Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks Francois, that makes sense now.

Hi All
I finished of my plastic over my system.
Re-using some of the plastic I used with my pilot project
My plastic is a loose cover that I can roll up as I require
Makes the plastic cover flexible...I roll up by myself no problem
On the two ends hanging down I rolled the plastic around dia.40 PVC pipe
to add some weight …really works well
In summer I will have the same setup but using white shade cloth.

more

Nicely done.

Hi All
Finished of my two ends
Ready for grow media and fish

Looks extremely neat Francois! Keep up the great work

thanks faye
hoping to have fish and grow media in the system shortly

My duckweed colony coming on nicely

Hi All
Over the last few days I finished the cover over my fish tank and worm filter.
Winter is almost over but it is still cold enough to see if it helps with water temperature.
I have to also find a leak I have in my system…..today I stripped out the two bottom trays.
I did exact water replacements over 5 days counting the Litre water per day replaced.
The system was losing 170 Litres of water per 24 hours cycle.
No visible leaks or wet patches to see were the water was going.
I re-checked for small holes and I found very small holes (pinhead) and I sealed them up.
I did the bottom trays today…….I hope I pushed the right button
Tomorrow will only tell me if the problem is solved.
170 litres per 24 hrs…7 litres per hr...????? It seems a lot to me.
No plants growing, the system running 24/7.

Hi Francois How annoying for you. I will keep my fingers crossed for you and hope that you fixed those pesky leaks.

Hi Faye
sorted....found the leak today and hopefully the last now i want to keep the system running 24/7

Hi All
So the leak sorted.
Funny I could not see anywhere where the water leaked…the cut was on one of the bends on the corners of my grow tray. 20 mm long cut …I had previously soldered the cut (self made when I made the grow tray) but with all the bashing around the crack split open again.
I have also filled my worm/sump with media…..using all my off cuts of PVC pipes and fittings…I have lots from my pilot project….. I still have meters laying in my yard.
I took some of the Ø30/Ø40/Ø50 pipes and off cuts and cut them into shorter pieces of all sizes.
Took time and still not finished …..I need to cut more
Not what I was planning on using but it is what I had laying around and for now it should do the trick and I can see how it works with the worms…???.
The media I want to eventually use will be HDPE turned cutting's.

Hi All
On Sunday I went and bought myself 5 Kio for starters...between 60-80 mm long.
3 of them +-80 mm and 2 +-60mm
I released them into my top grow tray for now...I want to check and see how they do.
When I am happy then I will release them into the fish tank with the rest of the tilapia.
I have not checked ammonia yet but the nitrite on Sunday was less 0.1mg/l.
The Ph was 6.8
Temp 15 degrees Celsius late afternoon
Alkalinity 75
Hardness 50
For nitrate I have not tested yet.

The duckweed I have moved from the buckets into the grow tray’s where I want the duck weed growing......???

duckweed is startint to grow...
look good