Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

S77, by the way, nice system

Yeh, you originally had that many anyway, so i think its ok. I just pictured you havnig 10 and chucking in another 40. Bac. takes time to ajust population to new ammonia output, thats why i asked, but your quantity for that size pond considering their size and that they are not likely to reach 1kg each seem fine

Mate ... I like the auto siphon ...

Good that ya managed to bend a smooth curve with no kinks !

I will post a link to this thread on the autosiphon thread iif you don't mind !

Kewl!

It's 13mm soft rubber tubing I got from a hydroponics store and for a small system it works very nicely, if you get the fittings without the big barbs on them its very easy to chop and change the config quickly.

The black retic tube I was using kinks like hell ..

I think this will make a difference regards my version of Travs autosiphon ...

Funny, cos I just managed to get a meter of some rubberized balck pipe ..

just got to try to get the fittings tomorrow ...

I know this can be fool-proof and bomb-proof!

My trays are really quite shallow at only 7 inches .. (18 cm) high ..compared to the blue barrels .. and I am trying to find a good way to get precison start and stop ... time after time .. so I think tight, smooth loop, biggest diameter I can manage to get siphon break and suction ...

I hope this makes sense ...

Optimisation and no failure is possible for shallow tanks, of that I am sure .. just gotta experiment a little more to find the perameters!

My temporary rainwater storage solution (until I get my galv tank).



A syphon empties the top tub when it fills, it kicks in about 5cm from the lip and totally empties the top tub.



These photos were taken a few days ago when we had a good couple of days of rain here in Perth. A decent downpour can fill the top tub in 10 mins. Gotta get my rainwater tank installed before the Winter rains go away.

The final addition to this first system of mine is below, I added a pipe with some shell to further filter and stabilise the water. I'm pretty sure the yabbies need a bit of calcium in the water too for their shells. Two more of them have moulted now making 3 in total. Water is crystal clear, as you can see (top right).

That's cool for the rainwater Simmo. All this talk about siphons and I hadn't realized I could do this with my rainwater tub too (just have to raise it up a bit)! Thanks for the ideas!

Love those peas! Do you have an all year shortage of fresh peas there too?

Thinking if peas love Aqua, and fetch premium prices all year....

You've done a fine job I want to visit and see all the lines and ideas you've done it's great.

Onya mate.

Cheers AA, the peas and lettuce are the front runners as far as growth is concerned. They are at least double the size of when they were planted in there 2 weeks ago, and to be truthful I should have waited a little longer before planting to let the bacteria establish itself a little more.



"Nope, there's no yabbies in here, just us pot plants..."

Nice pic thought I saw a marron- then reread the text.
Good one simmo.

Nah, that's Pinchy, the one clawed yabby. He's the bluest of the lot of them and loves hiding in that pot plant. He's also the only one that seems to be active during the day, the others rarely venture out of their pipes.

As you can see, they have really made a mess of that plant. The plant was on the way out anyway because it was in the pond when it was pea soup and was covered in algae and the end of the stems were rotting away. The yabbies have nibbled away at it, sometimes in preference to their dry pellets which have been left uneaten on the bottom.

I checked out the different crustasia(?) , they all look so similar as one would imagin.The biggest fresh water crustacean is the marron