Basement Aquaponics Experiment

I am using a 30 gallon fish tank, a tub with some aquarium gravel, a submersible pump, and some florescent fish tank lights. So far, this has been working OK. I've just added some low light house plants to the mix to account for good filtering for the dozen growing goldfish. I am planning on scaling this up to some trout or tilapia as soon as I get the fundamentals worked out, that is pretty much the purpose of this experiment. 

First Eggplant Seed to sprout

Goldfish shit producers

Over top grow bed

Seeds started and low light house plants

Timer for water cycles

View of whole aquaculture setup

A Better Chicken Waterer

It is so surprising that the most commonly bought and sold chicken waterers are so poorly designed. The same can be argued for feeders considering the high percentage of food waste. The common waterers constantly become fouled up with chicken shit within minutes of being in the coop. I noticed this for years but never really thought of a better alternative until one day I saw a poultry nipple setup. After some research, it was pretty clear that this is the superior design for getting birds clean water. I was a bit concerned about them being able to learn to use it after so years of the other, but after phasing the nipple system in, they all picked it up. Chickens are stupid animals, but thirsty stupid animals tend to get smart or die.

My design was too simply put a couple of nipples in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket, hang it, and problem solved. It was quite the success, they all picked it up right away. I use this setup today. You could also tie this into some kind of a rain collection system for automatic filling, if one where so inclined to do so.

Zero Waste Chicken Feeder

After years of messing around with poorly designed chicken feeders that are prone to waste feed, I've moved to a different home made model, and the results thus far have been terrific, my feeder has zero waste.

I've always suspected that the chicken feeder and waterers companies have mutual agreements between each to keep manufacturing shoddy products that waste feed and promote the purchase of more and more of the other. It's an interesting thought at least to a guy that can't even seem to keep his side burns trimmed straight.

The combination of this feeder and using pellets (instead of crumbles) has resulted in my feed bags lasting 30% longer. This design prevents waste by forcing the chicken to stick it's head back into the feeder 2-3 inches, and any twitches or sudden head tilts that typically send feed flying into the wasteland with a standard feeder is blocked by the walls on the deep feeder, and the feed flies back into the consumption area. With feed prices shooting up, preventing feed waste has become more important to me. Also, it gives me a reason to build something new, and this design is working better than I expected.

The feeder consists of a 3 feet long, 4 inch PVC pipe, a single reducer and 2 45 degree elbows. Stick it all together, it was just around 20 bucks total. The feeder will save me that 20 bucks spent in about the first 3 months of use, so it's a sound investment.

Capacity and food access is probably suited for around 6 birds, and since I typically have about 10 birds, I may build another one. The opening could be a double access with a pair of 45 degree adapaters if someone wanted to open it up a bit.