SentencedToBurn's crayfish aquaponics

Hey guys
 
I'm about to put together my aquaponics (barrel-ponics) setup over the next couple of weeks. The setup is pretty small - 2 grow beds from a single 55 galon drum, and 2 50L crayfish enclosures (each one will only be filled to about 30L).
 
I'm using a small 600lph pump, 10-20mm clayballs as growing medium. Not sure how big of a water heater I'll need as the greenhouse is heated and will not drop below 15C (60F) - its hot as at the moment anyway so I'll sus that out once the temperature starts dropping.
 
Crayfish I'm using are NZ native freshwater crays (koura) http://www.clearwatercrayfish.co.nz/koura.html and these guys seem to be comfortable with pH anywhere from 5-7 so I'll set it at about 6 which seems to be pretty mint for a bunch of chinenses that I'm going to grow.
 
I'm planning to grow 2 plants per half-barrel so 4 plants all up. So far the plan is to grow: choc reaper, regular reaper, and the other two I'm not sure about. Definitely chinenses though.
 

 

 
I'm hoping to put this all together next weekend once I pick up the rest of the bits and pieces and will post an update. The crayfish won't be going in for a least two weeks after i left it running to make sure the water quality is spot on, etc. And the seedlings should be ready by mid-march hopefully.

 

[jiri styles]

love this awesome grow! great stuff

 

[SentencedToBurn]

love this awesome grow! great stuff

Thanks mate. Hoping for some pods from that White Naga in the near future.

 

[SentencedToBurn]

First flower open on the White Naga, still not fully open but still. Also a bunch of others look like they're about to open too.

 
The whole plant:

 
The 2nd growbed - these plants are now looking very healthy

 

[ronniedeb]

Those plants look a really nice healthy green! Do you have to switch to a different food for the crayfish that will provide more Potassium/Phosphorous for the plants for flowering/fruiting time?

 

[SentencedToBurn]

Those plants look a really nice healthy green! Do you have to switch to a different food for the crayfish that will provide more Potassium/Phosphorous for the plants for flowering/fruiting time?

Hey yeah normally I would have but nute deficiency is so bad that I'm cheating and adding some off-the-shelf hydro nutes. Have just added a little bit for the bloom phase, although most part is still the growth phase stuff. The ratio is very low as the Zinc is the biggest threat to fish/crayfish and it is part of both compounds. But it seems that even very small doses help with the deficiency.
 
I don't think I'll be doing aquaponics again in the future - it was a good experiment but i'll probably stick to hydro/dwc.

 

[SentencedToBurn]

Man the leaves on this Peach 7 pod are huge now. What difference compare to how these plants started out when I nearly got rid of them thinking they'll die.
 

 
And this Peach 7 pod is also budding now:

 

[SentencedToBurn]

Just an update on a bunch of other peppers I have growing for this summer. Still at least 5-6 weeks until I can move them outside - hopefully won't run out of room before then:
 

 

 

 

[jiri styles]

the plants in the hydro leaves get GIANT, i have to trim my plants down alot due to this aswell ahhaha, compared to soil grown plants so much difference, your plants are looking super healthy, in the first pic you got there what are the 2 small plants in the front that look a bit different?

 

[SentencedToBurn]

the plants in the hydro leaves get GIANT, i have to trim my plants down alot due to this aswell ahhaha, compared to soil grown plants so much difference, your plants are looking super healthy, in the first pic you got there what are the 2 small plants in the front that look a bit different?

Oh the top of the 3 pics I just posted? The two small plants are both Brazilian Chocolate Ghosts - its weird those two (along with a few others but not as bad) started bushing out like when you top them, except that they started doing that on their 3rd set of adult leaves. I was actually going to post a pic a while ago as it seemed very strange to me.
 
There are other plants from the same batch of seeds next to them which are growing as expected. So yeah will be interesting to see how they go once they get bigger.

 

[Rairdog]

Looking good.  Like I mentioned early on.  I use my AP for mainly greens.  It will outproduced my other dirt gardens for lettuce, spinach, chard and celery with a better flavor IMO.  I do grow some bells and toms in the AP also.  The bells taste the pretty close but the toms are much better tasting in the dirt.
 
These are bells growing in the AP and almost ready to harvest.  My bells in the dirt were harvested 6 weeks ago and I'm picking a second crop now.  They were all started at the same time.  The bells in the dirt are 4 ft tall and these are only 2 ft tall.  Not to mention all the leaf deficiencies and discoloration you have to deal with.  Fish food just can't give the fruiting plants what they need.
 

 
Greens don't need all the potassium, calcium, iron and other micros so AP shines.  Here is my jungle.
 

 
I just bagged 3 gallons of celery today.  That's on top of all my lettuce, spinach and other greens I got from the spring crop.
 

 
AP is a tool for me to supplement my other gardens.  After a year the beds build up similar to living soil but different organisms.  Worms really kick it when they flourish and break down old roots.  If I put in to many tomato's, peppers or other fruiting plant's/vines they will suck the nutes dry.  It is magnified by the smaller systems. 
 

 

[SentencedToBurn]

A few pods setting on the white Naga, and the plants on the 2nd bed are really getting large. The size of leaves is pretty insane, I've never had anything like it before.
 
Wihte naga flowers/pods:

 
The whole White Naga plant:

 
Peach 7 pod on the right, Devil's heart on the left, red moruga at the back.

 
Buds on Peach 7 Pod:

 

[chocolatescotchbonnet]

A few pods setting on the white Naga, and the plants on the 2nd bed are really getting large. The size of leaves is pretty insane, I've never had anything like it before.
 
Wihte naga flowers/pods:

 
The whole White Naga plant:

 
Peach 7 pod on the right, Devil's heart on the left, red moruga at the back.

 
Buds on Peach 7 Pod:

really starting to take off.... Nice!

 

[SentencedToBurn]

Sorry about the crappy pics, but finally getting some pods on the white naga - weird colour though, maybe they're all like that? And the flowers are massive on the Peach 7 pod, big bunches.
 

 

 
Peach 7 Pod: