Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Les how hard was it to make the lids for your tanks out of pvc and shade cloth? What size pvc pipe did you use?

AP

AP, I used 12mm conduit (think that was the size) and bent it into a circle, then glued together - "B" have 4 metre lengths or try an electrical retailer. I laid the length in the sun for a couple of hours to give it some warmth and it bent quite easily.

The conduit has one end expanded, so you can slip it straight in

The smaller tank is 1 metre in diameter, so one length was okay - the bigger tank needed an extra piece.

I grabbed a bag of cable ties (small) and used them to clip the shadecloth to the conduit.

The lids are very easy to make

Caught all the SP fingerlings that were in the sump tank and moved them to the new tank for them

Sizes - there were about 4 that were over 150mm (6") in length with the majority being 100m+ (4") - didn't weigh any

Now just got to get them back onto the feed, they just want to stay on the bottom at present

what are those red splotches Les?

Water that clean cant be good for the fishes

Great growth Les. Your SP have outgrown my Barra.

But now I have the GB set up and the water has cleared - I should be able to feed them properly and I reckon I'll catch you within a month :-). All the same excellent growth for SP. Will be very interested to see how long they take to grow out when you can feed properly from the get go like you have.

wudda been 16mm or 20mm @ the expanded end is a bell mouth

on the east coast only...we have more simple terms in the west, um 'bell end'....

That blood in the water? Neighbors gone up missing? Looking fantastic as always Les! I can't applaud your work enough. SweeeeeT.

An(other) update:

Did a bit of pruning in the GBs, removing old plants and putting in some more

Finally had one of the slave actuators fail, pulls and opens valve to allow water to GB6 but would not close again...this is one of the originals and has been in service since Jan 06.

The symptons were interesting:
over a 4 day period - only failed during the evening...reset and worked perfectly all day until the following morning

The power to the actuator is on the end of the 12v power run, so was thinking there might be too much line loss, changed actuator (coz I had a spare) and has been going strong ever since...will log any other failures to see if this was a one off

it's satisfying to have a big cleanout and replant in the jungle isn't it

Looking good as always Les

Looks healthy!

would never happen with Bella Les

Getting into a bit of a routine now - pull some plants, see some gravel, put in some plants...feed the fish,harvest the fish, eat the fish, get more fish

Ah! Bella - and so young too