Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yeah, goldfish and koi can be a bit dopey and easily caught sometimes.....

Our new pump arrived, one of the OBO recommended power jets, a 16000lph model which is way in excess of the ebara it replaced so the take off return to tank valve has been opened right up - should have no aeration problems that is for sure .


This was done in order to use the FT ebara in engineering out one of the shortfalls of the dual pump system, that is if the sump pump fails, there goes all your water and fish. The sump now has twin ebaras running, both with non return valves. Usually only one runs, with the second only kicking in if the sump water rises above the first pumps kick in level due to a problem with the first pump. It works a treat

Good to see the redundancy built in Burnsy. Have you emptied the system for the holiday break?

Not purposely but other than the yabbies in the sump it is empty. I am hoping to get some SP for the FT but am having trouble getting my hands on them. Carey has them but it is proving rather difficult to get them with the school purchasing system and in my actually getting time to go and collect them. I really should have placed an order with Gav much earlier on so that we could have guaranteed a delivered batch

Here's hoping Gavin has a good breeding season this year... Go Gav...

I'll do my best Joel but I think in the end a lot depends on the weather and some luck as to how successful you are. I am also trying to get approval to put in some more ponds but the shire has informed me that aquaculture in my area is now a non conforming land use!!!

If anyone doubts those who promote water turnover they can stop. With changing the 9000lph ebara to a 16000lph powerjet our water has become clearer than it has ever been. We are currently pumping 15min on 30min off however this is the same regime we used last summer, the water is crystal clear to the point where I can now see the ten koi that I thought the yabbies had eaten .

Yeah - non-conforming to their whim Good luck Gav - hope you can get it through !

Give us a yell Troutman, I may be able to help you with your approval process for non-conforming use additions. At least we can try?
Cheers IanK

Thanks for the offer Ian but my appliaction was being considered by council this afternoon. Guess I will know the result in the next day or two.

I had redclaw in my home system (im a school teacher as well and im teaching aquaponics and biospheres as a subject next year.

Guard your cables going to your pumps so the yabbies cannot get to them at all. I had a redclaw destroy one of mine and I went to place my hand into the water and it was "live". I was lucky that it had only nicked the wire and didnt sever it, otherwise I may not be here.

But having systems with school students, how are you making sure it will trip and be safe if a problem with the pump occurs? Im going through the same set up but only with a basic system.

Well things have been stagnant (but not the water that is clear ) other than the pump upgrade since the HSM last year. We are now ready to roll again though as the schools new building works are nearing completion. This has included an old shade structure being re-erected over the FT and first two grow beds yesterday. Also the area around the whole system is being paved starting today - I will have to take some photos and post them.

SP are on order and should be here within the week and the new tank has been filled and is awaiting the paving being completed before it will be adorned with two new growbeds on stands before the trout will be added. At this stahe I am thinking that we will go with 200mm of gravel topped with hydroton in these new beds just to keep the whole mix of media thing happening

Kids are excited about getting access to their system back.

We have fish again Silver perch arrived yesterday, some yearlings and some fingerlings to get us going on the road to having a continuous supply of table fish - hopefully.

The shelter has been erected and we will now need to monitor growth over the first two growbeds to establish whether we will need to replace the sheeting on half of it with alsenite to allow more light through.

The paving is also nearing completion and hopefully it will all be ready to be reopened to the students when we return from the Easter break. We will also then be buying two more growbeds and looking at either a big custom growbed stand or two standard galv ones to fit over the 2000 litre tank before we get a trout delivery

Tis a thing of beauty Burnsy...

Hey Mike, the cover looks like it has been there a while by the look of the bore staining up the legs. Why have they put the roof over the first 2 growbeds?
the paving looks really good