Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ha Ha Ha...I once had a recipe for rhubarb champagne but seem to have misplaced it. Yes, I have plenty of rhubarb and would love to make something sparkly with it. Me thinks a google search might be in order. Thanks for the tip and I hope your driving advice wasn't from experience chuckle chuckle.

hmm, add winemaking to the list, where on the list tho?
1) shading project for AP
2) build Pizza oven
3) convert spare fridge for meat curing and start salamis etc
4) expand AP system with solar heating options
5) Beer brewing
6) wine making

Just a quick update on my second season of Trout, these came from Tooperang and went in on 24th March as ~20cm fish, some are now relative monsters and we still have 8-10 weeks of grow out left!

https://www.facebook.com/jasonspatch/videos/2486782348048604/

Looking forward to some nice eating fish later in the year.

Just a quick update, had a small open garden a couple of weekends ago, had around 20 odd people come for a wander through to look at the AP setup, wicking beds and the orchard. Glad to see some took a real interest in becoming a little more self sustaining.

The AP system definitely generated the most interest along with the different veg growing, like purple cauliflower.

The day before I smoked one of the trout for visitors to taste, nice and tasty, the trout was around 500gm cleaned. Also smoked some chicken breast at the same time for dinner that night.

Here's a video of the fishing expedition!
https://www.facebook.com/jasonspatch/videos/937216299976085/

and the catch of the day!



Unfortunately later in the week the sump level dropped to below what the pump could use and so water flow ceased. I hadn't topped up the water in a week or so, my bad!

I'd fed the fish in the morning before work and got home around 10:30pm. I went outside to play with the dog for a bit and heard the dry pump sound and thought "Oh Shit" and of course I didn't have the airstones pumping...........

I lost 8 fish, biggest was 41cm weighing a whopping 1120g, the rest were 1050g, 850g, 840g, 720g, 680g and 2 around the 400g mark. Talk about disappointed and slightly pissed

A couple were still fresh, with clear eyes and no rigor. others were full rigor, eyes were clouded and had obviously died earlier in the day
.

In total pretty much 6kg (13lb) of trout went to waste as we decided against taking the risk of eating them thankfully we still have around 6 remaining that will be harvested in a few weeks with at least 1 that looks to be around the 800g mark.

Lessons learnt
1) Have the airstones running,
2) Be more diligent checking sump levels
3) hurry up and get rainwater storage and a float valve system.

Changing of seasons is interesting, the fluctuations in daily temperatures leaves me on tenderhooks, a couple of days >30C then back to high teens, low 20's. I'm watching the forecasts and have the vacuum sealer at the ready for when it's time to harvest my remaining trout.

There are a couple of monsters in there still, over 1kg, maybe up around the 1.3kg, will have to see once they come out.

Growbeds are chockers!


I'm starting to turn them over with summer crops now. I've had fun raising seeds again, much better this year. Built some benches in the poly house, covered said house with 70% shadecloth I can roll up when its cloudy.

Have many tomato varieties going, some I've planted into the AP system, some into wicking beds, same with capsicums (red, orange, yellow), Thai Chilies, basil, silverbeat. I've given away around 30-40 advanced seedlings to neighbors & work colleagues, It really is nice to share the love of fresh veg and preserving in some way a link to where our food comes from.




Had a lovely stand of broadbeans and double frilled poppies, the bees loved that lot!



The beans have been fully harvested now, over 3kg of lovely tender broadbeans, podded, blanched and peeled and the freezer. I've now mulched the area and dug in some compost ready for zucchinis to go in.

Will post some more photos of the replanted GB's over the weekend.

Sorry to hear of the fish losses back in sep. I hope the weather is fair to harvest the last ones. Would be great to see the final weigh in . Your garden is looking very beautiful, and productive. The ap grow bed could rivial any floral arrangement.

Also with the advanced potted veg, i need you as a neighbor,

Thanks for the update.

Btw I'm in for 1.352kg as a guess for the largest fish from your system. Any other takers in AP land...

Well, I harvested trout this morning. Overnight temps meant the water started @ 23C this morning, and with a forecast of 42C today I decided not to push my luck.

From the survivors of the earlier losses this was the largest, weighing in @ 830g cleaned and vacuum packed.


The remaining were around the 500g cleaned. I'll be working on proofing the system over the summer with a sump float valve connected to an external water supply.

Great result, looks really good!

Wow the 830g one must have had a large stomach to weight in at 1.352kg exactly

Shame the hot weather brough forward the harvest.

Funnily it did, you win!

Yippy, woot, yeehaa... o wait... the winning prize was never discussed...

I'm guessing i get 0.522kg of ... in the mail...

time to get composting...

Jokes aside, that is a stunning looking trout!

P.s. sorry for the over emoji com, current record per post is 5 btw

Asitis you've got a syndrome acalled called emojititis!

Anyway, a few of the trout on the menu for XMas lunch via the smoker, looking forward to that.

In the meantime the AP system is bursting with tomatoes and the capsicums/chillies are starting to take off, here are a couple of pics from this morning. Everything has so far survived 42 & 44C days so far.. Today and tomorrow again forecast 44-45, so hopefully they will keep on trucking.

Hows your water Temps going

Mine are 32c (Thursday Evening)

Will do a big water top up tomorrow

Top up water is 28c so that will help a bit

@ Terra yea, water temps are warm, up in the 30-32 mark, I topped up this morning about 150L I think it was.

about 10 minutes later I was setting up a sprinkler under my fruit trees to dampen the dirt for the chooks and I heard an odd trickling sound behind me from the AP system, had a look and saw water running over the pavers. I thought I had sprung a leak then saw the GB was overflowing!!

It was the closest GB in the top photo of my last post. Immediately checked the bell siphon, bloody tomato had filled it with roots and blocked the standpipe! i'm glad it was whilst I was close by otherwise the sump would have run dry within short period of time. First time I have seen really invasive roots, I'm usually pretty good at checking, but haven't for a few weeks now. A tad complacent obviously!

Stroke of luck we will take that

Im going straight out to turn my siphon screens to clear roots (havnt done them for ages)

2.15pm and 47.7c here

I put a sprinkler to wet the ground all around my system

Filled to overflow got my water temp to 30c

For my chooks I have an old roll around Bonaire evap cooler taken the leg of so its at ground level and fitted a small trough float inside , have a 100L header tank for it.

Run it on lowest setting its fantastic it only creates a small cool area but on these nasty days the chooks don't pant at all.

Ive had My apricot tree covered with shade cloth for three weeks and had to strip tree this morning about a third of the fruit has cooked on the tree

might have been better of to not cover it they would have ripened a week ago

As much as I love tomatoes, it is for this reason that I'll no longer grow them in my AP system.