Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well, I thought I'd just jump into this aquaponics thing after chewing on the idea for about three years. What pushed me over the edge was taking the better half to BYAP (I suppose someone has come up with a new, catchy name for the shop now that it has changed hands) a fortnight ago. She became more hyped than I was.

So I bought a "Courtyard" system (2 metre GB + 1000 litre FT) as well as a second hand GB + 500 litre FT. After madly scrambling to level and slab an area at the side of the house before my box of red wrigglers from Bunnings expired, I set up the system. First question - how on earth do you separate the wriggly beggars from the compost they are residing in without having to finger through and extract each of the 500 odd? I am only putting the worms in the second hand system to start off with, as the expanded clay medium had heaps of dried up root matter etc. in it for them to get stuck into.

Last Friday I purchased 10 rainbow trout and 11 silver perch from Mundijong Road area and wacked them in. I'd checked the PH, nitrite and ammonia and all was good before putting the fish in. Trout x 10 into the 500 litre, Perch x 11 into the 1000 litre. By morning we had four trout basking in the sun on the slabs (now cleaned and in the freezer waiting to be buttered in a pan - I have read the many posts on the pro's and con's of eating the dead 'uns).

Second question - the fish don't seem to be interested in food at the moment - what shall we do? Temperature of the water is 8.3 celcius in the 1000 litre, 8.0 in the 500 litre. PH, Nitrites and ammonia are already starting to head up. Plants are still wondering what hit them and are slowly beginning to raise their heads, so I don't think much nutrient snarfing on their part has begun yet.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and, if you are able, providing me with some of your good oil on the questions I have raised.

Hi and welcome TCK.

For your worm question you could try exposing part of the compost so it dries out (or begins to). The worms should migrate to the moist area making it easier for you to collect.

For your fist question, I would think they aren't interested in food because of your water temp. Dint worry, fish can go a couple of weeks with out food. Keep an eye on the and try a small amount in a week or two.

What are your pH, ammonia and nitrite readings?

Thank you Arbe for your encouragement. Do you mind me asking what your water temp is in Dowerin? Do you need to heat it at all or do your fish just adjust to the seasons?

I have had the worm + compostie goop sitting in a colander in the GB for the last three days - they are as happy as Larry in there and not moving yet. We haven't had more than a day of dry weather so it will take some time to dry out. Will wait and see.

Concerning the readings, the 1000 lt tank has PH of 7.5, Ammonia of 0.25 and, though I'm hazy on this reading because all the higher gradients on my Nitrite card seem to be almost the same colour, Nitrite of 2.0.
The 500 lt has PH of 7.8, ammonia of 0.25 and Nitrite of 1.0.

I was just reading another thread about silver perch being very shy while small and won't feed while you're gawking at them. I am thinking that the rascalls maybe feeding behind my back. The same for the trout. At the BYAP display in Jandakot, the fish all dived in when the dinner bell was rung so I was expecting the same with my fish. A check of the tanks only showed two old floaters left from the six or so I flung in this morning for the perch and nothing left in the trout tank. I am using floating feed so, unless the stuff has gotten water logged and gone pearling, I guess the fish are actually feeding. Again, I suppose, we shall wait and see.

The Perch will not eat much at this time of year, but you should see the trout getting a bit more excitable soon.

Put the clump of worms with their bedding on top of the gravel. The next day the worms would have migrated into the growbed and you can remove their old bedding.

Worms hate sun light, spread the worms/bedding thinly over some fly mesh on top of your grow bed & leave in the sun for a few hours they will dive for cover into the grow bed, then simply lift up the fly mesh to remove the bedding material.
Good luck

I don't know what the water temp is like as my system is currently dismantled while I build a house. Hopefully next year it will be up and running again. But now that you mention water temp I should measure it now so I know what I'm in for.

I do the same thing only using a PVC Sieve, I just sit the sieve in the GB and come back in an hour or so and they're in the GB without any mess.

Whenever I feed the fish worms I grab a handful from the worm farm and put them in the sieve on top of a bucket and they drop down into the bucket and there's very little cleaning needed before feeding them to the fish.

Thank you for each of your suggestions. I checked my colander (sieve) a moment ago and either the worms are evaporating or they are getting the idea they need to move into the GB. Still a few recalcitrants but I believe they will succumbe to peer pressure.