Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'll be happy if I look that good and have compost on my knees whenI'm 80. LOL imagine if PC decided AP was the only way to garden and stopped getting compost on his knees!

Na........ sorry............

What a picture that throws up........an 80yo Monya doing his naked rain dance with compost dags hanging from the knees...barra flapping in his mouth (someth'n else prolly flapp'n in the breeze too )

waaaay too much description there Les

Sounds like you are talking from personal experience there Les

Keep up that rain dance Mon - actually see rain clouds heading my way on the radar

Blooomin' maaarvelous



I've got the same, works a treat. The 14mm is the maximum size.

Update on work so far.

Had to finish two GB with scoria because B isn’t stocking that brand of (no fertilizer) cococpeat any more.
The rests of the washed scoria is stockpiled.

Had 5 yabbies for a week now in the first barrel, with a 18 watts pump aerating the water.

Got one 100W pump with a float switch in the drain barrel,
two 35W and four 40W pond pumps in the other barrels.

The upright barrel (no fish) floods three upright h/barrel GB.
Each horizontal Yabby/Fish green barrel floods one horizontal h/barrel GB for now.

Water from the drain barrel returns to the five Yabby/Fish green barrels.

All six barrels are interconnected halfway.
Any one of the green barrels may bee isolated from the inside.

Yesterday and today had all pumps running, 15min on 90 off.
Not at night.
Water finished as black as a very strong coffee.

Dumped the water and refilled. Yabbies were not affected.

With barrel half full or full those buggers hide under the rocks during the day,
but with only 2” of water left after draining, they climb out on the rocks to admire the countryside.

Both our water tanks (2k & 2.5k) are overflowing after today’s rain,
so I will flood the GBs and dump the water till it gets cleaner.

Those five are only the guinea pigs, (or canaries), but wouldn’t like to lose them.
My camera is playing up, the picks are s&*@y but will put up some anyway.

I am still up for some surgeries, (yes, more than one), so if stocking anything, for now, it will be very light.

Planted some seedlings in one GB, parsley and bok choy.
May have to keep it growing with a bit of seasol and CharlieCarp foliar spray.
Cheers, Steve S.

Looking good Steve. Great to see some rain also.

Okay Stevo - you've been dobbed in by KP. Show us a pic of your smoker buddy :-)

I know this is an old post, but hey, you realise it's my wedding you were talking about?!?
That Davey pump I got off you is beaut! I restrincted it to 1" and it still pumps waater out at at least 10L/m at a 3m head! (guestimations all 'round here)


KudaPucat
_________________________
The Pale Horse Rides Again

was a present from him, not my handiwork, and not from a B. Barrel,

will not qualify for a "101 uses for blue barrels"

Had the whole system running for two weeks (no fish, no plants),
just to check it for reliability.
The two surviving yabbies in an aquarium, had lost two yabbies.

Used the very murky water on the veggies, refiled the sys. and returned
the yabbies into the first barrel.

Had a visit from Lambs and also from Steve and BK
and not much to show off.

So have put two of the four goldies in the waterlily 1/2 barrel
into the second barrel and turned the pumps on.

Water got stained again, but not as much and the yabbies and goldies
looked quite happy, so three days later bought 10 more goldies
and planted few seedlings in two beds.

That was one week ago. So far, so good.
The yabbies have a mallee root to in the barrel,
goldies two black scoria rocks.

Rainwater tank water sample PH is 6.5, sys. water is 7.1
Didn't measure anything else.

Have about 800l in the system. 5 barrels + equalizing barrel + sump barrel.

Pumps in the two barrels are on for 15 min. every two hours staggered.
Siphon return from each cocopeat GB goes to every barrel
through the sump pump.

Seedlings didn't show any growth yet but look very healthy,
as well as a cutting of yacon and oca I put in four days ago to try.

Got them growing in 1/2 barrels, also some seedlings of jicama.

Some update before the year is over.

Had all the pumps circulating day and nite,
Water very dark, stained by the cocopeat.

Could see the two yabbies only when grazing on top o the malle root.
Goldies OK but keeping to the bottom.
Have put ten more goldies in earlier.

Planted in the cocopeat one tomy and some peppers and chilies.
Just surviving, getting hardly any nutes. Didn’t expect any better.

But Yacon and oca (Oxalis tuberose) cutting, one each, rooted within two weeks.
http://www.seedsofchange.com/enewslette ... /yacon.asp
http://www.bioversityinternational.org/ ... df/472.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oca
http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Oxalis+tuberosa
Took as many cuttings as I could and put in the Cocopeat GB.

Have also some Jicama grooving from seeds.
http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/Produce/ ... cama.shtml
http://www.foodreference.com/html/art-j ... facts.html
Will see how this one goes.

Had some good rain last few days.
Overflow from one of the two water tanks goes to two interconnected blue barrels
and the overflow from those into the AP sys. sump tank.

Float operated sump pump pumps it into the FT green barrels
and all that extra water goes to waste (for now) out of the Equalize tank’s overflow.
That’s one of the reasons all the FT barrels are interconnected through the middle.
Other reason, I need to monitor water level in only one tank.

Today lost both remaining yabbies.
Water temp. down to 10 deg Celsius, goldies OK, all accounted for, but not eating.
Water nearly crystal clear. FTs and GBs must have got flushed few times over.

Running everything on timers but working on a Picaxe based controller.
18 pin as a Master controller and one 8 pin dedicated to each of the six pumps.
Still need to add two relays, one for Low water emergency, other for Power fail.

Will fit beautifully into a Builder's Pole Power Box
I got when on one of my shopping sprees to Sunbury FF’s warehouse.

Merry Xmas to you all.

Lovely stuff Steve... I'm very interested to see how the yacon goes after growing myself in the ground for many years..