Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I thought I'd start a system thread after the intro.

System is still cycling, hoping to add about 12 Trout Fingerlings in a week or two.

Yesterday I added a 90% Shade cloth to cover the fish tank to hopefully limit algae growth and keep the fish in.



It's on the eastern side of the house so it gets about 4 hours of morning sunlight during winter, probably 6-7 hours in summer as a guess.

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What are the sizes of the two tanks..
12trout... trout are amongst the most critical fish to keep... ALIVE
Rule-Of-Thumb. ..... 25plus Ltr of media per fush... = 400L of media... ummmmmmm. Is that GB 400L...
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Looks good .. :-)

You could always install an opaque plastic on the inside of the cladding on the fish tank that's exposed to the most sunlight. That won't bother your clean build which is very nice by the way. I wouldn't do all of the sides so some light gets in.

Thanks I've contemplated replacing one of the panels with the polycarbonate sheeting to allow some more light in, although I'll probably add some sort of insulation when summer comes around. Looking through the gaps there's quite a lot of light coming through the shade cloth. Just learning the ropes on this system before the inevitable expansions.

I estimate about 220 litres of flooded media off the top of my head. Might be safer with 8-10 trout

Why let light in? Fish don't care if it's light or dark and the cladding probably let's light in anyway. My fish are always more chill when the tank is covered.

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Light.. pros and cons.... I find that SOME light is good as they are less startled when you want to feed..
They just need (IMHO) SUFFICIENT dark area to get away from threats..
I don't want my fish to be startled when being feeding.. I want to feed until food starts to just sit on the floor.. ie. I want them happy to see my silhouette OFTEN and not be distressed.. it seems to work for me.. I can peer into the opening and they will rise right up to my face..
So, I would be looking at replacing the complete light excluder with clear polycarbonate or similar..
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Thanks for the additional insight. My tanks aren't blacked out. Tarps covering the sides let some light in and a lid over the top with places for the light. If I don't cover, the fish don't come out of their hiding places all day. If I keep the lid on, they are out and seem more relaxed.



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Readings today: 3 weeks into a fishless cycle.

pH 7.4, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0.5, Nitrate 160, Temp 18C

My thinking is to wait until nitrites and ammonia are 0 then hit it with ammonia and see how long it takes to go back to 0.

Hoping to be able to add fish soon.

How did this turn out for you? Looks like your pretty much ready to go.

Not sure what's happening, my nitrites are still around 1-2 ppm after almost 5 weeks. Still waiting. Nitrates have also dropped down to about 10

pH 7.4, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 1, Nitrate 10 Temp 16

Spewing because I missed out on getting trout locally.

I added a capful of seasol powerfeed a few days ago and didn't see ammonia go over .25, was 0 the next morning after that reading

I can't complain about plant growth though, considering there are no fish yet. I'll post a pic in the morning

Growth after nearly 5 weeks: (seedlings planted on day 1 )

Celery, Cos Lettuce, Chives, Spring Onions, Silver Beet, Baby Spinach, Siberian tomatoes, Parsley and some sugar snaps




And a water test.... (colours came out slightly different to the naked eye on the photo, but close enough... Nitrites still up...

Ok 5 weeks on the nose I think the system is finally cycled, correct?

pH 7.4, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 160 Temp 14

Still trying to track down some trout, else might go with silver perch

Got some trout!

After equalising temperature and ph over the space of an hour I released them into the tank .

Surprisingly within 30 seconds they were smashing the bubbles on the surface thinking they were pellets. So I threw in about teaspoon of pellets, couldn't resist... Smashed them. How cool are trout!

Sorry I'm easily entertained. Will go easy on the feed over the next few days and monitor the water chemistry.

Also noticed they were finishing off the mosquito larvae...

Trout are the best! How many did you get?

I've got 10 fingerlings, average about 10 cm, so I'll be adding another growbed to be safe, maybe just a blue barrel or some Dutch pots or another ibc... And then... And then ...