Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I wasn't planning on leaving it in there for very long really. The idea is to get enough cuttings from it this year so I can take it out. Also, I put it next to the outlet to see how clogged it would get over a year or so for comparison.

Nice, neat work Depsua. Looking forward to watching it develop.
Can you really get Jade Perch in the Netherlands and are semi tropical fish the best choice?
Have you considered Tench or redfin perch (Perca fluviatis? Although the redfin are difficult to feed) as alternatives?

Thx Nhibbo!

The Jade Perch I might be able to get was bred by a Belgian university to be better suited for our climate. There are some restrictions around getting it though, so we'll see what comes of it. The food I'm currently using, which is made without using fish meal or oil, was initially developed specifically for this type of Jade Perch.
Tench would not be considered very tasty by most people around here and any Perch, as you point out, would pose a new set of feed problems.
For now, I'm content with some nice goldfish and once the weather warms up a bit more, I'll be adding some Koi.

Yes Depsua, I agree that Tench are a bit average taste wise. Very interesting information regarding the Belgi jade perch and especially re the food developed without fish meal or oil. I'm sure that many people here would sit up and take notice if you were ever able to get a copy of the recipe and post it, as most people here in Oz grow either jades or their close relatives like silver perch. Any chance of posting some links to the program at the uni in Belgium?
I hope that you are eventually able to get hold of some jades, although I'm still puzzled why the uni didn't experiment with silvers instead as they are better suited to cooler water and are very similar in other ways.
Good luck with developing your system,
Cheers,

Nhibbo

I've been trying to dig up English links to anything concerning the Omega Perch as they call it, without much luck, it's all in Dutch. It has me wondering if they're still breeding it, I would expect more info to be out there. I haven't kept in touch with the distributor, since I still have to find a way to keep my water suitably warm for it to have enough time to get to plate size.
Anyway, it was developed at the KU Leuven university

Here's some fluff pieces:
KU Leuven article
European Comission article

The food that was developed for it is available for western europe over here, but to see any form of ingredient info, you have to stick to the Dutch presentation unfortunately. The fish like it and the distributor has been using it in his own aquaponics system for a few years. As I've only been using it during the slow cold months, I can't vouch for it yet, but like I said before, this was the only decent food I could find that didn't contain fish meal or oil.

Thank you Depsua,

At least you have given us a few leads. I'm presently building a greenhouse to keep my Silver Perch active over our winter and will be keen to see if I can keep water temps above 17 C with passive heat gain. (Last winter the water temp dropped to just below 13 so if successful I'd consider Jades here in Melbourne too...though they'd still be marginal).
Keep up the good work and I'm looking forward to your system updates.

After a few weeks of warm weather there's finally some growth progress, so here's an update.

Since I wasn't fully convinced we were 100% clear of frost I kept the extra bubblewrap insulation, which has pushed the maximum greenhouse temperatures to 38°C on a few days. The fig tree is loving it, creating a new pup on the side, but it has made the pak soi go straight to seed. Planted some chili starters and put out some different flower seeds, some of which are coming up nicely.



Here's some fat pea pods!


Added 5x 15cm koi a few weeks ago, putting the total at 16, so I'll be adding a few more soon. With the water warming up so quickly, I've never seen the fish this hungry

I also have some deficiency going on that I hope someone can help out with diagnosing. It's in one of the types of peas and I'm having a hard time pinning it down. To me it looks like a potassium deficiency, but I measured it at around 5-6 ppm.

As you can see from the wide shot, it occurs on both plants, starting with the oldest leaves, slowly creeping up. The stem also turns yellow and eventually the leaves dry up and become brittle.




Anyone with a keen eye?

Hi Depsua,

Just a bump.

How is your project coming along?

I did a lot of reading regarding the Jades in Belgium and I think selling them as Omega Bass is a good marketing ploy. If I ever get back to Belgium I'd love to visit the facility on a guided tour.
Did you eventually sort the deficiency problem?
I have finally gotten round to building my greenhouse (6m x 4m x 3m high), but so far have only one system running in there atm. We've had a really cold start to winter after a long indian summer and temps there are low. Down to 11C in the water so far. i'd been hoping for much better. I had to dismantle the solar heater I used last winter, but think it might need to be resurrected LOL.

Cheers,

Norm

Hey Nhibbo,

Thx for bumping my thread!
No I never did get around to the deficiency in my last post, the beans just ended up shriveling and died. Your greenhouse sounds like a dream, wish I had room for something that size. A solar heater sounds nice too, it's one of those things I've never gotten around to making, but I can definately relate to the low temperatures being a drag.

Here's some impression pics over the last ~19 months, which are long overdue.

Continued

One more round for 2019. A less successful year since we had an outbreak of aphids and spider mites, which destroyed most of the front two growbeds. We were planning on getting more peppers and garden huckleberry, but I had to take it all out. The back GB however was a great success with winter melons and galia melons. I rigged up some bird netting for them to climb over, which worked quite well. A few peppers planted infront of the melons didn't do great because they were eventually shaded out by the jungle on top.

Your system looks great .

From the picture comments - "This grows around the GB outlets, not sure what it is, but I think it looks great. Some type of moss?"

Looks like a liverwort. Pretty neat

Or it could be the thallus of a fern (the sexual stage rather than the sporophyte stage).

From looking at hits on Liverwort, I'd say Scotty had it right