Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

What to do, what to do...

For anyone following my progress I am down to 4 SP from my original 11 due to a timer failure. I have since bought a much better pump, converted to flood and drain which provided fantastic aeration with my affnan's silencer/aerator (I'll put a video in the hardware section), bought an air pump that works 24/7 and replaced my dodgy wooden stand with a sturdy metal one that also now holds the GB 2/3 over the top of the FT. I also built a wooden frame for the side of the GB to stop it bulging out of shape.

Brilliant... very happy with my progress and design now but what to do about replacing my fish! The four I still have are around 15-20 cm and the biggest size I can get to replace them are 10 cm at best for $5 each so I have 3 options really (four I just realised).
a) run the system with the four fish and limited plant growth until trout season
b) chuck in a bunch of yabbies and run with the 4 fish until trout season
c) buy a further 10 smaller SP and miss out on both trout and barra
d) catch some black bream down the river and chuck them in to take me through to trout season.

Feedback, advice, pros and cons would be appreciated. Cheers all.

Buy a bunch of goldfish/koi then sell them on gumtree when approaching trout season?

Option a) I reckon. There is still some good months of warmth for the silver perch to put on some weight. If your system has been cycled, feed them once in the morning and once in the evening. Monitor your ammonia and nitrite levels. If they maintain at zero, keep doing this to close to trout season.

Add the occassional seasol. I think you will find you may get good growth from both the silvers and the plants.

+1 for what Ivan reckons.
If you try adding more SP my experience of having different size SP was that big ones picked on little ones and little ones died of stress.

We started out with fingerlings and slightly more advanced stock and had no problems but they were all introduced to the tank at the same time. They dont even bother the Pigmy Perch that were introduced much later. Or the gilgies that the kid from next door keeps arriving with (Had to tell him to do the catch and release thing ). From our - very limited - experience, the SP are not likely to bother smaller fish.
The bigger question is, do you want them out of the tank for trout season?
They dont grow that fast
Good luck with your conundrum

We introduced SP fingerlings and more advanced SP stock to our tank together,then later added pigmy perch and gilgies. The SP are not hassling anything.

The question to you, Jackfrost, is do you need them to be plate size by trout season?

Nothing will get to plate size by trout season unless they go in very nearly plate size. I would go with the goldfish idea