Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Every year or so there is talk of expanding State of Origin to include other states.
When that happens I'll walk away from it even though it's the last bit of sport that I care about at all.
It's a good old fashioned grudge match like neighbouring towns often have, meant to be serious but also friendly(ish... ).
If it becomes national it kinda defeats the purpose from where I stand.
And as for this years sad series defeat, I'm gladdened by Gallen's backdated suspension which means he still has not captained a team to an Origin series win. I'm happy that NSW supporters have had a win, they fully deserved it but I really didn't want Gallen to. Everyone is happy now, well, except Mr Gallen.
Also wondering who the player of the series is? Since he was awarded it but his backdated suspension for using peptides means that he apparently didn't play the games. Even though he did, but didn't... but??? What a ridiculous situation it is.

I'd comment on Todd Carney but there is no need for me to take the piss out of him...

I don't know any of these people but I will stick with you Bodge!

I've already easily run out of GB space and I just bought almost 20 more plant varieties (seed).
Looks like that expansion might happen sooner than later.
Who would have guessed? (Probably everybody... )
Tax time means new fish too. Probably should clad the IBC while I'm at it. I've had the materials since day one but I have procrastination down to a fine art these days.
Give me a month and hopefully I'll have gained some momentum.

Bodge, why procrastinate today when you could procrastinate tomorrow?

Martin, I see that you have also discovered the secret to masterful procrastination!

When you notice several spinach plants that you didn't know you had, I think it may be a sign of an over planted GB.
Happily the peas are flowering and beans aren't far behind them and growth in general is great.
But as I suspected, along with the warmer weather the pests have arrived. Some dense little patches of aphids on a few plants and caterpillars have appeared on the lettuce. Dipel time I guess.
Slowly thinning out the plants for stir fries at the moment, will get there eventually.

I never doubted AP would work but I'm still amazed at how well the system has run. Guessing the sludge remaining in the media from the previous owner can be thanked for that, more good luck than good management. I expect big pest dramas at some point but that's just life when you grow plants.

Hey Bodgy,

I have my Black Belt in Procrastination.

Great to hear about the strong growth.

Regards, Martin.

I'm not sure if it is the warmer weather or if the bream have accepted their lot in life but now they are much more active when feeding.
They're still timid around me but they now dart out and gobble up prawn pieces immediately and even try to steal them off each other. It shouldn't be the temps since bream 'run' in winter and that's the main time I target them fishing.
Heaps more fun at feeding time, maybe they realise I plan to harvest and replace them soon...

Hey Bodgey, any chance of keeping at least one Bream and see how long it lasts. Just for experimental purposes if anything.

+1


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Hmm, that's a tempting thought Charlie...
I never took any real measurements of the bream so we wouldn't get a solid idea of growth or FCR.
But keeping one or two of them would appeal if I can make it work. If I do I'll measure them for length when I restock.
My restocking would fill the FT pretty well and mixing species could cause dramas. At first the bream would likely eat a few fingerlings, then as the fingerlings grow they might out compete the bream for food.
I'd been expecting to expand GBs but now that you have me thinking, I'll ponder an extra FT as well which would let me keep the bream going.
It doesn't fit in well with my design and layout thoughts but I should be able to fit something in.
I'm really liking their new aggro attitude when feeding, wouldn't mind keeping them.

Mind you, I'd want to pellet train them if they were staying.
They're a bit expensive to feed at the moment on their prawn only diet.
The plants seem to do well on it though, not sure if that's 'a thing' or not but worth noting.
(I am close to my max stocking density and the system had been used for close to a year before I bought it, so that probably has a lot to do with it.)

Had a day off work due to car issues this morning and after I sorted them out decided to use the free time to get the system partially clad.
I still need to get some different screws with washers to fix the polystyrene sheets properly, add the wood trim to the GB and do some plastering/repainting but it has already made a difference despite the gaps that are still visible.
Better remember to cut access to the bottom drain too while I think of it...
How many months did it take me to do that single hour's work?

Bream are still timid but also still feeding and doing fine.

I did plan to mitre the ends of the timber but decided to be lazy, pretty sure that will annoy me later.

One more pic, the timber is only balancing on there but I had to see how it looked.
I'm all excited about my AP again.