Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

And some more picks that didn't fit in the first post

And a pic that didn't fit in the first or second post

This sump pit caused me the most grief of the whole setup. The 3500 litre pump I put in turned out to be a dud with an intermittent fault. So the pit overflowed (hadn't sealed it up yet) and then when the pump did kick in it sucked in a whole lot of dirt! So after much testing and grief took the thing back to Creative Pumps in Adelaide and they swapped it no questions asked (they've been very helpful).

Then... I have two 2400 litre per hour pumps feeding the greenhouse and clay balls; each one on a timer so that the 3500 l/h return pump could cope...but the timer switches managed to overlap and you guessed it ... more dirt in the pool.


So went back to CP and bought a 6000 l/h and reboxed the 3500 as a spare.

No more problems return pump turns on for a couple of minutes now and then. Nothing succeeds like over engineering!

I've been letting the dirt settle in the pool and then using a fine net on a pole to scoop it up, which is a pain; but the filter that came with the pool can't remove the muck.

Anyway the water's a bit cloudy and the damm Silver Perch are small, fast and obviously evolved to hide in murky river water. Aaarrggg, I know they're there somewhere, they occasionally flit past, swimming against the current or to grab some food. So I assume that they're happy.

There's only two things that worry me at the moment:

(1) My PH is a tad high a 7.6 (guess who over did the bicarb to get the PH up from around 6
)

(2) No ammonia. I have around 10K litres of water , 150 fingerlings (around 300g of fish) and for some strange reason no ammonia

Well OK I do know why there's no "measurable" ammonia; the poor little things are LAZY and obviously not prepared to put in the hours eating and shitting. That's what I get for getting laid back fish from Queensland

Great effort E2, Wow you've been busy..

You've got to have some of that "P" word now.. Your ammonia will build, how long have the fish been in there?

Awesome!
Time to add more fish, then. Or just feed the ones you have 'til they bust!

E2, I know how you feel with not enough ammonia Our 250 fish are getting big, and still I NEED MORE FISH! The tomatoes are sucking everything out of the water, and everything else is struggling.

When it comes to ammonia and cycling I can think of 2 "P" words - which one do you mean

Looking good E2

It's looking great, where abouts did you source that screw top barrel/sump from. I have been waiting for PB to get some in for a while now....

Yeah ok... I was only thinking about patience.. but both P words are apt..

Awesome E2

Janet and I tried to get a "geyser pump" to work good enough to use as a vacuum pump (get the gunk out of my sump lazily ) - still working on it

Les wheres the thread on geyser pumps

Stanby F&F, see if I can find it

Have a read F&F, been meaning to buy a larger air pump to test it better
Geyser stuff

Had a read how high are you wanting to lift water . I see the autopot man has an air lift working in his fish tanks he just hangs a filter in the tanks 1 in above the water 12 in below and the air lift only has to lift 1 in his tanks are nice and clean no other filtering When i clean out tanks ect .Ijust use a jabcso self priming pump for all those kind of jobs they easy prime to 1 mete .. You can allways use a water lifter driven by a pump will try and draw one

They've only been in since last Thursday night (a cold and wet 9:45 pm pick up at the airport).

I suspect it's taken a few days for them to settle and a few more for the water temp. to increase (The big greenhouse only came on line on the Friday, and even when I get 42 degrees on a 20 degree day, the water volume is such that it'll take a while to warm up...and then I'll be worrying about too warm... )

But the P word is a problem; I don't do the P word too well. So I guess this will be good for my soul

The good news is that this evening I did an ammonia test and it measured 0.25 on the little colour chart thingy (technical term for those who don't know). No nitrates or nitrites of course; but I've preseeded with commercial bacteria (bio-start) so I have high hopes

On the P word; I'm keeping a diary with daily measurements, including temp ; ph etc and feeding rates, visual observations of the plants, water and fish. So this sort of keeps me busy and the big bonus is that if all my fish die I'll be able to look knowledgeable and give a good explanation of what went wrong (or at least make something up )

Went down to the local hydroponics store and they had them for sale. Cost me $45; but it saved me hunting a cheap one down...and since my partner has insisted that I get a hobby to reduce stress and increase quality of life; and supported me in the wallet department ....

Of course if it all goes pear shaped and I'm unable to get things to work then I'm a dead man

But the theory's sound and all the things I've used have been done elsewhere...so i should be OK or at least have a good idea how to fine tune things later.