Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

dogs keep most of them at bay

Oh oh found a weeping leak today in one of my return to sump pipes Time to dig, check, pull apart and re-glue. Oh well

weep fixed. used silicon pushed it right into the weeping section then completely covered the join in a number of layers! Will leave the silicon to dry then recheck (maybe another layer?) then bury again.

I have covered my system with bird net. (to keep out the kookaburras and other fish predators)
This lets the bees etc fly in ond out. I think I will need smaller mesh as well to keep out fruit fly when fruit is on the plants tho.

Catfish and silvers going well in the aquarium system. The Silvers have grown very quickly and the cat fish always seem to have fat bellies. The bass are also doing very very well. Have lost 3 of the 20-25 bass I have in there. I believe they died due to starvation, ie very very skinny. I am hoping that this will be the end of my bass losses due to not taking the feed. There are 2 more that are slim, but not skinny. The 3 bass were put to good use in the cod tank. 3 cod swimming around with a bass in their mouths each with other cod chasing them is kinda funny to see.

When this damn weather cools off a bit tonight, I will take a pic/video of the bass feeding. Very fery agressive feeders

Edit:
Amm - 0
rites - .25
rates - 15
pH - 7.4
temp - very warm! - no thermometer in the tank, but it is well over 24, I would say close to 28-29 at the moment.

Quachy

those readings from you bass fingerling tank right? Those nitrites have come down since the other day. Have you made any changes? increased GB etc??

no changes, as I said when you were here, I just leave it until it hits the bottom figure (5ppt) and then do a 1/3 water change. I haven't done a change since you were here last and it would seem that the bacteria has caught up!

Picked these guys from the ap today. Still more to be picked! The biggest one weighed 492grams! Not bad for a Lebanese cucumber.

Still heaps of beetroot left to be picked, but we ran out of pickled beet. My wife makes a damn tasty preserved beetroot, and that's coming from me who hates beetroot!

We had this for dinner the a few nights ago. Everything came from the ap or dirt garden except cheese, olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper!

Zucchini boats stuffed with purple conga potato, cheese, zucchini flesh and carrot, topped with grated cheese.

The salad had cucumber, a variety of lettuce, a variety of rainbow chard (silverbeet), sunflower petals and cheese.

I can't wait until the tomatoes ripen to add them to the salad and the carrots to mature to do likewise!

Niiiice...

OK everyone, my tomatoes are going great guns in fruit setting, but I'm getting a little impatient with the ripening process. They are red tomatoes, different varieties ie. not the rare stay green variety. With the heat we have been getting I would have thought they would ripen up by now, but all still green, very healthy otherwise. They are under 70% shade cloth, and I am thinking to give them another few days, if no sign of colouring, then off the shade cloth goes and hopefully we don't get crazy heat again this summer.

What are your thoughts APers?

My tomatos in the soil garden are the same. I think it might be the cool nights we seem to be getting. Its only really been hot a few days in a row and then we are gettiing these strange cool spells with really cold nights. It was 9c the other night up here.

Strange, I've been pulling toms off for about 1 1/2 months.
but they are in the hot house!!!
bit more sun and they will come good.

dam your veggies look good

regards

Matt

Thanks Matt!

With no really super hot days coming up, I have taken the shade cloth off and now the gbs have heaps of sun all day. Interesting to see if the tomatoes ripen up or not. I must say that the dirt garden tomatoes are ripening, they were put in at the same time as the ap ones, but the fruit does not look as healthy or anywhere near as big. I will do a weigh in when I come to my first pickings. ie select most fruiting and healthiest looking plant from each ap and dirt beds (same varieties of course) and do a weigh in of toms we pick. interesting to see the results.

On a completely dirt garden note: my golden delicious apples, first year of fruiting after two years (put it in as a bare root). Have around 50-60 apples on the tree and the biggest brach with 24 apples in total split due to the weight and winds today I have roped the branch back on and although expect to save some of the fruit, I don't think the branch will re-bond. It may, but doubt it. Bugger!

quachy