Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Wooo hoooo....

Nice work, congratulations. Good to see Wales is right up there with AP......

It looks like it was hot weather with people in short sleeves and singlets. Opposite to us right now with low temps at night.
Great to see interest for a 2 day workshop, well done Rowena and Philip

One large trout caught for supper tonight!
weight 1.087kilo=2.4lbs
It was delicious with salad and chips and a glass of wine followed by strawberries and thick cream!

Nothing like the "fruits of your labour" eh WD??...

June2010 update!
Everything is pottering on nicely - touch wood!
Fish are growing well - as are the plants - veggies,herbs and some flowers.
We are expecting as group of local Young Farmers to visit this evening and hopefully interest one or two of them in AP.
Last weekend we ran an Intensive one day workshop for two fellars who are opening a hydro shop in South Wales.They were so intrigued with the AP setup that they are thinking of going into that also - so perhaps BYAP shop might be hearing from them to import some small systems into the UK.
Our annual Open Day is on Saturday 26th June from 1-6pm and we have had enquiries from many parts of the UK - I know some forum members will be visiting - it should be a good day and we will see if we can remember to take some pictures.

This is when Welsh Dragon on the right met DragonC and his OH on the left at our Open Day!
They travelled 250 miles for a look see.
Loads of people came to see a working productive AP system and we spent five very tiring hours chatting away.
Did manage to sell 12 plump trout though - which will go towards paying for the fish food.

Some people would call us crazy to travel so far just to meet a fellow aquaponian. Well the fact of the matter is that there are so few people doing this in the UK that it's hard to get the necessary information.

WD and OH have a pretty decent setup. Its the kind of thing, myself and my OH are looking at doing. Albeit it slightly differently. WD had a severe limitation when building the Aquadrome... that being of time. So they had to make some compromises which later had made some things awkward for them. But they are battling on making things better. Lessons learnt over the course of the build will help make the system better. WD's Aquadrome is a huge custom build which has three large systems in. Two tanks of adult trout, one for fingerlings, all with associated grow beds. Very pleased to see a very healthy collection of worms living in the beds. WD dug his hands in to pull up the media and show off the wrigglers. Plants were literally falling out of the grow beds because of the rate of growth. And when he fished out a net to show off some superb looking trout, my OH was "shocked"... because she never expected them to be that size. (She has a lot to learn about fish yet. That will come in time.)

So when the time comes to set up up my systems, they will not be the same as the Welsh configuration. For starters we won't have a big building to house the whole setup in. I think the biggest issue with the UK weather is temperature. WDs building does a lot to avoid huge changes, but for me, I won't have that luxury. I intend to use the ground as a better stability system. Poly tunnels? Absolutely. Rain water capture? Definitely. Fish breeding and sustainable energy methods? Without a shadow of a doubt. If we can get our setup half as good as WD's, then I'd consider it a success.

Oh, and I haven't tasted better watercress. I was half tempted to eat my way through his grow beds right there and then.

Dragon C

Really good to see another AP er, and your OH looked like she enjoyed herself.
You are right about trying to put a system together in a rush as you can overlook the obvious,like accessibilty for harvesting and maintenance. We are planning to take down one of the systems over the winter and re-construct using firmer supports and design total access to the growbeds.
Whatever we do it has to be easy to mend and to show visitors that they can construct their own systems without the need for a complicated set up.

I must admit to being computer ignorant so introducing computers into our system would be asking for trouble

As for travelling a long way - our last course was attended by an AP'er from Hong Kong, that's what I call dedication.

Good to see you and we will keep our eyes open for your own set up.

WD and OH

I wouldn't call you crazy to travel that far at all DragonC - I travelled from Western Australia to come and check out the system there ! ( I might even try to tag along on a trip back over there middle of next year when some family are heading over for the bike races on Isle of Mann )

good to see everyone's healthy and the system is powering along well

Hi Boris

Good to hear from and - yes- your trip was a real trek. If you are coming over then you will be most welcome and we can get OH to rustle up a hearty meal for you all. NO fish of course.

WD and OH

The picture of that trout made my mouth water

Hello Abdul

We are currently culling 100 rainbow trout, in smaller batches and freezing them. The customers are happy with that arrangement as they make them into trout pate. Most of these trout are about 2- 2.5 lbs and need more space which we do not have, so they are being culled to make room for the young trout which are about 0.5 lbs and will grow over the next 6 months and then cull them and bring more fingerlings onto the system.
Seems to work for us and together with the greenstuff that we grow it ticks over nicely..

WD and OH.

talkYesterday - we had some visitors from Belarus - who were on a UN trip - they found our systems very interesting- both hydroponic and aquaponic and seemed very impressed by our trout and carp!
The language barrier was a bit awkard as they had lots of questions but the interpretor tried his best!
None of them had seen any hydro or AP systems and were intrigued by what we had managed to grow - herbs flowers and vegetables.
Perhaps they will be tempted to try such growing systems themselves.
We can but hope.
They all seemed to enjoy themselves and the short time that they had with us quickly ran out.
But - perhaps we have lit the blue touch paper and who knows what might come out of such a meeting!

Looking good WD!

We're finally about to get some fish, and I was just wondering if you're using any supplemental air bubblers / airstones or whatever, and if so where from / what brand (lazy research )

We're doing well here - flat out, hence overdue updates, but have been eating lots of good stuff from beds. Have had lots of tours though - I estimate getting on for 200 people through since the water started flowing in January. Crazy!

Those fish do look delicious. I'm trying to find a good, local source of fingerlings then we're all go.

Having had a good look at WelshDragon's setup, yes he does use additional air pumps and stones. And quite frankly I'd advise anybody else to do the same.

I come from a Koi background. Keeping, breeding, raising (and selling), is where I'm at. Now one thing I would recommend is that you install a Venturi on the pump from your sump to your FT. However some people do not have this kind of setup, or the power from the pump, or even do not feel confident in creating such a device. Don't worry. Just add air normally.

I would recommend that you use a piston based air pump over a diaphragm one. Not only do they give a better air pressure, but they also last longer.