating bed... but for the flowering plants.. lets see how well they do, today i just threw in a bunch of mixed seeds and hope they germinate this week.. will certainly post pics once this happens, inshallah.

I posted some videos of my step by step instruction in making the self watering container pot, made out used 6L water bottle...glad that some of my friends already visited and promised they will try to do it... its nice if it could make their gardening life easier! Inshallah.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Aquaponics and Self Watering Container Gardening in Jeddah - 07 July 2011 update

Continuous flow system, small container with ornamental plants from the nursery, cheap plants but beautiful, shares the same fish tank as AP System 2



Aquaponics system 3 - ampalaya, bush beans, spinach, parsley, fish tank have koi and goldfish with one pleco





Aquaponics system 2 - with bellpepper, cloned basil, celery and ampalaya







Aquaponics System 1 with Ampalaya, okra, basil and tomatoes


Here are some pics of my Aquaponics systems 1, 2 and 3, plus my garden in Self Watering Containers.


1. Aquaponics is the marrying of Aquaculture (raising of fish) and Hydroponics (soil-less gardening). I have been doing it since late January of this year and have developed 3 systems all in my small balcony in my flat in Jeddah.
2. Self Watering Containers - are pots with wick made to allow water to be wicked to the pot where plant is planted and its root system drinking on as needed basis.
AP System 1 - the ampalaya (bitter melon) plants are growing steadily and climbing now more or less 2 feet long, okra got new stem but no signs of flowers again, basils are budding because of some cuts i made to clone it, tomatoes are extremely slow growing and looks like gonna dry from the heat, fish are all doing fine, healthy and happy
AP system 2 - got a healthy and growing bell pepper, sweet potatoe or camote, new ampalaya seedling, cloned basil and some celery seedlings, this system i think have seed devouring insects because so many seeds i have sown didn't germinate, the growbed sits on top of a fish tank with 5 growing and healthy pangasius, also connected here is a continuous flow small bed with ornamental plants that seem to be growing and enjoying


AP system 3 - is the newest system with 2 ampalaya, 2 bush beans, number of spinach, some parsley... so are ampalaya and bush beans are doing well, climbing and healthy...got 3 koi and some goldfish in the tank