Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

leaks galore!

One of the Gb's has a really slow leak and another has quite a fiesty one, especially when the GB floods. tried to silicone it up, din't work, then tried thise depoxy steel, don't think I used that correctly, will try it again in the morning and then if still leaking will call a plumber have added extra water and will look into it a couple of times during the night.

Plants and fish look fine, the addition of the bananas to the system don't look to be making a difference yet, but they've only been in the ST for a day so will wait on that.

Made and installed a spray bar in the FT, the flow is at least reasonably baffled on its way in from the ST.

Tried to check pH today with some litmus paper, blue stayed blue red stayed red, figure must be close to a neutral pH.

Really wanting those 12 new goldies, will get off my ass and go get them in the morning.

I heard somewhere that back in the day they used to use soap to temporarily to plug leaks, will try that out in the morning as well.

Don't use soap Abdul... it's not fish friendly...

thanks for the heads up rupert :]

Got the leaks fixed, magic depoxy to the rescue, got the driver to do it and for the time being it seems to be holding, plan to give it a second coat once we get some more depoxy...

tied up the spray bar so that its just a touch out of the water when the lid is closed so bit of splashing there, will further secure it to the pipe in just a bit.

fish eating very voraciously and consuming quite an amount of food, considering that there are just 6 of them and how much t hey were eating before...

the bananas in the ST look like they have started decomposing and I think little banana bits are floating around there too, hopefully that potassium will reach the plants after goig through th pump in the ST and the SLO. Going to add the egg shells into the ST today as well. what can I add to give the plants phosphates?

Planted loads more seeds right into the system, peas, tomatoes and i think 3 kinds of chilis, put some in pots to germinate them too but dumped a whole load into each GB as well, can see them floating about during the top of the flood cycle, hopefully at least a couple will manage to stay on top and sprout, fingers crossed.

Going out to buy 12 more goldies in a couple of hours, woohoo

oh and there still are 6 fish in there!

I'm pretty sure that fish poo has phosphate in it. Otherwise you generally get it from rock dust (the phosphate sort specifically)

thats great to hear Babylon! So now I'm covered on trace elements with the bananas, and the egg shells which are gathered, I think 6 of them, dried as well, going to chuck them in in a couple of hours when I go to look at it the last time before crashing.

Bought six FAT new goldies added them, all seems happy atm, added some salt as well, all in the video.

Planted loads of seeds into the system, but other than the pea seeds I think all the pepper and tomato seeds wound up in the ST, have also planted loads of all the seeds into planters so will germinate those and transplant if no growth is spotted.

Also scored a turtle! hes featured in the video, put him into the FT for a bit, but I think they need some dry space, the Styrofoam I floated in there din't seem to work at all so have put him in a little tub in my room with the Styrofoam floatie, any input on turtle care would be much appreciated

Going to fix up the cracked aquarium with the depoxy steel, put him in there, have decided to name him Spartacus by the way as hes a feisty one, will make a third of it dry space using gravel from the beach and water in the rest, will then put a small aquarium filter pump in there and rig up a continously flooded GB with it and coin the phrase 'Turtleponics'

turtles carry salmonella as a benign part of their systems, so if you put one into your AP system make sure that you are not growing any vegetables that you intend to eat raw.

I would guess that the seeds washed through mostly because of the size of your rocks, with rocks that size any small seeds are going to fall down to the bottom and if they don't go into the siphon they'll be too deep to come up.

Thanks for the heads up Babylon, will be sure only to grow money plants and flowers in the turtleponics, will hopefully keep me from having to change the water...

Heres a video of the setup, those of you who have been following my saga from the beginning will recognize the aquarium as the same one that broke many weeks ago flooding my room, the big black scar down the back is depoxy steel that has sealed up the crack, have done the corners as well so as to prevent any other leakages.




The Aquaponics is doing fine, all fish still accounted for, no more leaks, yay , plants doing ok as well, did a major prune on the basil as I mentioned I would in the last video update of it, am sure at least a couple of the pea seeds should sprout but no hope for the others. Got some great input about wrapping the seeds in paper towels and then planting them, will try either that tomorrow or will use some fish net type thing, same thats holding the bananas in the ST which are beginning to get quite moldy so hpoefully adding potassium to the system, and will plant the seeds in that.

Which reminds me still need to put those egg shells in for calcium, got a big bunch of them waiting for the purpose.

one of the GB's had starting a continous flow, have adjusted them for that.

All else looks fine, let the criticism flow people!

So this is post number 249

Just had my final look of the night at the system, all looks fine, except, one of the little goldies was acting quite strange, head down in the rocks by the SLO, was active and swimming, thought it was stuck for a bit but apparently not, just righted itself and swam away when I moved the rock.

Either ways, I have a feeling post 250 will include a fish death.

Post 250!

They're all alive! fed them a bit even, the little ones got most of it as they knew the drill about feeding but the big ones caught on and got a little bit too, tomorrow they will get more.

