Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Nigel you have some work ahead of you, why so many sumps? but nice design

Nocky - mainly because it gives me more water to play with when I don't really have the room for another pond.

Also, I'm quite keen on yabbies/gilgies/koonacs and that gives me a bit more capacity in that area, plus somehwere to put fingerlings so that I don't have to time my fishstock changeovers exactly.

Whye, do you see a problem ?

No worries you have to ask these questions

Nigel what's the progress, no posts since August

Yeah Nocky, I know. It's pretty sad and I am going absolutely nuts waiting for the builder to finish and P$%s Off !

Doing lots of background tasks that are pretty dull but will make for a better system, eventually.

Trenched in about 35m of 90mm pipe so that there is good drainage off to the edge of the block. Started that on the Saturday that it hit 38 C here in Perth - Damn near killed me

The upside is that any water pumped out of my system (and some of the roof drainage) is then directed onto our west facing slope that is planted with natives - so now they can receive water during the summer - nothing going to waste.

Besides that I'm fiddling around with a few other items that I'll put up here once I have them in practice on the system.

Also, picked up some second hand GB stands and 1,000 L tank from EB a few weeks back so am getting the stands wire-brushed back to steel and then painting them with anti-rust paint.

Have put a few native fish, some yabbies, and a bunch of plants (mainly water chestnuts and other edibles) into the 1,000 L tank as I need to be doing something, no matter how small scale. Plus, this will then give me a nicely aged, 1,000L bacteria source when I do get the proper system started.

And as you've seen on the other thread, I'm trying to get my BioPod up and running.

Tell me about the yabbies, please

I like that idea a lot

Like : where to get them and at what cost; temperature problems; care and feeding; do you need a huge tank etc. are of interest

Since stoking up my balcony system I've been busily thinking of economical ways of enlarging / extending it using common items such as old bathtubs and laundry troughs ( works if you are carrying out home renovations )

Geoff

Yabbies are easy to get - I simply used a couple of opera house nets out at Noble Falls - a few kay's past Gidge on the Toodyay Rd. Or, the big aquarium/pet shop on Gt Eastern Hwy Midland sells them for $1 each.

There's lots of info in this forum if you do a few searches.

Temperature - you won't have a problem in Kalamunda. They just slow down when it gets cooler.

Food, I don't really bother. The 1,000 L tank is open half the time so I assume between whatever falls in and whatever food I put in for the fish that makes it to the bottom seems to keep them going. I have a few plants in there as well and I think they eat some of that (milfoil, water chestnuts, lebanese cress, etc)

Throw in some old pieces of 40mm pipe or something else so that each one can have it's little hide - minimises fighting.

Also, get some shade cloth about 30cm wide and a metre long and fold it up so it looks like a Japanese fan. Tie it up at one end and put a fishing float there. Attacha small sinker somwhere on the open end at put that in. If the yabbies breed, and they are like rabbits, it give the juveniles a great place to hide and avoid getting eaten.

You can also by yabbies from seafood shops they work out about $2 each, I also have house bricks in tank (the ones with 12 Holes in them) they also make excellent hides plus the bricks with 3 bigger round holes in them, you will never stop them fighting no matter how much you feed them, they are territorial and fight for turf, as nigel said also the shade cloth for when they spawn the babies, you would have missed the boat on that though as they drop babies late November to about now, I have about 200 yabbies in a 3000lt tank so you can cram them in, doesn't matter if you have 2 or 200 they will still fight as they get bigger, they seem to live fine with Pygmy Perch but attack gold fish, trout will eat them as trout get bigger, barra will eat them as well, they are excellent for cleaning bottom of tank, i feed mine a handful of marron pellets a week also, sorry for the hijack nigel

The planning looks great. It looks like you are trying to out do us all. Makes sense to do what you are doing at the same time as building.

If you get hard up for some yabbies, there are always some in my dams you may have. My water cleared up a bit overnight and this morning I could see the yabbies in there. Sure enough, they had their swords and daggers out and were going hammer and tongs at each other. They are only in there to keep things going whilst the SP are beefing up a bit.

Hey Thanks Rick, for the feedback and the offer - very kind.

Now just waiting for the roofing guy to turn up (small miracle right there), finish putting his flashings up and get his damn scaffolding out of my FT . The Crommelins sealant and reinforcing is sitting in the shed waiting.

Probably contact you in a couple of months then for a yabby raid once I've got it set up and ready for new inhabitants - cheers !

You might have to have an overnighter in Narrogin Nigel

I believe the Canning river around Gosnells is also full of yabbies. Just make sure they are not gilgies you are taking and you should be OK (gilgies have keels on their heads like marron, yabbies have none).

Yeah, thanks Burnsy - always keep my little identification chart in the car. Didn't know that about the Canning.




Mmmm - a cunning plan is forming in my mind....... yabbies..... 2 kg my homemade bacon..... Coopers...... Tooheys Old....... and whatever the hell Rick drinks........

stay tuned !

Rick has seen the light Nigel and the Bundy Ginger Beer is his preference, I also have seen the light , but not the same one, mine are more like party lights, but myself and rick have spare rooms, would be easier to stay at my place as me and her both drink and he lives 20 k's outta town, Bacon and smoked trout sound like an interesting combo