Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Murray,

Do you have an update on your system?
Have you got the grow bed part up and running yet?
How are the remaining jade perch?

Steve

Hi Steve,
Have gone to Coffs Harbour for the weekend to see eldest daughter and grand ankle biters. Left Jade's behind - am worried - cant sleep.............. This Aquaponics thing !?!..#.% That !@.%^.Joel, he started all this, and Steve, you are not helping much !!! Look at me, 500 kms from home and I am up at 6 am cracking the password on my son-in-laws computer to get to the Forum for a fix !!!

mmmmm, yes, i know.

I wasn't to popular when i "ducked out" to an internet cafe while on a romantic weekend a few months ago..................

Hope they're behaving while you are away!

yeh, thats right Mr Smiley, you are a home wrecker.

No doubt you have an a master plan that involves getting every second house hold to raise fish and then somehow you'll trigger them to revolt and be your personal army, hell bent on turning australia into "water world".

I'll second that motion- just took the other half clothes shopping to kmart- they had 20% off pots and stuff, so I went a bit nuts, got a big galv pot (100 litres) with 2 littlies for the plants all for $24 and a couple of cheap 1000 lphr pumps and am going to convert my aquarium to aquaponics with an indoor plant on top and set up something in the kmart special in one of those portable bunno's greenhouses.. Am very excited

Hi Steve, you asked on Sunday how my Jade were going.
Attached is photo of Jade, only one of the little critters, they are camera shy!!!

They are about 100mm long now, most of them that is, I am beginning to think I n=might have 2 or 3 Silvers that have survived. There is 3 fish that are about 75% of the size of the others and are slimmer and a bit more silver in colour.

The brick that one of the Jades is in front of is 110mm long. They are doing well when one conciders the difficulties the poor little critters have been subjected to.

Some shots of my small tank (200 ltrs) and the 300mm dia plant pot with the gravel and filter medium on top, which is keeping the water just nice and the overflow provides the aeration. I also have an air bubbler in behind the plant pot as insurance.

Murray

One more Photo.
Long shot of my 200 ltr fish tank showing home made plant pot filter. The pipe from the 500 gph Rule 12 volt pump can be seen. The 12 volt pump draws 3 amps from the battery charger. I now have a solar panel hooked up to the battery and it is providing 1.2 of those amps for the pump during daylight.......need two or three more solar panels and it would be self sustaining....for the pump anyway.

Very nice murray,

the jade perch look like they have a much "creamier" colour than the silver perch when they are young.

I spotted the aquarium heater in the bottom of the pic

Steve

Steve/Earthbound, Is it normal for the water to have that slightly "brown" look to it as you can see in the pix above....?????. The water is nice and sparkling, but with that slight brown look......???

Murray, can't say for certain.

I know that my aquarium gets that yellow/brown tinge after about a month. Probably due to the colouring in the flakes. Possibly some colour from the bricks?

I'm quite certain your water is fine.

Steve

Steve, Is that really your photo ? You look a lot older than 29, have you had a hard life ???

This photo looks remarkably like Richard Dean Anderson from "MacGyver"



Murray

LOL murray

I do look alot like "jack O'neil" from Stargate SG-1, don't i? AKA Macgyver

Strangely LB also looks much like Dainel Jackson from SG-1.............



I'm waiting for someone to use a picture of Teal'C (sorry guys you have to be a SG-1 fan)

Since we're on the topic...........season 10 starts on june 14 (in the states)

Hi all,

I think it was in this thread that we were talking about nitrite poisoning of fish, and the fact that the Chloride ion (CL-) can help prevent nitrite poisoning.

I mentioned that calcium chloride was a better option as its not a problem for plants like sodium chloride (normal salt) is and also it can be utilised as a source of calcium.

But where to get it?

Well, i was having a little clean up of my "computer room" which incidentally houses 300lt worth of fish tanks, and my "damp rid" container was full of water. I tipped it out and went to the cupboard to re-fill it with the little white balls and noticed that they were calcium chloride.

Seems pretty pure to me, and its the only ingredient listed. Makes sense i knew it was a humectant (absorbs moisture) but never made the connection

And yes, i'll try it first if you want murray

That is interesting Steve....what would a commercial/product name of that be....? (calcium chloride) Where is a likely business establishment where one could purchase such a substance/product...?