Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I haven't been home much lately, just dropping around to feed the fish briefly.
Saw what looked like some sort of fairly large nodules on the head of one of the bream.
I've netted them out for inspection and will start a new thread to see if anyone recognises what's happening here.
Looks like "Hole In The Head" disease to me.
According to my home brew hydrometer the water is basically fresh (I water dirt plants with AP water and guess it is well diluted now).
Nitrates are pretty high so maybe that is involved with it, perhaps weakening their immune systems? Will report on the new thread with pics and the few details that I know by then.

That is one huge and awesome tank FF!! Very impressive. I wish I could watch that show, there are such cool tanks but I just can't handle the bad "acting" as well as the fake emergency scenarios that you can see the director/producer insists on to add some "spice" to the show which usually turns out to be super lame.
It was nice seeing him with his son though, it improved my opinion of him although not enough to start watching.

Hey Bodge, please post a link to the new thread here so that I can subscribe to it.

I knew I'd forgotten something Martin -
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=23945

Not much to see on the thread really, just one unfortunate fish which died the day that I noticed its problem. Looks like it probably isn't that common, might be a species thing?

And I have to agree with you about "reality" tv shows, they might not be scripted but they're certainly faking it.
Nice tank though FF.

I think I'm just about done with the bream though, growth is slow and it might be time to move on to something else soon.
Preferably something that doesn't need to be fed prawns, that was an expensive fish to lose...

Thanks Bodge. Yeah that would be counted as pricey after many prawn meals. You could have put all those prawns on the barbie mate!

Will check out your other thread too.

Martin and Bode,

Glad you likes the link. Yeah the acting really stinks. But they do great work. Just like some of the amaising tanks they pull off.

Definitely love the tanks they build.

No progress on expansion yet. (If you're surprised about that then you don't know me well )
HSM today when I was feeding the soon-to-be-doomed bream and noticed the water wasn't flowing.
Somehow the pump had been unplugged, no idea how that happened. I'd be happier if I'd unplugged it and forgotten since then I'd know how it happened so I guess I'll just eyeball it whenever I'm in the laundry from here on in.

Thought I'd share my seedling starter setup.
It's a self watering rig using a discarded screw box for a reservoir, the top of some drink bottles for pots and chux cloth wicks.
I drilled 8 holes in the lid that the neck of the bottle just fit through and screwed the lids and wicks on under the lid to hold them tight.
Nothing fancy but cost nothing and only needs topping up once a week or two.
Must get proper seed raising mix though, the larger pieces in the mix are had to rinse from the roots.
Pretty happy with it, I've had a lot of trouble starting seeds and this seems to work alright for me.

I love this bodgy. I have a lot of trouble with growing from seed, and this looks like the goods! Good use of my excess milk bottles too. I will probably inver them on themselves.... Hmmmm (sorry last sentence I'm talking/thinking to myself ahaha)

Thanks BC, this particular brand of bottle actually clips into itself if you trim off the right 10mm part of the bottle and it's nicely mosquito proof too.
Looks like a kid's fish trap but does the job, I used the screw box to save filling multiple reservoirs and stability.
And I love a good bin dive for scrap...

Here are some pics of what I mean, I'm holding it by the "pot" to show that it stays together even with the weight of the water.

Awesome stuff!

Nice

Bodgy do you use willow branch tips to make the starter hormone? If you cut the tips off willow tree branches, especially in spring, and let it soak in water for 24 hours then the water contains the main hormone that helps seed get kick started.

http://mrbrownthumb.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/make-your-own-rooting-hormone-from.html

Martin Good to know, thanks