Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yep...

And I recall raising my kid.

We heat with a wood stove in a little house, so we taught him to light matches and taught him about the dangers before he could walk well.

He wanted to split kindling (like dad) and handle my pocket knife, so we taught him that. And I don't think he has ever cut himself.

One day (at about 3 or 4 years old) on a rocky shore he climbed down near the water edge and would not respond when I warned of a large wave. Instead of yanking him back, I just got a grip on his life jacket before the wave soaked him and knocked him down. No need to tell him ever again to listen to warnings, although he does argue well.

And that kid could cast a lure way out, even before he had the dexterity to reel it in before it would sink and snag. I remember his first trout he pulled in from that shallow mountain lake full of fallen trees.

He went deep-sea fishing once (at about 11years old) and the night before that we practiced dealing with large fish on the line. We tied a nice rag to the fishing line, cast it out, and told the dog to take it to me while my son tried to reel it in the other way. Leaping, headshaking, running, growling: the dog was a (nearly) perfect imitation of a fighting fish. Nothing my son caught the next morning fought half as hard or caused so much laughter.

Lots of good memories.
And, man, what a lot of work!

We are getting places now. Just missing a couple of 'L' joints and build the frame. I was stoked to see the siphon work first off exactly where I want it. Now going to add a sump tank right next to the fish tank to ensure we have that CHIFT thingy. Hopefully have time to go to bunnings and get extra barrels while the three little people are asleep.

I am already eyeballing a 500LT water tank at Bunnings and thinking of having rows of 100mm pipes on top of each with the little peoples strawberries growing out of them...endless possibilities. Ashame I am renting otherwise I would go crazy building. Best this way and can learn, keep fish loss minimum.

On that note, after the system has cycle, I take it the general rule is 1 fish per 10L. If I have let's say 180 L, does that mean I can have 18 silver perch in this setup or best keep it lower ?

Not sure where you got the "1 fish per 10L" from... we suggest 3kg (fish) per 100L...

So for 180L.... about 5.4kg of fish weight (biomass).... as you might want to harvest your fish at about half that size.... then you could stock about 10 fish (max)....

But at that number, when you're feeding to that weight.... you will be pushing the limits of your available bio-filtration IMO....

No more than 10 IMO...

1kg/10L is an old figure, bandied around some years ago as the maximum for intensive farming. It is unfortunately for all intents and purposes unachievable in BYAP. sorry.
Feel free to try and prove us wrong, many have tried. Be prepared to lose a lot of good fish.

Awesome...I was expecting a max of five fish to be honest in this setup.

Anyway, sprang a leak at the bottom of the fish tank where the tap is so need more silicon. Then gravel, where the *beep* do I get gravel from. Bunnings I don't think has it so I guess I need to go to some garden landscaping place. Damn it...weekend is over and it is back to being a slave to these little people and work. I just more planning and design for the frame to hold this stuff together tightly and sourcing the gravel. Hopefully by this time next week I would have started the cycle.

5 is probably your limit... if you want to grow them out to 1kg each...

10... if you're going to start eating them around 4-500gm....

and in the end... it might depend just how well your bio-filtration handles the feed rate...

10... is an absolute MAX....

Got the wood last night. To be honest, I should have driven around and collect pallets everyone lies around...ah, next project. Looking forward to getting weight into these drums because I came home last night to a mess. Damn it, forgot about the wind and found my barrels all around the places with PVC separated everywhere.