Spartacus is still active and doing good. Got quite an appetite he does, sees me and goes mad begging, going to get his aquarium filter today and will give him a water change too.

Enjoy your weekends everyone

All goes well!! Basil looks exceedingly happy since have pruned it, may just be my imagination but looks like its really shooting up. No signs of any seedlings yet obviously, but loads of seeds in the ST, right mess it is in there.

Fish all doing fine, got rocks and a canister for the power head in the turtle tank, he's feeding well too, fish fed little as per previous report, tomorrow they start getting fed more

All actually looks like its going quite fine, however it is times like these that the rule' Its never boring.' proves itself so will be on the lookout, been quite paranoid about it all past couple of days.

Bananas in the ST really moldy now, the mold is drifting off and increasing the mess, am planning on finally adding the egg shells to it tomorrow. Is this method correct by the way? just adding bananas and egg shells to the ST to add trace nutrients...?

All right so had a random find today. A cousin who lives just down the road apparently got a pair of little turtles, only after he got them home and googled it did he realize the amount of time their care required, which he does not have, the petshop dude told him just chuck them into a fish aquarium. So I went over and adopted them, got the little itty bitty FT they were in too.

Got home and chucked them into Spartacus's tank, he promptly attempted to eat them, trying to take a bit out of ones tail, had a go at another's head before I pulled them out, will attach a video of them here.

Also saw with great interest how my uncle has built an aquarium! 2 feet by one and a half feet, two feet deep, completely homemade job! apparently cousin mentioned to him I'm going to buy an aquarium for this much money and so on, he said screw that, and built it! Would never guess it was a homemade job too. Hope its as strong as it looks, it resides in their living room next to the tv.

My own AP system looks fine, gave the filter pad in the ST today a bit of a clean, it was absolutely filthy with the seeds, all the tomato ones were in there, and a lot of muck that looked like the mold coming off the bananas in the ST.

All looks fine on the AP front, no more leaks, no more fish deaths/kills. Feeding twice a day as of yesterday. Went out today and got some different kinds of pellets and some freeze dried tubifex worms to feed the fish and the turtles with so going to start giving them a bit of a variety.

Also went out today and got myself a couple of 'Red Lobsters', at least thats what the guy at the shop called them. Din't consider gender till i was well on the way back and couldn't turn, think I've gotten them same sex. Going to try go again in a couple of days and try to score a female one. Can you guys tell me if these are the yabbies you guys put in your ST's too?

Have put them in the ST, am told they will eat fish food as well, a touch worried that they may try to climb out on the power wire for the pump in there, gonna go put a bit of net on that presently, expensive they were! About 5 USD a piece. Also going to put some 2" PVC in there for them to hide/play in. Hopefully they will eat up all the seeds that have made their way to the ST.

If you go to crayfishmates.com they might be able to identify the "red lobsters" if they are freshwater creatures they are not lobsters.

I expect any sort of crayfish will work as well as yabbies in an AP system, I am planning on using Signal Crayfish myself, although different species are going to have different food preferences, temperaments, and growth rates.

They look like yabbies
don't put to many in the ST because they are very territorial and chop each other up. Also will attack gold fish if in striking range. I learnt this first hand

regards
matt

Have only put two of them in there matty, plan on putting in two more but that should be about it I think. The ST already looks a bit cleaner, but then again I cleaned up the pump filters today so may have been that. No way of knowing if the supposed yabbies ate the frozen tubiflex worms I put in there yesterday or the few pellets I put in today but they seem happy and active. I think the flushed seeds and the rotting banana is providing them with sustenance, at least I hope that.

Thanks for the great link Babylon, will make a user on that and get on it asap

Fish also treated to tubiflex worms this afternoon, which they quite liked, fed them again just a bit ago, they ate a lot and very happily. All 12 still in there

The two little turtles, one of them definately loved the tubiflex, saw him eating it, the other one not so much. Spartacus refuses to have anything to do with them, he eats them when they come off the little piece but doesn't touch the block itself. So both sets of turtles do seem to prefer the pellets. Am told they will eat spinach will get them some of that tommorrow.

Quite filthy creatures these turtles are, cleaning their tanks almost every day :/

So turtles good, red, well they're really blue, lobsters good, oh named the little turtles sleepy and swimmy based on their behaviour, fish fine.

Current plants doing well as well, am pretty sure the chili plants have just stalled, they really don't seem to be growing any bigger.

BUT, the seedlings are up in my pots, at least the tomatoes and what I think are the chilis surely are, mum's got loads of tomato seedlings downstairs ready as well so another week or so and will be a major addition into the system.

Also at least ONE chili seed has managed to germinate in the AP GB think a couple more may have made it, but the next week will really tell what the scene is.

Thinking about transplanting the new plants, namely chilis, peas and tomatos, in with some cotton/rock wool/fish net to give them a better place to hang on to in my oh so frequently large river rock filled GBs, any thoughts?