# Best Lettuce?



## Oakshire_Farm (Dec 4, 2008)

I am new to aquaponics. I have had my system up and running for a whopping month so far! 

So far, my herbs are THRIVING! Basil is growing as fast as I can pick it! I put a few strawberries in, I have not decided if they are happy yet??? I planted a single cucumber, it is growing great! and I (cheated) bought a 6 pack of romaine starters from the local shop, they have bolted and are bitter. Not at all happy with the heat  

I have tilapia growing in the tank below the grow bed, so the water is warm (75*-80*) The grow light above the grow bed does not put off any heat. So I am guessing the water is where the heat is? I also have the system in the house. I am in the PNW, so mild temps. I have not had heat on in the house since I added the plants. 

Any suggestions would be great!


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## wendle (Feb 22, 2006)

Where did you get your tilapia? I'm just getting a new setup together with catfish, but was thinking about trying those. I have found it can be difficult and expensive for the fish. I did end up finding the catfish about an hour and a half away for a reasonable price. 
I don't really have any suggestions, except keep a close eye on your water quality and don't do too many fish starting out. 
Pictures?


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## po boy (Jul 12, 2010)

Try Black seeded Simpson


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## Oakshire_Farm (Dec 4, 2008)

There is a guy about a hour drive from my place that sells tilapia for "a buck a inch" I got my first breeders for $5 each for nice big fish! I have had my fish for a year now. They are doing great!


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## Oakshire_Farm (Dec 4, 2008)




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## wendle (Feb 22, 2006)

Nice set up! Are those plastic or peat pots in the pvc?


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## Oakshire_Farm (Dec 4, 2008)

They are plastic pots, just the cheap ones that starters come in from the store. 

I have the lava rock type grow rocks in the pots.


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## RonTgottagoat (Feb 27, 2014)

Cool set up. I am gonna start up a system using an ibc tote as a tank soon. How many gall/ per minute are you putting through PVC pipe? I'm gonna do catfish fingerlings as tilapia require permits etc here


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## Oakshire_Farm (Dec 4, 2008)

My pump is at a slow trickle, it is a 7 gallons per hour. it is thriving! All the plants are 3x bigger then they were in that photo!

I am putting basil in everything we eat! lol 

That is a good problem to have!


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

We like Buttercrunch lettuce, makes nice tight heads, darker green than black seeded Simpson. I have done both. 

We use the 2' deep, black Rubbermaid cattle water troughs, stacked on racks 2 high, in our greenhouse using a sheet of rigid styrofoam insulation with holes cut out for the pots. This floats on the water. Everything else is recycled from a "grow" operation someone left at one of our rentals. We use the red rock media in pots that were designed to sit in a special lid on top of a black 5 gallon bucket. All the buckets sat on the ground and were linked to the water trough with tubing. The trough contained "food" to supply the buckets in the "grow operation". Don't know if they had fish in the trough but I found small bottles of "organic" liquid fertilizer.

The black tanks raise the temp in the greenhouse. I have yellow perch in the tanks. I started by using the system as designed but it took up too much room in the greenhouse. Later I used the small 12v pump, to lift the water to PVC pipe troughs on racks, with pots. The way we do it now uses no electricity and very little monitoring. Warmed spring water (black tubing under greenhouse roof) flows into the tanks through an emitter, the overflow goes to a catch tank outside. The enriched water in the catch tank is used to water outside plants. the top tanks are plumbed at the same level, not hooked together to keep a level, just to collect any water that gets above the outlet level. This manifold fills, giving a little feed "pressure" to the inside system, feeding any pots sitting on the floor, it then overflows to the catch tank. The lower tanks overflow directly to the catch tank. We also grow hanging strawberries. The pump, fed from a small makeup tank off the manifold, feeds them in the greenhouse during the winter, moved to a 2 level rack outside (recycled coat rack) during the summer. This makeup tank also overflows to the catch tank outside. Tomatoes and bell peppers, grown in the winter, and the new plants started in the spring are in big black tree pots on the floor of the greenhouse. Also the flower and vegetable starts are fed the warm "fish water" using tubing from the "grow operation" and small seep tubing, these are moved outside after frost also. I started doing Aqua/hydroponics using what I had, improving as I went....James


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## wendle (Feb 22, 2006)

I agree with a slow trickle. I tried too a higher powered pump, and ended up having to bypass some of the pvc temporarily to keep the water pressure down or it overflowed. I will end up adding more pvc, so maybe will eventually want the stronger pump, but for now I'm only running 40 feet of pvc, and a 2x4ft grow bed.


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## Tyler520 (Aug 12, 2011)

you'll want to try to reduce the heat and light exposure, to start with.

varieties that do better in warmer environments: bibb, and leaf (especially black seeded simpson, and oakleaf)


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## Oakshire_Farm (Dec 4, 2008)

I cannot reduce the heat. The heat is coming from the water. I need to keep the water temp up for the fish. 

I have lifted the light way up now. I am going to get some new lettuce seeds to get started.


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## Tyler520 (Aug 12, 2011)

just for future thought, you could extend the plumbing of the irrigation line from the fish tank to the crops, and wrap it around some sort of heat exchanger before it reaches the crops in order to dissipate some of that heat


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## Riverdale (Jan 20, 2008)

The more the red blush to a lettuce, supposedly the better it is for you.

Anti-oxidents and all


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## chaossmurf (Jan 6, 2017)

a free way too reduce the water temp before it goes to the plants ----bury some pvc pipes ---then just run that hot water through the buried pipes to reduce its temp ----length buried will have to be tested & experimented with ---but its free  ---well other than a few lengths of pipes and a few fittings


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