Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So have now got 15 trout happily swimming and feeding in my system and made a SLO vacuum which seems to be the most efficient of my prototypes. Have fully fenced the system and now to enjoy it. Surprised how much waste these trout make so now my nitrates have dropped from 80+ down to 5-10 hoping they’ll boost it up a little.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Once they start eating your levels will come up don't worry about that , in the beginning on my thread I had 10 trout on 3 growbeds and had ammonia issues all the time couldn't feed them much , didn't know what to do.

Of course the answer was use some water on the garden and top up again so that I could pour the feed into them and get them to maximum size before the heat comes .

Bacteria activity reduces as the temperature drops

From 25c to 18c growth rate reduces by up to 50% so this doesn't help

At 4c there is no activity

So in Cold water ammonia can become a problem as the bacteria numbers drop away .

Keep an eye on your levels

Trout are great fun

Thanks Terra, my water temp is around 15C during the day and my ammonia is gone up to 0.25 but will start to do more water changes if it gets carried away. Had trace ammonia and nitrites but the ammonia went up when I introduced the fish to the system so hopefully the nitrites can keep up with them. Man those fish pump out the waste as quick as I pump the food into them lol. At least with a SLO vacuum the waste can go into the grow beds.

Trout are fun.... Keep feeding them, though keep an eye on that ammonia, you should be good and the plants are looking happy.

Thanks Earthbound so looking forward now to just learning and enjoying it now the build is finished for now-
is it normal for the ammonia to climb a little after introducing fish?
and is a part water change the best way to drop the ammonia as the pH hovers around 8-8.1?
thanks

Yeah, if your pH is high, then perhaps change some water from the system, or cut back on the feed and watch your levels. ultimately it will all become second nature as your system matures and testing won't be required so much. I used to never test my systems... shrug.... check your pH v ammonia here http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/infor ... nd-charts/

Yes I’ve printed and laminated that TAN chart and looking at it closely. So far my parameters are ok but will keep a close eye on it. I’ll also treat 200L of top up water to drop the pH to around 6.5-7.0 and introduce it to the system and see if it drops it at all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well today turned to custard fast and consumed me all day. I found my growbed leaking - or so I thought and emptied all the plants and media out to lift it out and check for splits or damaged bulkhead fitting but after that I found it was the bl@@dy SLO feed into the growbeds. Waste of half a day and stirred up the water so cloudy I can’t see the fish. Also having a problem with the fish waste staying in the corners away from the SLO thus I’ve had to use a siphon vacuum daily which is annoying and hoping a couple of air stones might help circulate it better as trout are quite messy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's a bugger Liney. Hope it gets sorted out. The rain inputs from these storms might lower the pH a little and dilute your water down for the nutrient side. Interesting to read some of the above posts. Some useful information there. Always learning. My water testing regime has slowed down a bit from when I first started. I've been using the test strips for nitrate/nitrite and have been unwilling to fork out the $75 or so dollars for a master test kit. My fish seem bloody happy and are growing well, but I would have to have it all go belly up.

Your plants look great Liney

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

A very neat looking system Liney.
When I had about 16 fish I had the same problem with the waste in the corners.
That was reduced when I added 10 more fish as they agitate the muck and vacuum the rest out once a week.

Thanks for that idea Petesake I’ve noticed at feeding time they really stir up their waste a lot so hoping as they grow that might happen for me too. I’m really thinking about expansion so I can have 1 tank to grow silver perch a year round and 1 tank just for trout so after trout processing their is still something feeding the system. Bugger I can see how this is addictive. I’m looking for a round fish tank but with an IBC proportion as I don’t wats low tank so finding something other than a ribbed water tank will be my mission this year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

For a while there I thought about conical based tanks to improve waste collection both in ground and above ground. Generally I had cylindrical shapes in mind as some of our gurus believe the fish are happier swimming in circles against a pumped current. Structurally the circular tanks are superior as they require less material to make but the benefits tend to elevate their prices.
Cylindrical tanks also hold about 21.5% less water than square cubic tanks of the same foot print. So the best low cost solution I came up with was to get an IBC tank, remove the frame from the base, cut the bladders' bottom out above the radius, dig a hole in the ground or make a base with the shape of an inverted pyramid and put a liner in it.
Voila' the slo sucks the waste out that's collected in the middle low point, the fish have maximum water at minimal cost.

>> staying in the corners away from the SLO

where circular tanks have an advantage as you can swirl the water.
Is one of the main negative of small IBC tanks.

Try putting an X or Y arm/s on your SLO so it goes to the corners and help it out with an air bubbler pipe strapped along it.. all really depends on how much circulating flow (current) you have as it needs to be enough to mobilise the crap.

Yesterday arvo I found my pH pen wasn’t recording correctly by a hunch. I thought why not put it in some pH7 solution and check it- turns out what I’ve thought was my system sitting on pH 8.0 was actually 7.0 so I’m not sure how long it’s been out but I’ve only had it for 5 weeks and used the api pH test and confirmed it was 7.0 not 8.0. A little annoyed with myself thinking it would still be accurate after 5 weeks but live and learn. Today I went and brought 5 x 4” silver perch to put in my sump tank to carry over in the system once the trout season is over. My sump has clay ball silt in patches and funnily enough a handful of worms which I put back in the grow bed. How long can worms hold their breath for?
Tomorrow’s mission is to keep the grow beds full of water and empty the remaining sump water into my 300L holding tank so I can attempt to pump the dirty silt out into my garden.

I feel for you Liney.
Nothing like adding a few gray areas to our scientific experimentation. One of the things I needed to make certain of often in electronics repair was that the testing tools had good batteries and were calibrated. I would forgot sometimes only to see time wasted figuring out what went wrong with my troubleshooting.
I have a pH pen as well, but it was so unreliable even after setting it in calibration fluid it didn't read correctly. Luckily the AOI test kits always works.
Brian