Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I bought the reel off a bloke who was selling some of his collection, had to be quite strict with myself because he had some pretty unusual ones for sale. Alvey sidecast reels are a Queensland institution and have all been manufactured in Brisbane (and still are). They're very rugged and I've used them all my life so I do like to get my hands on nice ones. They're designed so you can wash the sand out of them in salt water while fishing, great for kids to use. (Except for the old one... ).
I grabbed the old Alvey and some old Aussie overhead reels (Halcyon "Avoca Surfmaster") that are getting pretty rare too. They're pretty nice old reels, manufactured in the 1940's and 50's. I'm not quite a collector but I find it hard to say no to older Aussie heritage items that I remember the cool older blokes using when I was a kid or that I saw in old fishing books. I guess I'm more of a 'gatherer' than a collector.
Despite it's appearance the Surfmaster in the pic still runs like a dream (looks rusty but actually isn't). They're high maintenance but if looked after last a very long time. Apparently they tend to blow the drag clutch if you hook up something huge like a kingfish and haven't looked after the reel properly. They were the game fishing reel of choice for rock fishing through to the 70's according to legend, looked after and maintained they should pull in a sailfish. Now you've reminded me of it I might have to take it sharking soon.
If I'm unhooking a ray I throw a towel over its tail first then put a bucket on that which I hold it down with, trying to be reasonably gentle. Unless it's a large one, in which case it gets to keep the hook...
They fight like nothing else but aren't my favourite catch since they're so well armed.

That is really cool Bodgy, and love the old reels.

I grew up using the basic coffee grinder reels and all the old guys fished with Scarborough reels.

http://www.center-pin-fishing-reels.com/pages/scarborough-fishing-reels.html

I always wanted to learn how to cast with them but never got the chance. Living inland for the past eight years hasn't helped. We are moving to a coastal city soon so hopefully I might get the chance to get back into it.

Regards, Martin.

I'm guessing that coffee grinder reels are what we'd call "egg beaters", threadline or spinning reels? With a bail arm you have to flick over to cast? Or are they the closed face ones with a cover over the spool?
Sidecast Alvey reels are like a centre pin reel but the spool is turned sideways to cast.
I try to take one of the old reels (along with my regular workhorses) whenever I go out. May as well use them I say, as long as they are looked after. Some of them are finicky little things (especially the tiny Pfleuger style knuckle busters) but they still get some salt once or twice a year.

Back on topic, three fish in a tub might be a bad idea.
When one gets a bit of a fright they scare the hell out of the others and they all really thrash about badly.

At least they are lively I suppose...
I'll definitely need to cover the IBC again to keep them in.
On a positive note they are now at 1 part salt water to four parts fresh and doing alright so far.

Yip, that one.


Yeah, the old Scarboroughs didn't turn sideways with the cast. So you had to control the spin of the wheel with a finger. If the reeled turned faster than the casting weight pulled the line out you had a monster crow's nest within a fraction of a second. I saw plenty of overconfident newbies sitting for a half hour or so undoing the crow's nest to take a second cast so I stuck to the coffee grinders or egg beaters as you called them.


Glad the fish are doing well. I am sure it will take them some time to get used to the new surroundings.

Glad to hear you've got a school happening now Bodge. Looking forward to seeing how they all go.


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Thanks for the info Mr Lebowski. ("The Dude" only works as a title when I'm talking about you not to you )
Pretty sure my filtration is going to be working at its limit at this stage so I'd better not get carried away with stocking any more now that I have a fishing strategy that's working for me.
Catch and fillet from here on in.
Thanks for the support Kat, I'm sure the first one will be much happier now.
As far as I know they aren't at all territorial and like to school together. The first one seems to have settled in quite happily and now it will have some competition for food things should liven up in there.
I won't feed them for a day or so to try to avoid a nitrogen spike this early on.
Using bream for cycling might be slightly eccentric but it's working for me so far.

Nothing wrong with eccentric


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No worries Bodgy.


Regards, The Dude.

Thought I should do a water test since I've increased the load on the system and want to keep an eye on what happens from here.
It turns out that I still have measurable Ammonia and nitrites...
Probably less than 0.25ppm ammonia and it's hard to read the nitrites but they seem to be at 0.25ppm or maybe as high as 0.5ppm
Slightly worried now, the fish are going to have to go hungry for a couple of days at least.
Mind you I've been feeding the first bream a fair bit this week to kick the ammonia cycle along and there had been half a prawn in the FT uneaten for around 24 hours so hopefully that has something to do with it. Some uneaten pellets floating around too, might net those out in the morning I think.

I might have to pull out the mussels which are still surviving and increase salt higher then 3ppt, maybe as high as 5ppt.
Do you think it is necessary to go higher than 3ppt to lessen the risk from nitrite poisoning or would more salt be pointless in that regard?
I know the fish would be happy with more salt, just not sure if any more will make a difference to nitrite tolerance.

Hey Bodgy, I am looking around to see if I can find a link with an actual nitrite level as toxic but don't see anything.

This is a good article on nitrite poisoning:
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/nitritepoison.htm
And it has good advice on combating nitrite poisoning.

On this forum thread:
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/archive/index.php/t-39109.html
They say: "Toxic nitrite level is 1. At .5, most fish are stressed."

This wiki has some interesting info which states that nitrite poisoning is related to pH just like ammonia which makes sense.
http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Nitrite

I cannot find a chart anywhere that shows the relationship between nitrite poisoning, pH and temperature like this one for ammonia:
http://www.ecofilms.com.au/aquaponics-health-understanding-ammonia-water-temperature-and-ph-balance/
That's actually a very good article and is well worth reading.

Anyway I hope this helps a little. If anyone knows of a nitrite toxicity chart I would love to see it.

Regards, Martin.

Thanks heaps Martin.
I've been googling too and it has me a little concerned now that I've probably tripled the mass of fish in there.
They're going to have to fast for a bit to be safe.
Might do a partial water change tomorrow if the levels don't improve in the meantime. Also considering culling the fish that was deeply hooked too to decrease the ammonia load, if it dies in there that won't be good I'm thinking...
Since it's getting late this side of the globe I only checked TAN and Nitrite tonight, better do pH and nitrate tomorrow too. My nitrates will be quite high but they don't worry me so much and my pH has been remarkably stable so far.
I don't want to make it into that new "share your biggest failures" thread quite yet.

Another wiki article recommends 3ppt for nitrite protection.
http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Salt
Thanks for sharing that site Martin.

Cool Bodgy hope everything works out.

Martin.

How are they going today?