Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Been growing some Duckweed for the last week or so. Have got some good growth happening, considering I started with a very small amount.

I threw a handful of chook (chicken) poo in, which has really got it looking healthy.

I've also got heaps of Mosquito Larvae breeding in there. So today I scooped out some of the larvae, rinsed them in some fresh water and chucked them in the fish tank. They didn't last long. I assume they have a high protein level? Something to remember when you've got small fish to feed!

Another quick update:

I had another head for my small pump which allows the flow to be split. So it now goes onto the top of the growbed as well as to the bottom.

When the pump turns off the pipe to the bottom of the bed siphons back to the fish tank. Has been going all week without issue.

I had to increase the size of the overflow pipe to cater for the additional flow from the new pipe.

Pulled a few plants to make room for the leafy greens that have grown from seed and are now starting to power along.

Keeping the rockmellon well trimmed - some powdery mildew forming - treated with diluted milk - might have to pull it soon as it's probably too cold anyway.

Tomato is forming fruit already

Fish are not eating as well today as the temp droped a few degrees overnight

Did a bit of reading on Duckweed, and added some sea salt which is supposed to provide a few choice minerals - duckweed can handle a fair amount of salt. Also threw in some shell grit as duckweed doesn't like too much acid in its water. It growing at a great rate - check out the previous picture...

Myles, how do you insert text into your pics?

MS Paint works well

Paint.NET is good if your using windows. Might be a bit of a learning curve, depends what you've used before. I'm sure you'd work it out.

Paint.NET,
Image - Resize 800x600
File - Save - %quality to make it ~250kb

What is it with all you bloke posting pictures! Dont you know i've been throttled to 64K for the rest of the month

Oh noes 2 days

(79gb down 1 Left)

Plenty of time and no excuses to work on your BYAP system whilst waiting for downloads then

Just a quick update:

Looks like I've finally cycled - pH has droped below 7 and leafy green growth has had a spurt.

I reckon the fish have doubled in size since I put them in.

Tomatoes looking more like Tomatoes.

Looks great! A good little ecosystem going on there.

Thanks Dave.

Finally got a test kit today:

pH: 6.0 (or maybe even lower - chucked in more shell grit will measure again tomorrow)
Ammonia: 1.0
Nitrite: 0.25
Nitrate: 30

So I've definately , now just to settle the pH...

Hey Myles, just keep an eye on the ammonia if you raise the ph up too much, it will become more toxic. Bacteria are obviously going to work though, so it shouldn't be a problem. Nice work

and on the other hand, you do need to get that ph up around the mid 7's so that your bacteria work more efficiently