Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Pump is installed on 3 rubber straps, sounds is so much more bearable, ccbear, thanks for the tip. And the pump is supplying 2 off 300mm air stones and 2 off 50mm round air stones. One of each in each tank. Now the fish has to actually work to stay on the same spot and the floating food gets sucked under water as soon as it hits it.

The new Gbs have the first plants in them and the day after i had to install another shade cloth over it because the morning sun was already frying the zucchini seedlings... they were good on the next morning but i will install another shade on the east facing side, its nearly a complete shade house then.

I know the clear hoses on the new GBs are not good, but they help a lot to make sure everything works fine in the first weeks (water level, sometimes one or the other went into a kind of trickle mode and the level stayed the same)

I just tried parallel to some seeds in the GBs to put some into dirt to find out which ones are better in which medium.

It is nearly time to do some grading, but i don't want to stress the fish while trying to sort the bigger ones (close to 180-200mm already) in one tank and the weak ones (nearly same size as when i got them) into the other.

And here the picture from the new GBs

I moved all the onions (red and spring) into one of the beds and added some leek seeds. Just in case i want to add some worms, because i have read they dont like onions...

Not on the pictures but i added some more plants from the dirt garden to these GBs

from left to right:

1. Dwarf orange valencia
2. Onions, leek
3. Birds eye chilli, strawberry, sweet basil
4. Zucchini, one cherry tomato
5. Dwarf lemon eureka, rosemary, italian parsley

System is looking great Oliver, nice work! How good was that rain the other night? Aside from the fact that it turned my Golden Retriever into a Chocolate Lab - i'd forgotten how much he loves to roll in the mud!

Thanks myst. We also had some rain last night, luckily not so much wind. I am always nervous with all the louvre wide open when the rain starts.

I had an uninvited muncher sitting on my Kang Kong today... a Golden Tortoise Beetle... Google tells me that this beetle is native to America... so what the bloody hell is it doing here???

Capture it and report it just in case, I owe that tip with the straps to chainsaw so your welcome. System is look good keep at it. Cheers

Thanks ccBear, Capture would mean i have to scratch it of that piece of timber which i used as an education tool to tell the beetle what greens not to eat... Who would i report it to? DPI, CSIRO?

On another note... this is what i found while washing the granite... So please somebody tell me again that AP doesn't pay off... *g*

Call DPI and ask if they are known to be in the Top End.

After a google search There is a similar beetle in the NT but still might be best to check. The Americian version likes Sweet Potatoes and Morning Glory

Soo, i got some more occupants in my system... bees... they prevent me from cleaning the solid filter in the middle grow bed, because its a little bit overgrown with mizuna and the bees use it as watering hole.

I read somewhere here in the forum that mint spreads like crazy in AP... too late... its already planted and it goes ballistic... new sprouts popping up everywhere close to it. Solution... replanting in DIRT.

Something which also grows very well is chinese five spice and i dont even know where i should use it, the missus said it 'smells nice, i want it...'

I started some DIRT seed pots three days ago and all the rocket salad seeds are already emerging.

The water test today came back with 1ppm nitrite in the FT and only 0.5ppm after the GB, i think i have to add some more GBs to get more filtration, does that sounds plausible for a system extension??? I was thinking about another two ibcs, one with 3/4 of the metal frame still attached as a trellis and filled with clay balls and maybe one ibc half as a DWC for lots of salad... we had our first proper harvest and a biiiig mixed salad and it was so yummy compared to what we get here in the shops, transported from down south on a road train etc.

Does a DWC help with regulating the temps of the plants? I think i might get a small problem with all the heat here soon. 60% shade cloth is already installed but i had to switch the blue drums with the granite to water level equals top of the granite to protect the seedlings from heat stroke.

Cheers

Hi mate,

First of all... what the holey crap is that bug?!?!? Ive never seen anything that crazy before!!! Wowsers!

Also, being from a mining town my whole life I get a bit sceptical with gold claims so I first thought.. oh yea, another pyrite discovery lol. But upon further inspection... its way too yellow in some spots. Worth getting looked at closely anyways.

Lastly, I only tapped my DWC at the end of summer so I cant comment on heat loss or retention within the bed or system. We have similar high temp long summers so we may be in similar situations. What I will say is that my raft has faired better through the temp swings we have had here since it has been online and Id imagine it will be the same in summer too. I think gravel absorbs heat more so than the plastic and also the coreflute is fluted so it gives an air gap between the sheets, all these things add up to make a pretty stable product although it will be a few months till I can back up my thoughts. Summers here are painful... as I know your are too.

Thanks for all the information on your SRS. I will try to organise some of the parts next week, I have 2 freebie ibc waiting for collection.

There is a stir Fry with fresh chard and pak choi on the stove... Yum yum yum...

Day four of the dirt seeds brought some iceberg lettuce and some other leafy lettuce.

Rafts do have temperature stability to their credit, just make sure you are sending filtered water to them and that you add enough aeration to them. That said, so far lettuce is the only thing I'm growing that seems to grow as well in a raft as it does in a flood and drain gravel bed. Most of my plants seem to prefer growing in the gravel. And in the summer heat, you may have to work very hard to find salad plants that like growing in a raft bed. Here are heat tolerant lettuce types, I have found a few summer crisp varieties that seem to be almost making it through summer for me. Otherwise you have to harvest the lettuce at a "baby" stage if you want lettuce through summer.

Pea shoots will grow for at least 7 days in extreme heat through and you can even grow them indoors without sun so there is still a chance to eat salad through a hot summer.

If heat is an enemy, don't do any NFT.

Why not...

My experience is that during the hot season the water heats up quite a lot going through NFT.
If one is worried about the heating that media beds cause, then NFT is only going to be more extreme.

And Rupe, you have to admit that your horticultural skills are a cut above average and you know about doing NFT from your hydroponic experience and how you need to make sure the amount of flow is appropriate, that the water going to the NFT is well filtered, that the runs are of appropriate length, and that you have to keep the dissolved oxygen levels up.

I've seen people go and pump fish tank water into Pipes with holes and plants growing in them and then wonder why the system doesn't work and the fish are dieing after about 3 weeks.

Thanks for all the info.

I got a mate here who has an hydroponics system going but he always stopped in the build up to the wet season because of the heat problem. He is now starting to build an aquaponics system as well.

Is it OK to make the DWC with a water depth of 300mm or should it be deeper? I am just thinking that if I make them pretty much the same I could easily switch the GB to media when the result is not what I want.

Cheers