Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

don't want to hijack Gordon's thread but since he mentioned the Jebao pumps... I am running a jebao dc9000 to power my AP in the greenhouse, and a jebao dct12000 on my big tank in the house (they should be swapped since I am running the 9000 on max setting in the greenhouse and 12000 on minimum setting in the house... just haven't shut the systems down long enough to do it, I was not running the tank in the house when I started the AP system so I stole the pump then I just put the new pump in the house when I bought it instead of shutting down the AP system again.

The DC9000 I have ran almost non-stop 24/7 since January 2015 with no problems (it did get shut down for a few months from 5/2016 until 8/2016, but then it has been back up and running non-stop since then (so really I've ran it a total of 29 months with a 3 month non-running period in between). The DCT12000 has ran non-stop for 5 months now with no problems.

I didn't think that was the kind of pump Boss was looking for though, although there is no reason you couldn't use it for circulation in the tank (think custom PVC manifold to be able to direct water flow in whatever direction you want it to go, and in multiple directions if you got elaborate enough). For circulation pumps I had bought this monster (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008EKKSPU/ref=sxr_rr_xsim_2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=3008523062&pd_rd_wg=373Ni&pf_rd_r=NWPJWZYG82HR92HTV580&pf_rd_s=desktop-rhs-carousels&pf_rd_t=301&pd_rd_i=B008EKKSPU&pd_rd_w=IyFgK&pf_rd_i=sunsun+powerhead&pd_rd_r=G0CBJ6FR7188MATD9WB0&ie=UTF8&qid=1504098483&sr=2) for my big tank in the house before I shut down the salty tank, don't really have a use for it right now though, and only ran it for about 3 months before shutting the salty tank down so can't say how it holds up for longevity, but I have a bunch of other Sunsun powerheads that I have used for much longer and don't really have any complaints (other than perhaps that the suction cups suck - I prefer magnetic mount, but the suction cups on the 4 header seemed OK because there were I think 8 of them holding it on, and the ball mount on smaller SunSun powerheads are no good, but nothing a little superglue can't fix once you know what direction you want it to point). I also have a Jebao WP60 powerhead that I really like too that has held up well.

Stable late winter weather is keeping the water temps in a fairly narrow range with only an occasional warm day so far, but the next week will see a bit more variation.

Things are warming up



Currently there is one MC and 5 RT in this sytem, but I plan to transfer a few more trout from the larger system soon.

The water is still quite brown, I suspect it's colour leaching out from pellets.

This system is mostly running cooler than the large system now, due to the ground being quite warm, and the AP2 GBs being in ground.



We've split the banana plant into 2, all of the old leaves have died off, but the single new unfurled leaf on each seems to be ok still, so they might survive the transplanting. Lots of asparagus spears to eat, and I've planted quite a lot of rainbow chard seedlings. Tomatoes and a few other seedlings will be going in soon.

The water temperature is ok for the 5 tout and 1 MC in the tank ATM, as we haven't had any really hot weather so far since winter.



The banana transplanting seems to have worked, as both trunks are still alive and producing new leaves.

The mint is insane, and wel'll be removing it from the GB it has taken over sometime soon. I've chopped it back a few times, but it keeps covering up the asparagus and capsicum plant pretty quickly.

I've got another rhubarb plant in a pot, sitting into the GB gravel for now, until I decide with GB to put it in.

I hope to put in some tomatoes soon, attempts to get seedlings in early this year didn't work out, due to rats eating lots of plants in my wife's nursery (an ongoing problem).

However, nothing much will be done in the next 2 weeks, as I'll be busy harvesting cherries

I shared your website on Facebook, hope that was okay. Too much sad news lately there.

There are still only 5 trout and 1 MC in this tank, and I suspect the massive mint mountain in one GB is using a large proportion of the nutrients (and water!), as the chard I put in a few weeks ago isn't doing much. The capsicums have started producing fruit though, and the transplanted bananas are growing well. The chives look really lush, it's hard to eat them fast enough to keep up with the growth.

I haven't spotted the trout near the surface yet, but will be checking frequently as the water temp gets higher, as this heatwave continues. I have put 7kg of ice in 3 times so far, but it has only made a tiny, but detectable, difference to the water temp, as expected according to the laws of thermodynamics. They didn't eat their usual 40g of pellets on the 14th, so I haven't fed them since then. I think they will be fine until the water gets over 23C.

I take it that this system isn't the one with the chiller.

That's right
AP1 = 1st small system, no chiller
AP2 = large system with chiller

I'm just about to drop some ice in it, as I wont be here to keep an eye on the trout later, and it might otherwise go over 23C

Hot weather is keeping the water temp a bit higher than I'd like, but I haven't seen any fish die so far.
On the 20th I dropped 9kg of ice into the fT one go, you can see what a miniscule effect it had, as expected.



I added a fair bit of filter poo and water from AP2 this arvo, to see if I can get the chard to grow a bit faster, and the capsicum leaves to look a bit less deficient in something. The mint is still massive, and both bananas are doing really well. Quite a bit of fruit is on the capsicums, although it is a bit on the small side of usual. The chives continue to be rampant.

I put some rat bait in the GH a couple of days ago, but it hasn't been touched, although a rat did leave some poo on top of the container the bait is in

The rats are seriously attacking the apricot tree, which is covered in nearly ripe fruit ATM. I reckon there is at least 10-15kg of spoiled fruit on the tree and ground so far, so I've been picking some fruit a bit before they are ripe, just to make sure we get some. Fortunately the tree has many tens of kg of fruit on it still. I've put some bait in a container under the tree, but it hasn't been touched yet... I guess the fruit is too easy and delicious.

loosely wrap bare wire around the base of tree trunk for about 150mm...then hook up a 12volt battery each nite...

I suspect it might need a bit more than 12V, dry dusty feet are a pretty good insulator for such a low voltage.

I'm thinking more along the lines of a guard made from a couple of 4l ice cream containers, well greased up so that they cant get a grip.

The heat is taking it's toll, I found a 1.245kg dead trout floating in the FT this morning, no doubt as a result of the water temp going up to 24.5C yesterday, due to the continuing well above average hot weather.



If it looks like getting that warm in the FT, I might have to try to catch the remaining 3 trout, difficult when I can't see them due to the colour of the water- stained due to nearly 5 years of fish pellets going in. I'd like to drain the water and put clean rainwater in, but that has to wait until it rains enough to fill the house water tanks.
I put a couple of tomato and capsicum plants in the other day, and my wife planted a tamarillo. The mountain of mint persists, the asparagus is producing a few spears, the exising capsicums are producing plenty of fruit, although it has been quite small... maybe it is the variety. The bananas are poewring upwards, but still no sign of fruit. The turmeric is growing very well,a nd a couple of ginger roots my wife planted have sprung up and are growing well. The strawberries are producing a reasonable amount of fruit, and the chard is now growing well after I added the filter water/fish poo from the larger system.

Sadly I lost all 5 trout in this system when the water temp went high, although not as high as others had survived in previous years. Largest was 1.32kg.




The bananas are powering along after the transplanting, now almost up to the GH roof.
Today my wife cut out 5 pups for re-potting and sale at the weekly growers market.
We also pulled out all of the mint, and will gradually work on removing the remaining roots over the next week or 2, so as not to send too much muck into the FT in one go.

The Murray Cod continues to live in this system, it is now 4 years old, but still doesn't like to eat the 6mm pellets I feed to the trout. It gets a bit of kangaroo mince every now and then, and I've thrown in a few dog food pellets recently, but I'm not sure if it is eating them.