Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

No LKB they were not prepared correctly for transport.
No ones fault it was just a case of inexperience on my part. They were picked by a friend who released them into a tub whilst waiting for us to pick them up. We now realise that they should have been left in the bag which did have oxygen put into it when they were picked up.
It was not the hatcheries fault other than putting too many fish in the bag.
Take note of the one near the bottom of the basket with the white spot on the belly.
Thanks to you all for your comments.
Alex

Gnash and I transported 104 small trout from Bunbury to Kalgoorlie in 2 x 205 litre blue barrels, with battery operated airstones.

8.5 Hours from pickup to delivery . No trout DOA, but Gnash lost a couple at his house while helping me with mine . That amount of time and 20 deg c water would be the limit I reckon. I would say that around 90 trout are still alive now.

with you now, my mistake

We have three explorers among the sixteen trout in our fish tank. They have swum up the auto leveling pipe and into the 2nd FTank. See pic, the pipe is 60mm and very close to the bottom of the tank on both sides yet they have made the trip no problems.
The fish average 20cm in length

Did you say you were burning railroad sleepers? That stuff was treated with the good old cresote and is full of such toxic crap that you should never burn it or have it anywhere that you come into contact with it.

Hi evilgenius,
The sleepers we are burning are over a 100 years of age and are in the main redgum and grey box neither of which require any treatment against rot or termites.
I fenced with cresote treated posts 40 years ago driving in hundreds of the dam things. Never used any protection, had it all over my hands and clothes it never hurt me or any other farmer in our area. Even now I have nothing wrong with me that could be blamed on contact with cresote or the lead paint on my crib which I chewed on!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alex at 67 and still the same weight I was at 20.

Hi All,
an update>
We still have not finished the roof, that is the removal of the last four sheets of iron and replacing with acrylic.
Our vegs are thin, sparse and looking for light. However they are keeping the system in balance.

The trout are going very well and the yabbies are still in their winter sleep.

I have put a bag of shellgrit (3KGs, is this enough?) into the sump to help keep the PH steady. It had been creeping up towards 8. Will check it this weekend.

Will have to review our pumping methods as we are not removing enough fish s..t from the FTs at the moment.
No other changes so no pics.
Alex

umm, shellgrit wont bring the PH down, it will stop dissolving around PH 7.5

I cant remember, does concrete bring ph up or down?

concrete takes PH up however my tanks are 50years old and I doubt that there is much lime left to leach out. The PH did go back to 7.5 within 24hrs of putting the shellgrit in.
I put the shellgrit in for two purposes, to put some salt into the system and to act as a buffer. I use citric acid to bring the PH down without the shellgrit it will just go back to 7.5+. I like to stay around the 7 mark.

aaah, that right you told me that last time i asked

I still dont think the shell grit is going to help keep the PH down though, if something in the system is making the PH rise, shellgrit will only accelerate that rise back up to 7.5.

re GBs V U

I have used 315Lt hot water pressure units cut in half as GBs and they are good and cheap and do not require any side bracing. There are plenty of these around just ask your local plumber. The problem you have is that if you remove the insulation from around the tank it is very hard to get rid of. You cannot burn it as it is very toxic.. I leave the insul on and just remove the outer tin cover to the tip. When you cut the tank in half the tin edges are very sharp. It takes one and a half to two cut off disc to cut each tank in half.
You have to put each half side by side as each half is only just over 500mm wide.
Alex

Aren't they copper?

OBO,
You are right. I suspect it is the gravel we are using it is a white river gravel with around 10% sand in it. We washed all the clay out.
Alex

Axle's thread un-hiJacked.

Hot Water Pressure unit is that the home hot water container in most ceilings -I ask because here we call them geysers. Sounds hectic to cut them in half - the older ones here used to be copper but the newer ones are like galvanized steel. We had ours replaced the other day (it blew) and they left the old one in the ceiling - I was cursing the plumbers at the time.

OBO & OB1
No the pressure hot water systems are steel around 4mm thick and glass lined. These sit on the floor and work at the town water pressure. The glass lining does not like the cut off wheel going through so when you have completed your cuts you should clean the inside very carefully.
I use them to make wood heaters, BBQs, smoke roast ovens, culverts very useful and you are recycling an item that has failed in its original purpose.
You get them from tips plumbers who like to find someone to take them which saves them the time required to take them to the tip. The gas fired ones are no good for the above uses but take out the gas unit and build a wood fire under them and you have an old chip water heater.
Alex