Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Cool thank ccBear, will be keen to hear how it goes, i wont get a chance to do it for a while as doing so much already and off to melb at the end of this week and back for a day then off to bali for 2 weeks.
I just hope the system survives while i am away, got a house sitter coming in but worked out if all goes well i will have about an hour with him to run through everything inc the dogs, chooks, horses and Ap before we have to leave.

The AP should handle itself no problems. Over feeding will be the biggest problem.

Well i will be dealing with that by putting them on smaller rations and strict instructions that if a feed is missed not to try and catch up, just skip.

I am more worried about the Aphids, i cant knock them, nothing i tried has so much as slowed them down. At the moment am just squashing them every day.

Tried Ruperts suggestion with the lights, seemed to be the answer. As long as I only opened the lid half way. Cheers

??? do you mean for feed while i am away??? i dont think my Jades are eating bugs yet? Too small only 2-3 inches long.

For when you want to put the light up for bugs

Oh ok, yeah my tanks have a fixed lid for half and a hinged lid for the other half, my plan is fit the light right up under the fixed lid, then leave my hinged lid slightly up and hopefully a few will land in the water and get nailed.
I will have it on a timer to come on around dusk for about 3 hours.

Hi peeps, back from Bali and now stuck on the couch after a knee reco on an old injury, garden was a mess when i got back as the house sitter obviously has no interest in gardening or eating fresh food. Nothing was harvested so all the beans and peas cropped and died, bugs got into everythinginc the bloody onion mites, powdery mildew was going nuts and wiped out the zukinis, cucumbers and was beginning to have quite an impact on the tomatoes but getting things back under control. One of the AP's was out of water i think only a day or so but thank god for the aerator.

Ive been to Club Med Bali a few times now but this time was the first as an AP enthusiast so when i saw the ponds this time round i was dreaming about what sort of system this pond would support.

You cant see the fish but i assure you there are schools of Tilapia and Koi, 12 or so massive water dragons and several bird species. We were feeding the fish watching the birds swooping down and catching the Tilapia.

Cool pics, kitacooch, thanks.

Interesting those green ponds in Thialand eh? Soltun seems to be the koi guru so I hope he/she coins in. Id love to understand how they work.

Yeah dont know much about them but just assumed that the green was due to the nutrient rich water?? I has plants growing in there but one wouldnt imagine that they would use up all the nutrients and so the algae flourishes using up the excess nutrient. The Tilapia seemed just normal but i did see the Koi doing what seemed to be taking gulps of air from time to time. There was no aeration that one could see other than severel small waterfalls.

Koi coming to the surface to gulp air may sometimes mean not enough aeration but other times, well they can be greedy guts and if they have trained people to feed them, that is often their cue to tell the people to do their trick.

Well that makes sense as people are always feeding them lol, Club Med is an all inclusive resort so people just take bread and so forth from Breaky, Lunch and Dinner and are always feeding them, the kids luv it and i must say i got a bit of a kick attracting the Tilapia to the surface to be taken by the bird working the surface lol. But there were thousands of baby tilapia in there.

Ok so back to the build, I'm a little disappointed in the progress, it was going gun hoe but seems to have fallen over a bit, i am suspecting lack of nutrients is a playing factor. I am also looking closely at water height a flow rates.
Water samples are coming up fine i.e. no Nitrates or Nitrites or Ammonia PH is a bit off but i will post some pics and water test result tonight or tomorrow.
I suspect i have planted too many nutrient demanding plants? Ie tomatoes, cucumbers, corn etc?

I also have a mammal issue, still trying to work out what but i believe it to be Bandicoots as they is no droppings left behind, just the remittence of my plants/fruit that it is eating. Any suggestions on how to deter the little blights? I will be making some changes to the bottom of the green house to try and prevent them from getting in but I'm sure someone must have had issues with them before and come up with an ingenious solution.
Pics and results soon.