Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Looks like drag pipes.... I like the way it upturns to oxygenate the water. Good work LKB

woohoo, we're off - just did water check
Temp 18c (64f)
PH - 7.2
Am - 0.5
N'trite - 5
N'trate - 5

frantically did 50% water change - that right?

I thought it might take a week or so to kick in, but then realised I have been cycling the water for over 2 weeks altho no fish in at that time.

I am now in the unknown zone - so procedures for regularity of tests etc definitely welcome

Reading would indicated half way through cycling, les.

keeping the NO2 to below 2.5 worked for me (which is what you have brought yours down to. Was there anything inthe water at all? anything decomposing? running the system with just pure fresh water would have done little to cycle it anless there was something decomposing making ammonia.

Post some more readings later, it may still be early days don't forget to inclued when you did water changes otherwise it'll be confusing

Thanks Steve - yeh wasn't expecting too much change seeing fish only introduced on Thursday, must have just been sitting there waiting for a trigger.

I have only added the extra grow bed and "clean" gravel and playing with the siphon setup, will test again tomorrow morning.

Les

Hey - there are 10 little goldies that are very happy for the water change, noticed that they were not very active before hand and not eating, put this down to new surroundings and cold water - now the little buggers are darting all over the place.

Didn't someone say "your fish will tell you if there is something wrong?"

Les

p.s. feeding them very little att

As an urban farmer of 25 years experience, I agree in principle with the idea of letting the livestock tell you how they're going.

With fish, however, there seems to be a very short timeframe between "I have a mild headache" and the funeral so I've adopted a daily water testing regime. So far, knock on wood, it's paying off. I've only lost six of my original 50 Jade Perch and they all died in the first week - for entirely explicable reasons.

Ell, systems looking good...which aquarium have you been visiting in Brisbane? Looking for a good aquarium on the Northside??

There are 2 in Morayfield I look at and one at Burpengary, each has the advantages/disadvantages - what are you after?

Tests Sunday
PH 7
A 0.25
N2 2
N3 5

used tank water for change yesterday

Ell, I am keen to chase down some basics ie. aerator, fish food, test kits, but also interested in acquiring some Silver or Jade Perch. Really just looking for a good 'one stop' aquarium rather than having to visit a few different places for supplies.

Andy - you are not going to get perch from an aquarium shop unless you want to pay mega bucks. For your other supplies like air pumps, test kits, heaters, thermometers etc, the online aquarium shops are piles cheaper than the physical shops.

I guess the aim is to get ones' system in symbiotic bio-balance,
The Hessian mentioned elsewhere I am thinking would have heaps of surface area in larger systems may for a time to speed biodiversity.

any ideas?

Andy,What suburb are you from?
vb is right - perch were $9 a throw, I was just surprised that the shop had some, you can order 100 & $1 each from Ausyfish, with the bits etc, I should have coupled the pump and test kit in one and ordered online - but I got them at different times and the savings would not have been as great when adding P&P.

Here is one place that is frequently mentioned:
http://www.aquariumproducts.com.au/prod347.htm

With buying the fish, we can probably organise a group of Qlders and order a bulk lot in the near future, minimum order is 100.

From reading experiences of other members, having fish arriving causes great panic and feverish movements in AP system completions

yes indeeed!

It goes from cool, i have 100 fish to......................shit, i have 100 FISH!

Ell, I am in Cashmere. Very keen on bulk purchases of fish...surely would get you motivated if you had an arrival date. And as Steve suggested the 'oh shit' factor would surely kick in. I have also spoken with Murray on this topic. Just surfing the net and quickly can see the prices are much better than shops.