Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

will be sometime DanDMan. Only up there at weekends at the moment but will asap.
Alex

Must be a fair sized operation.....

Hi ROZ,
I think the glasshouse covers 2 hectares which up until xmas was growing
cucumbers. They have now all been ripped out and replaced with tommies.
Five or six work fulltime with up another ten to twelve when things get busy.
Alex

Well, I suppose some might think I'm an "Elder", but let's get it straight: I'm not old!!!

That said, Amaca's got some good points...great start but you'll need more growbeds. There was an article someone linked to recently about a dairy farmer here in the states who was raising tilapia in the barn.

Sorry for that JP, it was the word that came to my mind while typing the message. It was meaning all the young people who have doing aquaponics long before me. My vocabulary is sometimes limited even if it is getting better and better.
Still do some mistakes, and will continue doing.

I was of course only teasing you, Amaca

Votre anglais est bien meilleur que mon francais, certes! En faite, je pense que votre anglais est bien meilleur que beaucoup d'americains.

If your looking at getting trout this season we should pool an order and split freight/pick up costs. I was looking at picking mine up so they have the shortest freight time possible.

I 'should' have my system together shortly.

We will have to arrange a meeting SG. We are at the farm over the weekend every weekend.

Thanks Janet,
We intend to grow slowly, have room and materials to expand very quickly if we have to.
Our first move is to have the area closed off before winter.
No snow but if it is a dry winter it will be cold mornings down to minus 2c.
Alex

Alex: just a note, the trout food is very rich in protein and will then give a big quantity of ammonia to deal with. Keep in mind, and trout don't like high ammonia and high nitrite levels, make sure to be testing regularly and have a few beds ready to start in case.

JP:

I understood you were teasing janet but i wanted to get what i meant the clearest possible in case that I hadn't understood all the sense of the word.
Did you learn french at school? If so it is still pretty good.
And my english must be good at the least, i've got an english passport too, but it has been the last 20 years in France that has helped me loose it a bit.

Sorry for the hijack Alexmac and i would suggest to you to start your system with a few savage goldfishes to start the ammonia cycle going before anything.

Hi Amaca,
I have an advantage in that the water we will start with is Channel water very heavy in all sorts of goodies and some bad ones. We will have to pump the water through the beds for some time to obtain the required balance. We will be testing as we go and using urea to assist the units to cycle.
Alex

You could maybe make a small filter to put before the system when pumping the channel water, it would clear out the solids from the water a bit and still keep the bacteria in it.

Hey Alex, I am a Geelong boy that picked pears at Mooroopna and lived in Shep back in the day.(Played some footy at Shep United, worked at the Park Lake.) Katunga = Barnsey and the Hocking boys iirc.
Forget Jades unless you have access to free unlimited power to heat ur water. (Sorry to kill that dream.) Redfin are a no no really. Trout are great for about 8 months of the year. Silver Perch are fantastic year round. Won't die in summer or winter and will tolerate temp extremes. I can hook you up with a very reputable supplier if ur interested. (No affiliation.)
Just about trout time now, you can get advanced fingerlings from Ballarat for $77/100. They do have a slightly higher DO requirement but grow like the clappers in our slightly cooler waters.
Welcome and enjoy the ride.

Your comments on how we have planned our tank and pump set up are very welcome.

A correction to the GB and sump tank size made in my opening comments, they are 1000lts each, not 800Lts sorry about that. The grow beds will hold approx 750LTS each as they hold 1000lts at 400mm deep we will have them at around 300mm.

The sump water level is approx 200mm (8 inchs) below the fish tank full mark.

We intend using a sump-pump with float switch pumping up into the GBs drawing water from the FT via the Sump . Taking the water from the centre and bottom of the FT until approx a max of 500lts are taken from each FT tank with the balance from the sump.
The pump cuts out when the water level in the GBs reach a set level. GBs then drain via a loop syphon into each FT at an angle causing the water to move around in the circular tanks taking all the rubbish on the bottom into the middle.
When the water level returning from the GBs via the FT to the sump is reached the cycle starts again.
The drain from the FT has a flap valve on a ball in the Sump which closes should the pump fail to start.
I hope you can follow this gabble it is rather hard to take it out of your head onto paper.
This winter will be our learning period with I hope a good deal of input from you all.
Alex

Hi TT,
Small world, I was fullback for Lemnos in the early 1960's played my first senior game with Kyabram '57. Born Finley family farmed at Berrigan. I worked for Hunter at Shep.
Re Jades have some idea's on how to grow these and will be trying it sometime this spring.
If you ever up this way let me know.
Alex