Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm sorry, I only seem to write at length about the bad things. I don't do this deliberately it just seems to be a pattern, when I start to get excited about the system or start doing something productive with it things seem to go bad.
The system has just been ticking along slowly for a while so nothing to really report then I start to make more progress and things go wrong.

On a brighter note I went out to the farm this morning and ran some tests on the dam. PH is around 6.5, and ammonia is showing .25 nitrite 0 and didn't test for nitrates since this is not important and probably wouldn't be any.

Could the horse manure in the paddock be causing the ammonia readings??

Pictures;
This one is of the tiny little SP, I wish there was a bigger one in the shot but you can see him in the middle of the pic in the white section of the tank, the pipe off cut is a 65mm diameter. 19months old!

This one is a pretty poor shot of my trout but you can see them, got another fright this arvo feeding them. The bolter is huge!!!! Can't see him in this shot but he took alot of food this arvo.


And this one is a full shot of my system the way it is at the moment.
Noticed something has been eating the tops of my Cauli and Broc, and found some poo in the first GB, mice or rats. Will need to buy some traps!!

Had a visit from Milne (food&fish) today so he could checkout my system and pick up some feed. You get some good tips when people come around. Some things you have already thought of but havn't got around to it yet but others, which are quite obvious once pointed out, that you just never thought of doing.
Like if I was to put a tee in my pump line and direct it back into the sump to create a swirl effect it would keep my solids suspended instead of building up on the bottom.

Pulled another dead SP while he was there too. Not many left now. Think I should get some jades to over winter in the indoor tank.

Yes checked out bindys system .Yes a bit of twiging thats all it needs even for winter he has sone nice growth going on
Just down the road i checked out another poteltial system
they have 4 ponds tubs running goldfish and coi [jees some of them grow big] all up they probley have 15 koi and 30 to40 goldfish
Thanks for the food
Just dont get dishartened with a few dead ones

Sorry to here mate...
SP suck!!!
I'm thinking purchasing a big chest freezer and converting it in to a FT that can regulate the temp and doing trout year round.
I must admit that your SP are pretty small. i've had mine for 6 months and they are about 100mm - 120mm.
am i still catching up with you tomorrow???

Regards
Matt

I am going to be in Epping tomorrow morning but won't be hanging around too long and need to get back to Lancefield in the morning. So unfortunately it won't work out unless you could meet me tomorrow morning around Epping?

Damm!!

Are you working near by next week???
I don't mind coming out to your place, just thought you might want to have a bit of a look at my system..

regards
Matt

Yeah I would, I will be working in epping on and off untill I complete the job, should be at least for the next few weeks at least.
I will give you a call next week, when do you get back? Will your trout survive without food or do you still have some left?

still got a enough left for a week or so. the trout are starting to pick up their feed.. get back on Monday night..
any time after just give me a call..

regards

Matt

can you send me a text with your address again too. Mine don't seem to be hitting the 4mm as hard as the 6mm, I enquired today about getting some 6mm and will find out later this week. I'm hoping they will start to get used to the 4mm soon, they still eat a heap of it but they are not doing back flips like they did on the 6mm. Feeding has become a bit eratic lately for me too with the shocking weather and silly working hours.

yeah, when it get real cold the trout don't seem to eat as much...
I'll send that sms to you...

regards
Matt

Milne, I need to ask your advise, after seeing my system and my GB filtration what are your thoughts on my fish stocking levels.
I am now throwing around the idea of leaving the 25 trout in the sump tank (that were destined for the farm dam).
I also would like to know yours or anyone elses thoughts on what to do with the isolated SP tank. I pulled another dead one off the bottom yesterday.
I would really like to get the SPtank and GB back inline with the rest of the system to increase my GB filtration.
There are probably 4-5 small SP still in the SP tank. Think they might make it!

My thoughts are to drain it right down and remove the remaining SP and put them in the indoor tank and heat it again. Then give the SP tank a good clean and open the valve to bring it back in line with the rest of the system. Then move the 25 Trout from the sump to the SP tank.

Well I went ahead and did it! I drained down ST2 and gave it a good clean then I had to then move the RF (redfin) from the indoor tank into one of my outdoor sump tanks, so they are back in ST2 which has my pump in it. This was to make way for the remaining SP to go back indoors.

Drained down the SP tank and removed a measly 3 SP from there home and back in to the indoor tank. I have added some salt to this and eventually put the heater back in. (when the fiance is not looking )

I then drained down the ST1 which had my 25 trout destined for the farm dam. Netted them and transfered them to the SP tank, was a little suprised to find there were not 25 in there!! Do trout canabilise? I assume so.
This tank was filthy!!
Needed to use a bilge pump to suck the last bit of water and muck from the bottom since it is the top half of an IBC so no drain tap.
I then added a slotted SLO adaptor to run along the bottom of the tank in this sump and the SP tank. I will add one to the trout tank soon too.

I was then able to bring the whole system back on line and left all the growbeds running constant flood as it seems to settle the solids in the growbeds a bit better.

Oh and I also took Milne's advise and added a tee and ball valve to my pumpline to redirect some water back into the sump tank and create a swirl effect in the hopes of keeping the solids off the bottom.

A good days work I would say. Will check on things tomorrow morning and run some tests and maybe an egg or two to coagulate some of the solids in the tanks so I can syphon some more out.

I also added a bucket full of shade cloth under the SLO outlet from the trout tank to the ST1 in order to catch some more solids also.

Sorry just got back from the weekend away

Tests all looking good at the moment except PH which is off the 6 end of the chart. Not too far I hope. I have added a 5kg bag of shell grit in the bucket in the sump. Is this enough shellgrit or should I have more in my system. I have not had to add shell grit before since I have always had a rather high PH untill now.