Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Phew, ok....

Hey good luck with the house mate..

Good luck on the house mate.... and as Joel says I think 20-30 would be the max number to start with.

You'll probably have to consider adding more growbed capacity as they grow... even a 1:1 growbed:tank ratio at maximum stocking wont leave you any margin for error. And you're no where near even that at the moment.

get it stable and make sure you test regularly as you add and feed your fish... might be an idea to always keep some dechlorinated water on standby.

Beeso, I did offer back in another thread to split with you. I've got a 1500 litre tank with 6 goldies in it crying out for more fish. My 50 SP are in a bath tub supplying the another growbeds. PM me if you need to offload some and we'll talk price.

hey derek yeah mate haven't forgotten you as soon as the house thing is decided one way or another i'll be keen to go. i think it worked out 1.05-1.10 with postage, if you need more than 50-60 pm me and we'll get more

your welcome to them, I had them left over from last year and they were looking good for the tip, so more then happy for you to have them. You will probably need both of them for 500l unfortunately they are not very effecient. Have a good one and good luck on the house.

because hopefully i will be moving soon and don't want to start from scratch i am experimenting with a "transfer" system. I have added a grow bed light enough to move on my existing system. because it is on an established system bacteria should colonise quicker? when i move i will put the fish in their current water in some tubs with a bubbler and move them in that. At work i have a 300L barrel which i will set up like EB's second system. This should tide me over till i figure out where i will reset my bigger system up and then get those new SP! the plastic container is to put scraps in to see if i can run a type of worm farm inside the growbed.
and also how cool is expanded clay!

The new bed on an existing system will definitely be colonized faster than starting from scratch.

Is the bed flood and drain? Be careful with the warm farm getting too wet. With food scraps in there, you may get a fetid rotting mass rather than a nice odor-free worm farm.

beeso i have been running a flood and drain compost bin in my big system for a couple of omnths now and while it does not break it down very fast, it smells great and has never goten to that anaerobic fetid stench stage. I am hoping it should go even faster with the addition of some worms.

Besso, if you building a bigger system then I think you should seriously consider also upgrading your sound system for the plants....

Something like this perhaps.....

Where do the fish go?

I like the sound of that!

Little pile of worms in the corner of my flood and drain to take care of my food scraps ..

Guess I would need a pretty big pond and a high stocking density of fish and worms to take care of food waste from a family of four.

But I guess I would never have to feed the fish .. they would survive on whatever scraps they could get.

Sounds good to me ..

ok how do you test ammonia because my fish should be dead! i am getting amm-8 nitrite -2 and nitrate 160

Not sure what you mean Besso.... you've obviously already tested to get the figures....

Do you have some doubts about whether or not the test is a "true" reading???...... because you fish aren't dead, and you thought/think they should be???

What sort of fish do you have and how many?

Regardless with figures like those I'd recommend a 50% water change. :shock"

i would have thought i'd be seeing signs of toxicity at 8ppm of ammonia thats all...how long do you leave the vial before taking the reading
my fish while not really eating are quite lively, i have 7-9 silver perch and 30 odd goldies and a few redclaw

Water temp might be the only thing saving you from what I read in another thread....

I'd still do a water change... sure Steve will give you some advise soon.