Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hope you have many babies Janet! Err ah I mean your fish have many babies. hmmm ginger doing well nice

Yeah, filleting works like the video, but I'm a bit slower than that! You feel for the bones, and just work your way along them. Very sharp knife, with a bit of flex to it. I lifted my husband's prized fillet knife for the job.

Great! Thanks for the video link. That looks much cleaner than gutting. I guess my father in law is out of a job; lol. I always split the meat before.

That was just what I needed.

What sort of heaters are you using in your Rubbermaid tank? We're planning out a similar system and haven't yet determined how best to heat the water to tilapia-frendly temps. Our current thought is several 300w aquarium heaters. Got any suggestions?

I have several 400W aquarium heaters in my 150gal tank. And a lid--that's really important. The 400W heaters are a little harder to find. Get them mail order--much cheaper than the lfs.

Here's the tricky part--you have to keep the heaters from touching the sides or bottom. When I tried putting the heaters in custom cages, that trapped the heat or something, and the heaters kept cutting off. My successful Heater Holder (TM) involves a brick, a 12" (300mm) lengthwise slice of PVC, some zip ties, a few flat-head screws, and the clips-with-suction-cups that come with the heaters.

- Remove the suction cups from the plastic clips that would normally stick the heater to the aquarium wall.

- Screw the clips on to outer side of the PVC slice, one at each end, and one in the middle. Orient them so that the heater would be held at a right angle to the PVC.

- Place the brick flat on the floor with one of the two largest faces down. Place the PVC crosswise on the brick and cut-side down. Using at least two zip ties, fasten the PVC securely to the brick.

- Clip the heaters in and set the thermostats to the approximate temperature desired.

- Place the array in the tank, wait 10 minutes, and plug in the heaters.

- Monitor the array for several days and fine-tune individual settings so the heaters are synchromized.

I'll see if I have a picture that shows the heater array.

Here are some pics for you. You can see the heater array and the current state of the jungle.

I just took the time to read your whole thread Janet. Way to go! Sounds like things are moving along. I read on an aquarium site somewhere that so many grams of ammonia converted to nitrates and gassed off produces so many grams of acid, could it have been the RSG filters that kicked off the pH change?

Hi Dan,
In general, a mature system (with or without an RSG) will go lower in pH. My system does not currently have the RSGs functioning, yet I still have to work to keep the pH up. My theory is that all mature systems offgas a certain amount of nitrogen.

Wow,

Been a while since I popped in. Things are sure looking green and healthy!

Hi All,
Quick update and Life Status, too.

I still struggle with nitrites, and have just installed a Fluidized Bed Filter to help with that. We'll see how it goes. It's fun to watch, but tough to start up. Eggplant plants are getting along well, and I'm going to tuck some sweet potatoes in this weekend to get slips for the spring garden. Nitrates are 0; a far cry from being over 1000 some time ago. I've decided that all my breeders are really female, so need to switch things around again. I have no talent at sexing tilapia unless they are very ripe females.

I just started a new job with one of the Big Banks in the area. I'm in the Confused-As-Heck Stage, and am trying to learn all there is to know about banking. I've been totally exhausted this week, and can hardly type straight. I'll be on the forum a lot less for a while, and will probably only be able to follow a few threads with any real attention. If you have a question specifically for me, PM me with it.

They say it takes longer to establish a FBF. I also have installed a FSB, so I eagerly wait for your results of your filter and mine!

Janet,
I like your system and I'm trying to fit it into our Fl room. Could you give me a rough estimate of the space needed under our windows for grow beds and fish? How do you deal with your "livestock" when you go on vacation?

Thanks

The livestock goes hungry, or on half-rations when the neighbor girl is available to feed them.

The 50gal stock tanks (grow beds) are 42" long, so you could fit three of them in 13' of window space. I have maybe 15'. If you raise the center one up like I did, you could fit them in a little less than 13' since they taper.

The 150gal stock tank (fish tank) extends 58" in to the room. You can get it through a standard exterior door on its side--just barely. Nearly had heart failure when I saw how close it was.

Complete measurements are here. http://www.stockyardsupply.com/page11/index2.html
Bet they wonder why they get so many hits from an aquaponics site.

So it's been a while since my last update...

I was experimenting with fluidized sand filters, and finally removed them completely. The little pumps I was using with them didn't appreciate the labor; I'm not sure whether I was getting sand backwashing through the pump, or what. Regardless, I burned out 2 pumps, and the filters are a major pain to get to restart if there is a power failure.

The tilapia breeders started doing better once I put a younger male in with my slightly older females. I got one spawn of about 90-100 fry, but lost the second spawn when I tried to net the female while she was still holding eggs. Half of the first spawn went to Rpondpa who reports that Cordon Breather Bags do work! We bagged the fry with no air in the bags for the trip to his place. All made it home alive. The second half of the first spawn is still with me, growing up a bit before they go into the main grow out tank.

The fish in the main grow out tank are the first offspring from the fish that were shipped here over a year ago. Those original fish are all long gone, mostly via the frying pan. These fish are almost eating size now--maybe another month of growning to go. There should be 25-30 in there, and that seems like about the right number of fish to have.

We had a small HSM here the other week when the fish knocked a ball valve off the pump. Suddenly all the water that the pump was pumping was just circulating in the tank and not going to the growbeds. Husband and I didn't notice for a day or two, and by then, ammonia/nitrite had seriously spiked. We lost 3 fish before we discovered the problem, but all others seem fine 5 days after the incident. I ended up doing about a 80% water change in total. I started with a 50% water change, but when I had refilled the tank, I re-tested. Ammonia and nitrite were still off the chart, so I did another 60% water change. Thankfully, we're not doing water rationing here like so many are. Water quality was good again in about 4 hours after fixing the ball valve.

I have planted some swiss chard, basil, broccoli and parsley that are all doing well. The eggplants are variable, and since I have to do the pollinating and am not good at that task apparently, I may just pull them out.

That's all for now.

Good to hear it's still chugging along! Bummer for the loss but good that your HSM was fixed in such an orderly fashion. So many of us here look to you for tips and tricks when it comes to small scale tilapia breeding.