Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

What is a methaniser?

It's a digester that works with anaerobic bacteria who digest the organic matter into fertiliser and produces methane as a by product. Like in cattle or even you when you have a digestion problem. Like a closed compost.

I think that there is infos in the download section of the forum. They are installing a lot of them in developping countries instead of building an electric grid. It recycles animal manure, vegetal matter and all organic products. It works on a daily basis. I'll get drawing posted tonight when i'll be home.

cheers

Few little issues to report.

Fishwise, had a problem with the milkvat siphoning to the gal tank Friday night. From the water loss, it looked like only one cycle of lost water. The siphon b/n the tanks stopped working and given I have most water returning to the more populated, lower volume milkvat, it overflowed. Noticed it soon as I pulled up in the truck.
To my surprise, no fish overboard. Got the siphon working again, topped up the water and things fine past 2 days.
The little guys in that tank have the odd fish flashing. Been a big variation in temps past few days, bit of overflowing, etc, they are a bit stressed. Will dump some salt in in the morning to help them out. They are eating steadily at 17C rather than ravenously at 20 plus C the first week.

Been picking tommies steadily, the vines are starting to change colour. Have had 4kg from the 8 plants and about double that left on them. The zuchs are nearly done but still picking daily, just smaller.
The cabbage, caulis and broccoli are nuts at 6 weeks. Can't load pics, but take my word they are outstanding. Effectively full grown, just need to head up/heart out.
Icebergs are hearting and nearly ready to pick.
Seeds I planted in Rupes netpots are starting to emerge. Beetroot first, tied with spinach, closely followed by cabbage. See how many we get up.
Missing my pics, apparently a software issue yet to be resolved.
Dasall.
D

Been there TT, have had both my vat and my tank overflow depending on setup when the siphon has broken.
I definitely suggest a second siphon or a small pump on a low-water float swith or something. Not that I have anything of the sort

good news with the plants though, and glad you didn't lose any fish

I had the pipe sitting on a slightly inclined piece of jarrah to make sure it was above the big tank to help the flow. I think it had slid down that a bit and the siphon stopped. Still sitting on that jarrah but the jarrah is now flat so things should be fine fingers crossed.

Looks like you could open your own restaurant TT.

Hi Faye, restaurants are bloody hard work. I do like the idea of purged fish swimming about in a pond ,available for selection and cooked b4 ur eyes.

Interestingly I took some AP stuff into a small local greengrocer and gave him the blurb. He said he would take as much as I could grow, of everything. He was impressed with the blemish free appearance of the product and fairly uniform size compared to organic produce, which can be a bit spotty and variable, (still tastes good but.)

I told him realistically we were 12 months away, he said he didn't care but wanted first dibs when we were ready to rock. It was a buzz I can tell you.

For piece of mind i think it would be better to connect the tanks from the bottom or a pipe from the bottom of the ss vat to about 1/2 way up the gal tank.Ifyou want fittings for the vat reece sunshine has them

It makes sense FF, I really don't want to lose them thru stupidity.
I don't want to cut the base of the big tank.
If I connected to the base of the vat via the coupling, I run the pipe across the floor up the big tank and however far down inside becomes the lowest point the vat water level would fall to?
Just need to organise some gauze for the coupling to stop the littlies trying to swap tanks.

Are the littlies in the vat or the tank

the vat

Easy just a 90 mm pipe the depth of the vat with 100 4 mm holes drilled put it in over the outlet like the grow beds sand screen put the bulk of the holes near the bottom like a screen [ those vertical strainers i have in mine are working properly there is no gunk in the bottom of my tanks

Update time, still no more pics, slack on the software I know.
Pulled the tommies out 2day, we got about 20 kilos over 2 months, so happy with that for a first up effort.
Just started harvesting broccoli, exactly 10 weeks after seedling transplant. The heads are about 17cm across, good size and good eating. Amazing growth rate.
Caulis are starting to head up, so will be 2-3 weeks away, Savoy cabbages are half way there hearting wise.
Nearly finished eating our golden nugget pumpkins. They are good eating roasted, skin on. I find them a bit watery if steamed.
Haven't bought lettuce for months, pick some every day.

Fishwise, had a fubar with feeding whilst we were away over Easter. Big pellets got fed to the babies and the new organic stuff got fed to the breeders, who were on the large pellets. Result, lotta cloudy uneaten crap in the littlies tank but no deaths. Just kept the pump working a bit harder, added 1000lts of water to the system and 24 hours later things are clearing well.
Transplanted some peas and spinach planted from seed in net pots from Rupe. The heat radiated by gravel in a gh knocks small seedlings about, but most have survived ok.

That's about it for now.