Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yeahm they just dont do well in freshwater constantly. They look fine, but just die.

Decided to get in and redo a section of my system today... Emptied 6 of my growbeds and moved the stand they were on... When I replumb them, the 3 growbeds (A,B and C) will be flood and drain with a draining stand pipe... Growbed (A) will drain into (E), which will house some redclaw, then overflow into the sump tank... Growbed (B) will drain into (F), which will have redclaw and overflow into the sump tank.... and (C) will drain into (D), which will house redclaw, and have watercress floating ontop, which will then overflow into the sump tank as well... I am not in a hurry to get this finished, which is good as I need to get the material together to ratproof the future redclaw tanks ... I have used up almost everything that I had 'IN STOCK' doing all the other tanks...
Poor wife sees me doing this all and knows she is once again becomming an AP widdow

Check my Barra fingerlings as well this morning, and again an hour ago, and so far so good - no deaths (wondering how many have eaten some of their brothers tho )

Tash took some photos today...

See you're well and truely, back on the horse AM...

went TO THE MEETINGS... KICKED THE HABIT - but damn it, the habit found me again Yep, enjoying getting down and dirty again

Hwy, who smacked Mc in the side of the head?

Just a bad hair day - don't think anybody would harm our Mc ! A good guy through amd through

LOL, I could not resist - I have fitted bits of plumbing to all the Growbeds and the 2 future redclaw tanks... they are ready to be plumbed together (ran out of daylight so I had to stop...
Just a little reinforcing to go (so that the GB's don't go all out of shape) and some minor tinkering with plumbing, Then I will be able to fill the growbeds up and we will be in business
No, no photos as , like i said, I ran out of day light ...
I should be able to finish this all by Friday (if only I did not have to turn up for work... its interfering with my AP!

Decided that I will be pulling out half of my :Tahitian Spinach (syn. Celery Stem Taro) which I purchased from Greenharvest a while back (info about it here http://greenharvest.com.au/Plants/tahitian_spinach_info.html)
Anybodywho wants some and can get to me feel free to PM me...

So far I have managed to install an get running, one GB with the future redclaw tank attatched... In the centre I have suspended a basket (lined with shadecloth and filled with quinkin) and planted it with watercress... The second bed has been filled and is ready to be plumbed and connected to its redclaw tank.
I had a bit of luck yesterday and found a source of square mesh (free ), So i have more than enough mesh to finish enclosing all the tanks and ratproofing them... now hunting around for more timber...

found some seeds I had forgotten about in the fridge ... a while back I bought some Akebia seeds off of EBay... been in the fridge , hidden under children's cough syrup etc, found it by accident today - I hope they are still viable as I will be planting them tomorrow in one of the newer GB's... Curious to know if any of the ppl I posted some off to had any luck in germinating their seeds...

is that the chocolate vine? I know where mine are still in the fridge under the kids cough syrup etc....

Glad Im not the only one
Im just going to chuck them straight into an AP bed... not going to bother with soil.... if they dont amount to anything - nothing lost

wrote this about my system on gone fishin's system thread


I managed to finish closing in the last of the IBC's today (my sump).. so it is drunk and small child friendly But now I look at the student IBC and cant help feeling that it can be done better - like I need more work... but I have the mesh and the previous job looks... slap dash. I will stare at it for a few days and see what moves me.
I pulled out a lot of my air tubing and re-did bits of it as I needed air line to my 3 smaller redclaw tanks... after a lot of dead scratching and swapping around of different lengths, I have now got air stones going in the 3 redclaw tanks (half drums) as well, and I popped some guppies in each to ensure no mosquitoes breed in there.
I am tempted to pull out the largest Jade Perch and try him out on the BBQ, but I should perhaps wait for the barra to grow as I have just installed 3 growbeds and planted them with various seeds and stock (trying ginger for the first time - want to make the ginger beer the hard way )) - and I dont have heaps of nutrient as it is .. so the Jade's days are numbered (note to self, perhaps feed baby barra 3 times a day - see if they grow faster )

If I get back from work early enough I will snap a few pics - did not get around to it today

just some pics of my few jades... feeding them the catefood they took a likeing to