Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

http://www.news.com.au/national/south-a ... 6713178032

"Mount Compass resident Dorothy Walker, who owned the Tooperang Rainbow Trout Farm before its closure last month, said aquaculture was expensive in SA."

Hope ur right and this is just temporary. I was hoping for a sunday drive too!!!

HI all

I purchased my last batch of 100 trout from Tooperang Rainbow Trout Farm only a few weeks ago. They said that they would still be breading fish for sale.

thanks bernhard, big sigh of relief!

Hi Dan,

Tooperang is still open for purchase of fingerlings - 3 1/2 inches are 80c each for min of 50.
They also have 6 & 8 inch but they are over the $1.50 mark.
Ring them first & make an appointment.

Got me 50 trout today, stoked! they seem happy in their spa retreat! thanks tooperang!

so when you read other peoples posts warning about trout jumping - dont leave one of the tank hatches open for easier access to admiring your new fish... the rain must have been too much stimulation for 5 of the little guys, so now we have 45... live and learn, well the rest of them live and i learn I now have a wire mesh hatch in place for easy admiring

Have placed an ex pool filter pump inline to help clean the water till the gb's are ready, have cut the cord to the pump so its just got the 2500lph pump flowing thru - doing a great job and great aeration till its all set up.

Trout are feeding well, i love how they attack the food instead of just sucking it in like the goldfish!

So you have 45 trout in a spa with only a pool filter removing wastes?

Howdy Dan. Love the use of the spa. You could get some thick perspex as a view through floor. But must admit that im a bit worried. That pool filter wont cope for too long. Not unless you are cleaning it out frequently. What are you doing about grow beds. A quicker solution might be a radial filter and a bio filter. Like the ones the aquaculture guys are using. There are heaps of info on them on this forum. But great start on the system. Best of luck.

... fingerlings in a 1500L tank, filter designed for up to 6000L, I clean it twice a day: very effective for a temporary measure.

Fish seem very happy and eat more voraciously each feed. Dirt gardens get the goodness for now; but if you'll excuse me, i have GBs to complete! (nearly done)

Love the idea of perspex, could replace it with a cover as the weather warms to keep temps down for as long as possible.

Been reading about members systems everynight for months now, wow there are some amazing systems, so much inspiration, thanks to all who have posted their info!

The pool filter is designed to remove wastes/solids and that's it. It doesn't remove ammonia or nitrite and doesn't provide surface area for biological activity and nitrification. It's also a common mistake to think fingerlings are any different to larger fish in regards to ammonia production. You should of had grow beds before you even thought of buying fish, especially trout. There's a very high change that you will kill the lot of them.

Im keen to get some trout too, I rang tooperang maybe a forthnight/month ago and they were still open

yep tooperang are definitely open still, its just the retail shop that they have closed, so you need cash and you need to ring your order through prior to rolling up. i asked about buying small quantities, and they will do it but you just pay abit more, which is better than over stocking and loosing the lot. im hopeful to be getting my trout within a fortnight. giddyup

So Ive now had 4 big tubs of scoria cycling up for the past week, 2 x 2500L pumps running 24 hrs, and a 38 lpm air pump; trout are smashing the food 4 x a day and all seem happy and well. They have grown noticeably. Ive also changed out about a quarter of the water a few times (dirt gardens loving it) so all should be well until the rest of the system is set up (only held up by finance!)

Couple of questions:

- am i right to mix some of the goldfish system scoria into the new scoria as seed? given different gut flora, is this safe? (btw the goldfish pond is now crystal clear!)

- If i cut castelations in the rim of a bucket and invert that over a pump, that should act as a solids suction device right? is this a common solution to solids?

- grow beds need to be level, but it seems 90mm pvc pipe needs a gradient to flow? Do i need pots in the pvc or can shallow rooted veg (lettuce etc) just be planted in holes?



Oh and yes tooperang have plenty of trout of all sizes, and very friendly ppl to deal with, its more like visiting a family than a business.

For 90mm drainpipe I assume you are talking an nft setup. If so my rerarch found a recommended fall of 1:40. In my experience using only short tubes of 1.5m this isn't a problem. The water comes in one end and goes out the other. The shallower the better so that at the high end your plans there still see some water.
I take it you have trout already then? I'm thinking if buying a few but not many. Maybe 10 as I already have 25 silver perch? A group but makes more sense for me. Anyone else interested? What was the cut off for cheaper fish, I vaguely recall 50.

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