Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

uhm, ants? termites?

not termites

If the netting is to be defeated it will be by eggs. Sneaky little buggers will think about it logically, and lay their eggs through the mesh so their children can rape your plants!
Careful, they will stop at nothing!

Will the mesh stop bees and beneficial bugs too?
I can be targeted with the dipel and squash raquet and only use it where needed but mesh stops everything... (Except maybee ants and termites )
I thought about that approach before but stoppped because of these kind of thoughts...
WADAYAREKON?

Also big thanks for that info and comments.

My garden has been decemated by a minute moth ( the ones often seen attracted to lights...I was just talking with a friend this morning about netting the area out....except we are in cyclone season.....and would be a pain to set it all up, just to rip it all back down again.......just a cheap alternative and would provide shade aswell, though it isn't UV protected, for a few bucks, you could get a year out of it or two...

Hi all.

Hope you are happy, safe and well!

Got the two final (for now) grow beds in place over my time off.
F/T volume = approx 1130 litres
G/B volume = approx 1020 litres
40 Barra and mostly seedlings in place.
So should be good for a while.

Was thinking that when the budget allows I'll go CHIFT PIST with my current tank as the sump. Dreams for a while...

For now I'm pretty happy with the way it has turned out.

The barra look about double their size and some of the plants are starting to show some rapid growth. (There are only 40 barra now as I gave some away - still only one fatality )

Fed the barra ox heart chunks which they seemed to like but I am now finding rotted pieces floating to the top after about 4 days.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.25
Nitrate 20
Ph 7.6
H2O Temp 28'

Got about 25 seedlings that should start sucking up some nitrates so it seems to be on track. From what I read, as the new beds cycle in it should settle in well.

I found it to be pretty noisy when both pumps and 5 returns were in full flight so I tied shade cloth around the outlets where they return to the tank and put the ends of the outlets at the grow beds just below the surface of the gravel.
Stopped the noise but the fish stopped feeding too.
Missed 2 feeds.
I am guessing that not having the returns splash fully back into the tank it would have dropped the airation a bit and also stopped the flow of water about the tank, plus with strange things (shade cloth) appearing in their tank near where they feed, it may have spooked them a bit, so I opened up a "t" piece from the main outlet from the continuous running pump that sits above the level of the water at its lowest eb for circulation and it airates when the grow beds flood and the 't' is above the water. It also splashes about the shade cloth and hides it a bit.

It seems to have done the trick as the fish are feeding again

Any thoughts on that?

Was it new shadecloth or old? New stuff has a anti-fungal coating which fish dont like. May have put them off their food.

I think it was pretty old. Found it in a shed left behind by some tennants. Owner wanted it gone so I obliged... But maybe it was not that old either. Thats the trouble with second hand stuff eh, dunno its history...

Well last night I was topping up theBarra fish tank from evaporation loss and replacing the water i use out of it to water other plants over about 6 days and I forgot all about it and left the hose on for about 2 hours.
I am guessing that about 1500 to 2000 litres of water went through the tank.
Fish didnt want to feed this morning. All up it probably only needed a 150 litre top up. It is about a 1100 litre tank.
I am guessing that the temp would have dropped a lot in the tank (My helper dropped my thermomiter and it is smasshed ) and changed the waters chemical composition a fair bit although the PH was about the same as when I started the system with water from the same source.
Also the Chlorine would be a factor too with the fish and bacteria...
I imediatly let the water run continuously with as much splashing etc as possible to try airate it as much as possible and then let it sit still for the rest of the night. I put it back on its normal cycle this morning which is pump running for 1/2 hr every 2 hrs for the flood and drain grow beds and the other pump running 24/7 for the bio filter and 200 litres of grow bed.
What do you think I should expect?

G'day Al.

Might not be the HSM, but I bet ya said HS when you found it! My wife's Mum lives in Mandurah, so we get over a bit. Would be nice to see your system next time over. Like most systems, yours is a bloody good read even the second time.

At what stage did you put your fish in?
Did you seed with bacteria?

If the fish made it through the night and today... then they'll probably be fine...

Nutrient wise... you've probably lowered your nitrates.... and salt levels (if you were salting).... but the nitrates will pick up again as soon as you start feeding...

Did the fish feed tonite???

They fed this morning but I am holding it back a bit.
Will try a full feed tonight.
Fingers crossed... Is there a smiley that does that?

Yes I let a few choice words fly when I found it.
Told myself off for procrastination with the tap timer and not paying attention...



Rick you are welcome to pop over and have a look, Its not as big as your system and mostly made of scrounged odds and ends but it all works roughly the same...
I put Barra and seedlings in after the system was running for 2 weeks and I started it off with a few baby koi and goldfish and used some aquarium beneficial bacteria and water from a smaller (but only 4 week old) system at the start.

Last night readings were:
Nitrites up slightly. 0.1
Nitrates down by half. 10
Ammonia 0.25 stable
Ph down slightly 7.4 ish

Any one know where to get some duck weed down here?

Some pix of the grow beds.