Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Its good to know my ap journey is inspiring others. Get started Trini fisher!

Well its freakishly hot here and the wind has died for now. 35 degrees in the shade.
Water temps 18c this morning and 21 at noon. Let's see where they land up...

Been thinking about a bakkie shower. Been thinking to construct a pvc box frame and sew up a shadecloth cover for it. Then hang all manner of stuff inside it and put other media on the bottom. Then drill the frame on the top to squirt water all over the stuff. Just run it on its own pump direct from the fish pond. I can hang it on the tanks shade roof. Time for action.

I have been naughty in the greenhouse and neglecting to backwash the bio filter. Omg! The stuff that came out of that thing and the smell! Phew! Anaerobic as hell. I have been thinking I should put its pump inside a foam filter as its flow keeps getting hampered by crap that blocks the pumps impeller. Anyway I have learned... Drain the damn solids at least once a week! I was doing it at the beginning and nothing ever came out but now its summer and the fish are active things have certainly changed!

I am really fed up with my greenhouse system. I think a little re-modelling is called for. I am going to remove the proposed half built duckweed tanks. I have plenty of watercress for the tilapia. They make the space very cramped and awkward. I will put 3 nft tubes on the window side that will be more space efficient. I will run it from the filters outlet. Then I want to lower the fish tank and move it into the corner so as to make enough space for 2 more half barrel beds. Then the fan and temp controller and then the backups for both systems. Phew... Now you know why its 'Brian's system so far'!

Always enjoy tuning into your thread Brian. Great vid and as always...great system.

temps hit 22 degrees but fortunately a cold front has rolled in so back down to 17 again today. Had my first tomato for the season today. The greenhouse has become infested with white fly and I think what must be their little green lava on the bottoms of the tommy leaves.I have plenty worm tea and have heard it makes good insecticide. Question is how much to dilute the stuff?

Water Temps down to 15 again for now... I pulled out 4 fat trout today weighing from 1.1 to 1.4 kg's. Nice healthy looking fish...

Got the troughs out of the greenhouse and most relieved about it. Feel like I can breath again in there. Looking forward to getting the NFT up and running. I want to be able to produce a steady stream of lettuce. I once saw how the big commercial lettuce guys use seeds set in clay pellets. I recon it would be cool to have these pellets so a succession of plants can be created. you can just start a new seed every couple of days in the NFT.

So basically I am planning 2 lengths of 2.5 meter 110mm pvc pipe for the nft. I am not to sure about the hole spacing. Figuring on about 300mm or so. I am thinking to have a small additional tank with a slo on it flowing back to the sump. I will supply this from the main timed pump so when the pump is on it will send fresh nutrient to this tank. Then I can pump from this tank up to the bio filter and through the nft and back to the small tank. Does this make sense or should I just go from the sump to the nft and back to the sump and leave the bio filter running on the fish tank? This would mean running another pump which I don't like the idea of as I would need to buy it and power it...

Hmm. 2 trout are definitely not well. They have poppy out eyes and are totally slowed up like you can hold them in your hands. Should probably cull them in an effort to stem a possible out break. Anybody know what poppy eyes signifies. I have no water readings as my test kits have run out. I can check for pH. Will do that now.

this might help
http://www.flippersandfins.net/pop-eye.htm

Interesting read, tha ks Keith!

Ok. Well so what is the underlying problem I wonder?

Oh well its a goner now. I think I may have salted it to death! But I salted the smaller one in the same salt bath and it was fine. The big one just went belly up when I put him in the salt bath. Have gutted it. Looked ok inside. Blood seemed a bit of a strange orangey purple color. Fillets look awesome... Hmmm.

The orangish things with what looks like eggs inside looked floppier than usual.

Then I made a really gross discovery. Rotting rodent corpse in the sump. Made me want to hurl! Perhaps an ammonia spike, coupled with an incessantly high pH of around 8 or so! Not good.

I am going to stop feeding for a day or two...

How to solve the pH issue? The greenhouse pH is even more alkaline. Off the charts. It must be my water...

Strange as I thought it was the bricks but the greenhouse system is all plastic and has a higher pH.

Strange pH and high pH can have a few causes.
1-check your source water (there can be fluctuations in well water pH through the year depending on rain and such.)
2-anaerobic areas can cause an increase in pH so watch for stinky not well aerated situations and correct them.
3-what time of day was the pH test done and is there algae blooming?

Algae can cause diurnal swings in pH so if the pH is low at dawn but higher in the late afternoon, then algae could be the cause of the pH issues and blooming algae can cause issues with depleted dissolved oxygen over night which can also cause problems.

A great read and very informative. Thank you Brian. Keep up the great work!

Thanks rsevs3. Glad you enjoyed the read.

Phew! It's been trying down south. The power went out for almost 16 hours!
I got through the first 5 using the quad bike as a generator and a 12 volt air pump. Then the pump conked in so fortunately my neighbor had a generator to lend me so I used that to power both systems. But I had to manually start it on a measured tin of fuel to flood the system and aerate the water. That went on until 3am! So I was pretty tired.

Water temps in the middle of december here are like winter temps. It is 15 degrees in the tank! Trout are totally in their element and chowing like mad. Its weird. Last year I was in the mid 20s around this time. Tilapia not so happy...

@Tcl... There is no algae in the water but I have algae growing on the surfaces of the tank and the drains and even the irrigation for that matter. Some is the dark black type algae. I will try and cover the stuff up better. I am planning some mods to the system so took the cover off the sump. The fish tank is under the roof in the greenhouse so not too much of a problem there. I must get a move on and sort this stuff out.

Oh yes on another topic. I removed the not so well looking smaller fish. It looked to be blind! It had a very scraped up chin from what may have been colliding with the floor and walls. It also had very red gills?

Just got a pile of pvc pipe for free. Some 75mm. Is that big enough for nft?

75 mm would be a bit small for nft but if using it for just very very small plants (like harvesting baby lettuce) or moving the plants to a larger NFT as they get bigger, it might be ok.

Thanks Tcl. Yeah.. I thought they looked a bit small. Perhaps I will run one at the top for lettuce seedlings and have bigger pipes below. Have not had much time for system building. I have been working on a earthworm solution as the current onr is way too small.

I took out two fish yesterday as a gift for the neighbor who loaned me the generator. One weighed in at 1.79kg! Woot woot!
A whopper of a fish. Tomorrow I am going to get a few more out! There are a few whoppers in there!

The system is producing a huge amount of chard, tomatoes, brussels, a few chillies, beet root and a couple of decent cabbages. Need seedlings badly. Basil. Must have basil!

The chooks have now discovered that the beds have worms in them so now they have over stayed their welcome. Scratching out all the small plants hunting for worms. It can't be tolerated. I will need to get cracking on the new chicken accommodations. I think a fairly large closed run with deep litter. I will rather harvest veg from the system and give it to them in their run. Just seems a pitty to deprive them of all the other free range forage.