Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

It's time to pick up the line again.I'm not lost, just super busy.

Its been quite a summer so far and we are only half way to it. I hardly hade time for the system, had some bad luck and fails again.

System:

The extreme summer is followed by an extreme winter. We normally have 7-8 days with max temp over 35C in a year, and average 3 with daily minimum over 20C. This year we had 10 days of them straight, with maxes over 40C!

The greenhouse stood the extremes again. Max water temp was 25,5C. In general I noticed that the system water is ~4C below the daily average. So If we had the max 40C the min 22C and we had a daily average of 28C than my system water max temp was arround 25C.

I still fight for catfish but its like rolling coaster.

On june 21st. It was time to get some fresh wels catfish. So just like last year I bought 300 2-4 cm fingerlinks from a local fishery. As I was unsuccesfull regulating the one year old fish, I wanted to start from fresh.
I have to admit I was not prepared for the situation. The system had 20+ welsh catfish (200-450gr) 10 africans (200-450gr) and a few crucians in. Tha Ft and two sumps where used to store them. So I was problems to find a place fot the small ones. First they got a 100 liter tank, than 500, after two days of constant water change due to ammonia problems, they where already in 750l liters when I decided to introduce them to the main system to overcome the ammonia issues. I put a basket inside the main FT for them, and it looked fine, until the first morning. During their first night, the basket tilted a bit, the little ones found the way out to the FT.

That was the night of the feast for the big catfish inside the FT, and it ment the end of this seasons Wels catfish project.

I was left with about 5-6kg of fish (half of them not eating, or very few) in the middle of the summer, with a system that is designed for 50kgs. Tha planst started to suffer from lack of nutrinets, while I was trying to get more african catfish.

Finally 23rd of august I got some african catfish from a local intensive fishfarm. They where the smallest ones, the waste of a netting. The average where 2,2 kgs, the ones under 1,5 went back, the ones I got where less then a kilo (avg. 840gr).
43 fish arrived, and jouned the 10 africans in the FT.

Big mistace!

Dough the system is capable of handling this amount of fish, but after running for months with much lower load, needed time to catch up. I knew it, but underestimated the load, and the time.

After the first day ammonia was 10+ I had to change 1/3 water, but this was not my biggest problem. The fish started to fight, and bite eachother badly. They suggested me to compress them to stop fighting (They are kept in 330 kg/ 1000l density!!!) So I put the 40kg fish down to one sump, I switched to CF this left the fish with only 150l.

This didnt stop them fighting and even worth with the CF I reduced gas exchange of my growbeds, right at the moment when it was most needed. After two days when I saw the first 1.0 nitrit, I decided to pull the most aggressive fighters, move the rest back to the main FT and pray.

We pulled 20 fish, and filleted them. Some were in very bad condition. Some had the half of their skin missing. Some had bones out on the tail. Swimmers, mustaches bitten off, it was a miracle to me that they were still swimming.

The next day I figured out the reason of fighting. It was clear from the first moment thet the original 10 was not fighting, they where undamaged. Some of the new ones mainly smaller ones where also untouched. The filleted ones -the most aggressives - were all but one males.

Eureka!
My fish are not aggressive of stress, they are in love! And only males are aggressive.
To prove I puller all the remaining, and found that the fighters are all males. They have been quarantined. Peace arrived to the FT.

Its been two weeks now, and since the system catch up, it looks and smells good, FT is clear again. I planted lots of new greens.

Aquaponic boom in Hungary
I get information from all different sources, daily on systems planned, under construction and started in Hungary. I know about 40 system owners form my forum, and other ~40 is not using the forum or any online channels, and we have built over ~50 mini school systems so far. So conservative estimations should say there is 100+ AP systems in Hungary. Most of them are minis and seasonal outdoor systems. There is 5-10 system greenhouse based and will operate in winter too.

This is how far we have gotten, and there will be a lot more what is forming behind the scenes. Sorry for no pictures this time, but you can always get some on my fb page. http://www.facebook.com/aquaponics.hu/photos

Zsazsa

Great work Zsazsa!!
Sorry for the harsh lesson about aggression and love the fish taught you the hard way...

but thank you for sharing.

Keep it up!!
Brian

Thanks for the detailed update Zsazsa, good luck with the catfish and upcoming Winter weather!

Great update Zsazsa

Healing african catfishes in the FT. The big ones are close to a 1000gr.

I just went through this entire thread... WOW .... EPIC!!!

gotta love the highs and lows of Aquaponics!!

Those are some big boys, looking good!

Thx

A fantastic thread zsazsa. Thanks for sharing the highs and the lows.

I often wonder how many people share the lows or just pretend they havent happened.

I really cant wait to have my own space to try these sorts of things.

A guy asked for my contact after one of my presentations, and sent me an e-mail later that day. He donated a brand new pump. The new one is a WILO Stratos PICO 25/1-6.

Very clever and efficient pump, it sets it self to the desired water quantity and the actual head hight automaticly! The old one used 106W this one will do it from less than 30W!

Suddenly we are stepping into ultra low energy systems territory!

An other film crew were at my place on thursday. On short turm, I got some neat underwatre pictures form them. They will make a short film targeting sustainability ans self-preservation arround Europe. With that I hope to spread aquaponics around Europe.

Awesome freebie/donation!

I've got to look at upgrading my cheap pump. Does the job well, but is higher wattage than the more expensive ones.

Looks like a $400+ pump. Not bad for a freebie.

Oh yeah, its an expensive pump, I was shocked that he really ment it...

I love polyculture! New fish in the tank

Got 25 tilapias between 160-500gr for testing.

Luv your work Zsazsa...