Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

No. I've never heard of any one doing it. I was talking about catching the fish from Sejin's nice long fish pond.

Don't think Sejin is going to appreciate you molesting his fish!!

Good to hear that you are helping him out. Very kind of you.

You'll have to start the SAAP ASS. (South Australia Aquaponics Association).

or the BYGFFA

Back Yard Goldfish Fly Fishing Association

An intersting talk going on here while I was blacked out for another day of internet outtage in a "fibre estate."

Sejin

Updates for February - a couple of photos -

Balance tank balance pipes are now inside tank to allow fitment of growbed distribution pipes.


Great place to grow the duckweed. I am amazed at how fast the duckweed multiplies. The goldfish love it. Duckweed contains approx 40% protein!!


A new addition to the critters are 4 mussels from one of the fishing club's dams. Good for filtration.


Grow beds now sport black plastic covering to insulate from UV. The plastic is waste material from paver carting. The plastic sheets are placed between pavers to stop them scratching each other and ends up in landfill. The plastic was also placed around and top of fish tank. Grow beds will also have shade cloth cover, same as fish tank, just to make them look tidy.
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i dont know what species they are, but theres carp in the river torrens as well as most every body of fresh water in SA tho i dont know how dense the populations are. it does seem like a long way to go just to catch carp. are you planning on eating your fish?

all in all tho great looking system.

Thanks Dan.

Don't plan on eating the goldfish. I will stick to eating the trout for now.

If I had lots of room, I would have place the sumps to the side and grown stuff in them too. I would have had opened top sumps but covered with polycarbonate lids, to minimize evaporation. Would have been good for growing duckweed during the summer.

Thanks Dan.

Don't plan on eating the goldfish. I regularly fish the Broughton for trout, so will stick to eating the trout for now. The goldfish are great in the AP. Very easy to look after and they eat just about everything.

If I had lots of room, I would have place the sumps to the side and grown stuff in them too. I would have had opened top sumps but covered with polycarbonate lids, to minimize evaporation. Would have been good for growing duckweed during the summer.

Hi Dunder,

I have been having trouble in getting good duckweed growth.
What do you think are the factors that explain the duckweed growth in your setup?

Sejin

I am also curious about the state of plant growth and fish health in your system since you started a bit ahead of me.

Sejin

Hi Sejin

Like you, I am very new at this. I have duckweed growing in quite a few locations in yard/home.

The best growth is in the balance tank. It gets good sunlight, regular water change from the FT, and the water surface is not disturbed (important for duckweed).
I also have duckweed in a four foot aquarium, which is my daphnia tank. It is under a vine so gets dappled light. Also, has air bubbles breaking the surface. The air stone is inside an 'uplift pipe'. It's not as fast growing but not bad.
I also have a plastic container, similar size to yours with duckweed. This one does not get aerated. Water is static. I change approx 10 litres of its contents, with FT water, about 3 times per week. The growth in that one is a bit slow, I suspect due to lack of aeration but not sure.

You may do better, if you only had duckweed in your tank - no other plants.
Use an 'uplift pipe' to circulate water/nutrients better.
Have a round floating container around uplift, to stop water surface motion across the tank. Duckweed likes still water.


Growth is a bit slow. This is not surprising. I have read quite a bit of info and it is said that new AP systems, will grow plants, but things will be slow at first. It can take up to 8 months for the system to start performing well. I don't expect too much the first year. My main interest for now is to have lots of plants growing, regardless of growth rate, to take up the excess nutrients, so that the fish stay healthy. This time of year is not the best to start growing plants in Adelaide due to high temps. I have been keeping my system under 70% shade cloth and also place a bed sheet, over the shade cloth, on those hot days over 34 degrees.

The fish seem to be very well. I make my own gel food. Also give them lettuce, compost worms, dry dog food pellets. Goldfish do not have a stomach, so small amounts of food, many times a day, is the way to feed them, if possible. The food goes straight from the oesophagus to the intestines and if too much food is given, it goes straight through without being processed. At first, I did not know this, so was feeding them two large meals per day. I found that they had very long poos, of unprocessed food. Not good for the goldfish or the AP system.

We are on a journey of great discoveries. We are very fortunate indeed

I put water lily in my duckweed tray only to remove it from fish pond, there was nowhere to put it. But I will consider removing it. I suppose there may be competition for nutirients.


I tried dog food, but I did not like it.
In choosing dog food, my main reason was to reduce food cost but get something with high protain. I ended up choosing a puppy food with 37% protein.
Because it was too big, I socked it in water overnight and both goldfish and silver perch ate well.
But it was rather oily and water became oily on surface and only disappeared after one day or so.
But then, it would become another feeding time. So, I was concerned about the effect of oil on the water pond and well as growbed. I stopped using it now even though I used only about 20% of the bag I bought.


This is a valuable information. Thanks, I will try giving smaller amount of food each time.
This may also relate to dog food feeding. There may have been uneaten oily food left over and rotting.

I read that one gives just enough food that would be consumed fully each time.
But I find that gold fish was slow eater. And food that is sunken does disappear overnight.
So, I thought this was equivalent to just enough food. But I will try your method of smaller and more frequent feeding.

Your comments are thoughtful.
I appreciate.

Sejin

Wow! Really? !!!

Ya learn something new every day... or every few hours around here.

And this...

The nutrients that the plants take up (nitrAtes) don't do any harm to the fish until they are VERY high - 600+, so don't be too concerned if you see high nitrates, it's the ammonia and nitrites that cause fish harm.

I'm not sure if I'm just reading between the lines or reading stuff into what you said there, but it's better to get too much information than not enough

system looks fantastic Dunder

the old rule with keeping fish in aquariums was "only what they can eat in 5 minutes" and would definitely still apply to AP. if there is food being aloud to sink to the bottom over night then you are definitely feeding way to much and this would be causing a lot of your current issues. have a read here http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/qa/f/faq0013.htm

how did you attach the legs to your beds?