Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I was doing some decking last year , before I bought it I talked to a mate whos fairly high up in the bunnings heirarchy , I asked what they put in it & whether it was safe for my kid to be licking it ..

I sealed the decking anyway , but he says that about a month before I bought the stuff , the suppliers of all that type of decking had stopped using cca ( copper-chrome-arsenic , like the old playgrounds , the stuff I used to play on and lick , being a child ) and starting treeating all their decking with natural stuff

Ive no idea what they use now / what that "natural stuff" is , I'll have to ask him again . but Im sure that was only for decking , treated & structural pine are probably still sprayed with death-sauce before being shipped to your local hardware store

not that im going to be dipping timber decking into my new IBC either , but atleast I can be sure theres no arsenic in it anymore

mmmm , teak decking around an IBC ? will that look fancy enough to keep the missus happy ?

kenour, you will be able to buy overwintered silvers from Glenwaters around mid September. He advertises in the Weekly Times. He will have some ready in a couple weeks, but really, leave em til after winter, you just won't get much growth.
I may have some silvers around christmas. I have breeders but haven't spawned them yet. I may do it this season, (i am not a fish person but have been doing a bit of study.) Chances are if I do, I will hold them til December so they are a reasonable size.
We can have a chat about it at Jim's next wknd if ur going. I am also interested in ur family contact at the Trout Farm!!

ken, i'd go with the trout suggestion IF you can get your system up and running and CYCLED before the COLD weather sets in. I started dads system in winter with trout..................it was a bugger to cycle the system and the trout died, mine and the ones i saved from dads system grew out beautifuly and are in tummy heaven

Trout grow quick and are a read crowd pleaser at feeding time.

There are varoius ways of getting the system cycled without fish, and i've just read about someone supplementing with agricultural urea (the user escapes me now)

maybe wack a doz. goldies in there as well as seed from an existing aquarium or AP setup.................the goldies won't go to waste............ask BK about trouts taste for them

No worries! Trout it is
I've had 10 goldies in there for about a month, so hopefully this magical cycle I keep hearing about has already happened I would get the test kit out again, but I'll wait till the growbeds are in

jims just posted results of his testing of NH4 and NO2 while adding the urea............... might pay to "dose" the system for a few weeks if you're planning on getting a large qty of trout.

this "dosing" SHOULD increase the ammonia processing capability of the bacterial colony (via reproduction)

Sounds like a plan! I'll have a read Too hot to get anything done today, but tomorrow I'll hopefully get the majority of stuff done! Then it's a run to a creek to borrow some large river stones to finish the water fall JOY!

I 'dosed' my system thoroughly before I got my perch. Water quality hasn't changed after 6 days since getting them. It's scarily constant actually :-)

Yeah... I start to panic when everything comes together too... cause you know catastrophic failure is lurking just around the corner

Well! I decided to put the long weekend to good use... and get blind for most of it! But today I dragged myself out of bed to finally finish off the waterfall! Now that its done, all I have to do is hook up the growbeds and we're in business (still ignoring the part where I have to wash 2.5M of scoria...).

Everything is working like it should, I've got the water cycling straight back into the drainage pipes, all is good and nothings on fire, so I'm happy

I've made is so the water sits in a little 'waiting pool' at the end of the cycle, as I'm going to put shell grit in the base so the water can steal some ions and quarks and neutrinos or whatever other magic is involved in hardening the water

I've told Tam I'm leaving the prettying up to her, so she can carry the big river rocks up into place that will eventually boarder the waterfall, I got the look again! I'll get around to it eventually But because I can move forward now, it wont be done until the functional bits are finished and the water is cycling through the grow beds

More photo's of waterfall progress!

very nice

You are lucky, we couldn't put timber in the ground like that. It would vanish in weeks as the termites carried it away to a new home

I just can't wait to start cycling it to get it out of the pea soup stage, my pH is also alarmingly high at the moment, higher than the last colour on the high range pH card! I'm just topping it up with tank water which normally brings it down to 7-7.5, hopefully the shell grit will keep things stable in future!

I haven't seen my fish in a while... the ducks got in the other day when I had the barriers down to work on it... looks like my fish are now duck poo!!!

WELL! Even after the water change it's still at the top of the high range pH card... I'm just about ready to attach the growbeds, and from what I've read, the scoria will up the pH even more? I still have zero nitrate too! I think I'll get it running through the growbeds, dose it, and make a comfortable home for all the little bacteria to live in Hopefully the pH will settle down after that... hopefully! :p

the strips are notoriously unreliable mate. Get the drops in a test kit package at a local aquarium. Costs about 30 bucks for a range of about 6 different tests. The pack will last you for ages. Far more reliable readings.

TT I've never seen the bulk test kit at any LFS, they generally sting me 25-30 per test type.
Does anybody have the link to the bulk multi test kit it seems all the long term member here use? That's only $40 or so, a heap cheaper imho. But Kenny, if your LFS has them then great get one :-)

Also, I rang Simon from Landmark, and told him of my woes in getting growbeds from any city suppliers... He's pretty much my closest Landmark btw!!!
Because he knew what I wanted, and wanted to sell more, he's DELIVERING to my door, the growbeds you got, for $5 more I think than you paid!!!!! (for delivery no doubt)
And the lead time is less than 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
with home delivery!!!!
I am thrilled!