Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Had some bad news the other day - hubby has been in a lot of pain with his knee so went to the doctor on thursday to be told he needs surgery ASAP before it gets worse and needs a reconstruction. He is getting VERY frustrated because he can hardly walk and is usually such an active guy. Anyway, got an appointment in Adelaide on Tuesday - hopefully can get the operation done before X-mas.

Plumbed in Rupes spider valve yesterday... looks great! Cant wait to see it all in action!

Good luck with the op Mr netab, hope it goes well.

Likewise... been there done that....

Thanks for the support guys will pass it on

"Thanks mantis, can you tell me what size tank that would be for, Im wondering if all polymaster tanks have the same size sump hole?"

I have a 500L and a 2000L and the 100mm fits both. It was tight in the 500L so I cut a few vertical slots in the bottom of the pipe and it went in snuggly then

Thanks for that Mantis - will save us a lot of experimentation when the time comes

Hubby's knee op is happening tomorrow!
So after two weeks off he should be nearly good as new (I can see two weeks of him sitting in a deckchair with beer in hand saying "Now put that bit there... your not doing it right... etc, etc") - but after all the awesome work he has done so far I cant begrudge him a little of that can I

Good luck to Hubby - hope it all works out ticketyboo !

Hope all goes well....

Its a bit ironic sometimes that it is the active ones that need the knees done.

Knew a girl that needed 5 recons over 3 years....ouch!

Thanks guys



Bloody Ell was she a netball player???

spider valve in the ground...to explain fittings - 18,000lph in line pump (same one in the sump tank and a spare in the shed), Banjo filter to catch stray fish and help break-up solids, and the 3 ball valves are used as follows:
1st one closest to the tin (fish shed on other side) - can close when cleaning out Banjo filter...changing over pumps, etc
2nd one in-line with spider valve inlet - connect sump pump outlet to this to completely bypass fish shed if required (or if theres a pump failure)... or when everythings at full capacity can siphon off a bit to return to fish shed for aeration (if we ever put in a bigger pump it would be best to do this anyway we thought)
3rd one between other two - can siphon off water for water changes... if we need to bypass this pump we can shoot water from FTs into sump through here and then hook sump pump into spider valve through 2nd (see above)... when suctioning out bottom of yabby tanks can attach here so that yabby water can be run evenly into GBs.
pic...


and the yabby tanks lower drainage pipework in...

Love it!

Like a mass-production line! Nice, neat and symmetrical. Looks like you've planned it to a 'tee'!

I eagerly await seeing it in florabunda!


BTx

Thanks BlueThumb!
Reckon at the moment it looks like a miniature plastic and metal warehouse or something, but trying really hard to imagine it the way it will be in a few months...exploding with greenery...soothing sounds of water trickling......... ahhhhhh

Hubbys op went well today... thanks for all the good wishes from everyone - were very much appreciated

Apparently a piece of cartilage had broken off and was floating around, and kept getting jammed in the joint and behind the kneecap, so had to be reattached ...ouch!
Doc doesnt believe in crutches so he has to hobble from the couch to the bathroom and back - pretty amazing how well the body copes with stuff like that huh!

Had exactly the same thing happen... kept locking up my knee, especially when I was walking downhill, or climbing stairs... and that was while I was trying to recover from a split tibia... about 40mm...

In my case they just took it out... along with most of the rest of the mendiscus... which I pretty much smashed when I drove my tibia up into my knee....

Gees Rupe - how did you manage that? Sounds like either a bad landing from a great height or a lot of forward momentum? Anything that would split your tibia as well as drive it up into your knee sounds like a s#!tload of force!

Hubby was skirting under an orange tree with a chainsaw and his knee went pop and gave way. At the time it happened his main concern was the hand he had punched into the ground to stop him falling onto the chainsaw - which got broken and infected pretty badly (landed on a spike which embedded in the joint).

He ignored the knee untill it had popped out a couple more times (ie: collapsed on ground groaning and swearing loudly) - the last time was bad enough for him to realise it was getting worse not better.

Doing really well BTW - reckons theres less pain now than before the operation which is great.

Wow! What a fantastic setup. Can't wait to see it all up and running. Hope Hubby recovers well from the op. Looking forward to visiting when it's all completed

Hi Tristrin! Thanks for the 'Wow!' (made my day!)

Hubby is doing well, and as he has had more time on his hands has been looking closer at some of the systems. After looking again at your AP setup, and your beautiful house and gardens on BYF, we are hoping that we can drive over to see you one day.
Your place looks gorgeous and we would love to checkout your AP system - it would be nice to see one up and flourishing in the flesh so to speak .

Hope exams went well and werent too stressful for you. BTW your welcome anytime. Its slow going ATM as you can imagine - should have fish in by Feb hopefully as we are going to try cycling with the yabbies first.

Just a general question to put out there (have seen something about it but cant remember where) regarding blue Yabbies in clean water. After all the rains some of the GBs had filled up from the new guttering with rainwater, and as I thought its probably worth chucking the yabbies in to start getting bacteria levels going somewhere, we just threw them into the rainfilled GBs - Ive now noticed them starting to turn blue. I dont think it was to do with the clarity of the water as the riverwater we had been using from the tap was still pretty clear and was being changed regularly as there was no other air or filtration method. I am wondering whether it might be the softness of the rainwater that is making them turn blue?