Pond Farming

I plan a nice clean system in the house for sure.  But now even more thought into the rest of my garden too. 

What about feeding manure to duckweed and duckweed to fish? 

Forgive me, with all this mud indoor is all I have right now.  And not much indoor yet to even play with...oh for a water pump...maybe I can find one on ebay

Here is the pump I've been using for my indoor aquarium system. 
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=47117&xcamp=google&utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=cpc&zmam=33951326&zmas=12&zmac=112&zmap=47117

I would not expect it to handle much more than a 20 gallon aquarium nor lift water more than 4 feet  to run it but other than the small size of the plumbing fitting for this pump, it is pretty good.
Every so often I find I have to clean them out but they have been reliable and durable otherwise.

As to the duckweed and manure.  I'd still compost the manure well before using it for that.  I have used aged urine to grow duckweed though but the smell is strong.

I never did see much of he details of the peeponics, you age it...did not know that.  I have lots to learn.  I do not say stupid things to annoy, sometimes I just think differantly.

By sealing up urine in a bottle for a few weeks, the enzymes will convert the urea to ammonia and the pH will rise which will kill off e. coli that commonly gets into urine from our skin on it's way out.  Since duckweed thrives on ammonia, letting the urea convert in a sealed container means it is less likely to collect or start growing other bacteria cultures as it might in an open vessel.

I see no real big issue using fresh urine diluted around trees or crops that get eaten cooked but for other uses I think it is best to use urine from a healthy person and to age it in a sealed container to kill off the likely e. coli contamination to avoid introducing large amounts of it into raw eaten crops.

So if I ever play around with peeponics I will age the urine, and probable ask several more questions first.

My plan now is to get water pumped up to the top planter gravety feed down back to fish tank.  I will use creek gravel...anything else I missed?  Constant flow but not flooding the planters.

I plan to go all decorator and such as it will, I hope, be the focal point of my livingroom.  with lots of plants and water movement.

I am working on the chinese resturant style indoor pond,.. with a twist.

Sounds great really.  Make sure you have a bubbler of appropriate size going for the aquarium and constant pumping/flow through grow beds should be fine as long as you keep the stocking of the aquarium reasonable.

As to gravel, just want to avoid limestone and marble, otherwise river pebbles which are often quartz types of rocks are generally just fine for aquaponics.

limestone and marble are only bad in that they keep the water pH kinda high and many types of plants struggle to get enough iron as it is locked out at higher pH ranges.

I read that silicone is reccomended for putting pipes together, this would also hold true with rocks?  I am thinking to maybe make the waterfall from rock and silicone...what do you think? 

If you use silicone, be sure it is some variety that is safe for aquarium use (don't want anything with anti mold additives as they can be bad for fish.)  Be sure to let it cure for the recommended length of time and such since the fumes are nasty.

I usually use PVC cement for gluing PVC pipe where it is under pressure or likely to get knocked about and be in danger of coming apart.

I have occasionally used some silicone for low/no pressure drain piping to keep it from leaking where I wanted it to be easy to take them apart later.  I'm not very patient though and silicone requires a fair bit of time to dry properly.  PVC cement cures very quickly.

As to gluing rocks..... I've never glued rocks.  I know there is a black polyurethane foam that has been used for securing rocks in pond waterfalls but I've always just arranged rocks so they will stay put.

I will warn that a waterfall may tend to cause a lot of splashing and water loss and might not be all that desirable indoors.  Humidity could be an issue and the more splashing there is, the more evaporation is likely to happen.  Just something to take into account in your planning.

No waterfall indoors, also no stacked rocks to leak around.  So far everything but what you have seen is in my head....

Cement is what I typicallysee for indoor ponds and I was thinking the silicone might be prettyer as well as lighter.

I can be pretty darm patient for the things I want.

Outdoor there will be a more traditional pond.  My hubby will make sure of that...but I might have some say in it all.  He did buy this place for me afterall. 

This is an ad from Craigslist today... so cool if I had hubby on board I would get this...

300 Gallon Stainless Milk Tank - $650 (Vanzant)MO

"This is a 300 gallon stainless steel milk tank that was used in my family's diary operation. It has been sitting unused for about 25 years. The motor for the agitator was recently stolen but otherwise it has been sealed the entire time. We also have the stainless and glass pipe with fixtures if anyone is interested. Thanks. Please call 417-533-2457 and leave a message "

I wouldn't pay that much per gallon of capacity.  You can get rubbermaid stock tanks for less than $1 per gallon.  I think a 300 gallon stock tank is close to $210 new from tractor supply and far easier to drill appropriate size plumbing holes in.

You are right of course, but all that glass pipe is so cool, and easily broken... but so cool.. stainless and glass two of my favorite things.  I have yet to get a water pump and realy can not do much without that.

Well except read and think and dream and plan...

I should get out and train some horses.  Cold and dreary hard to get started.

the Black Sapote is a full on zone 10 i believe, indigenous to the Yucutan area, i have seen trees online apparently zone 7 hardy though so it looks like somebody has managed to harden off some stock,  it's on my list for the Jamaican plantings , i'll send the rastas out to find me a seedling, who knows?

I'm at the Missoula Public Library showing some Sepp Holzer movies and answering questions about the mighty, the glorious, the amazing Sepp Holzer.  And then somebody asked me a question about my experience doing Sepp Holzer stuff. 

I tell the story about a pond I built that has a deep bowl for trout habitat and a finger off of that pond that has trout food habitat.  The next year it had so many polywogs that the pond was black with them.  Polywogs is a sign of good health for a pond since frogs are so sensitive to toxins.