Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

pH: 6.8 ~ 7.0 (as far as my eyes can tell)
Ammonia: ~0
Nitrites: ~ 0 - 0.25
Nitrates: ~ 0 (Shouldn't this be higher?)
Tank temp ~ 9c
Fish: ~50 X Bronze Comets (Gold fish) 1cm - 5cm: I'd like to raise Trout but NZ is weird.

One problem I have is I'm not seeing the same growth rates as in Oz, this maybe due to being so far South or not enough fish or sunlight? Any ideas on this would be appreciated.

I setup a small website (still a work in progress)
http://mwg.dscloud.biz/aquaponics/default.html

How old is the system? How long has it been cycled?

and what are you feeding your fish?

Hi Bunson, this system was started up in mid May about 2 months ago. I used the water and the clay pebbles from the system #1. I've updated the website with more info http://mwg.dscloud.biz/aquaponics/about/default.html

system #1 looked like this

Hi Keith, I feed the fish Goldfish Flakes from Aquaone. I tried little pellets but the fish seemed to like the flakes better. The pellets tended to expand and then clog the pump filter.

Here's a few more photos of the construction

Goldfish flakes are not going to help with the plant growth, You will have to feed your fish with some higher protien food, Have your tried crumbling the pellets up a bit and then feeding it to them?

The Goldfish (most are black/grey some part orange). The pellets I have are tiny about 2mm, they do expand when wet.

Reading off the label flakes are crude(?) protein 38%. They also have Crude Fat min 3%, Crude Ash max 5%, moisture max 8%.

Got no idea why the ingredients have Crude on the label.

After looking it up Crude = Raw there is nothing raw about these things they're definitely processed. Where they actually come from is anybodies guess.

On closer inspection they come from China. Nothing against China but I'd like to feed the fish something more closer to home. Any idea's welcome, will also see if I can find something on the net.

Crude protein basically means the total amount of protein, not just digestable/usable protein. Like a lot of feeds include chicken feathers and junk like that so they can claim higher protein numbers even though the fish don't benefit from it at all.