Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Wasn't having a shot at you Chappo, I appreciate your help. Was just a short way of explaining how I cope with the stupidity.

Breath in, breath out, don't think; much like the champions we have to deal with at call centres.

Never thought you where having a shot ,, I don't get angry much anymore ,, actually it took all my might not to laugh when talking to the inept call service manager. , as soon as I heard his voice and implied attitude , I could already predict what he was going to say ,,,HMM Sir I have no control over,.....,, It's not my departments error,.......... What can I do about it .....,,
LAUGHABLE really. The ones to feel sorry for are the poor call operators ,, they're just trying to do their job and go home to the kids ..... but being led by Mr manager who takes no reponsibility and having Mr Engineer/s disapearing all day sure isn't making their lives nicer.
I was particularly friendly to the call operators ,, NOT their fault.
All up ,, I'd call the experience amusing. I can laugh because I never have to telephone them again
The amazing things is that you haven't got gas or water coming out your wires..LOL

I made a new cover for the rectangular fish tank today out of some cool room insulation sheets. Added bonus, the cover is so strong I could put a small grow bed and duckweed pond on top of the back section . I put some mesh on the fence and the snow peas in the new bed should find their way up to the light.

I have been reading lots of post in here about flood and drain timing and giving bacteria time to do their work. I have some concerns about my system because I don't think it is normal; let me explain:

Water is pumped from the rectangular tank up into to the blue half barrels and down to blue tank. The blue tank overflows back into the rectangular tank. Water flow is controlled by ball valves at three points. The pumps runs 20 minutes on 1 hour off.

This is the bit that I think is not normal, I am using loop syphons on a timed system. I did this because the pump I am using has a maximum flow of 5900 litres per hour. Even with the last ball valve wide open both grow beds fill in about 3 minutes, the loop syphons drain each bed in about 30 seconds.

With this arrangement at least each bed fills and drains several times during the 20 minutes. I am hoping that this will allow the bacteria to do their stuff

I have a small drain at the bottom of each bed that slow drains each bed at the end of the 20 minutes. These drains are now going down to the new grow bed on the tank cover.

That pumping system will work well Fishfodder - should keep your water clean and aerated

All of my beds in the big system, run for 15 mins on and manage to flood and drain several times.

Thanks OBO, I hoped that would be the case. The water is crystal clear and the SPs seems to like swimming in the torrent of bubbly water that overflows out of the blue barrel. I don't think I will have any problems with DO

An update and some pictures of the plant growth.

I'm down to the my last 3 goldfish. One of the silver perch conducted a commando raid through the tank divider and beat the daylights out of them. Four of them died over the next few days. The three that have survived were looking pretty worse for wear but I was surprised by how quickly they grew all their scales and fins back.

The SPs are growing, the largest ones are now about 13 cm long. The fastest growers have probably put on about 2cms.

The plants have also taken off since I planted the beds out on 17th May. A few short weeks and we have been picking a few lettuce leaves and the caulis and brocolli have jumped up. The snow peas are struggling a bit but hopefully will pick up.

The white and red goldfish below is a real survivor, he spent about a year in a small outdoor pond with no care and no addition food. I am glad he survived the SP attack.

Looking back at my records I see that the caulis where planted on the 10th may. Snow peas, lettuce and assorted asian veges where planted on the 17th.

Anyway not too bad for just under a month. No sign of the dreaded white butterflies yet.

Good one FF. Were the peas planted from seed (sorry - would look back, but with my puter playing back, may take a while).

Mate - when you post your images, use a resizer to bring them back in size so people don't have to scroll. If you want a link the the windows resize tool, let us know and we can find it for you. Ta

Yeh I resize all my photos in photoshop but I guess I mess up. Will preview in future and check.

The snowpeas were very small seedling about 4 inches high so they have grown some. I guess they may grow quicker from seed, no root shock etc. I have seen snowpeas grow so quickly in soil that I guess I was expecting miracles in AP.

2cm growth in a month .... through May.... that's pretty impressive Fishfodder... forgotten are you heating your water... what temp is your water running at?

P.S. thought you said you got "some small silver perch"......when you got them .... mate at 10cm+..... they're already half grown....

Be interesting to see how they go over the next couple of months.... as they came out of John's dams....

I know his dams a quite deep and get down around 5 degrees in the top 1-2mtrs of depth during winter.... suspect his SP's might be hardy little critters

FF - I'd never personally grow peas from anything other than seed. It is important though to note that the seeds often have thyrim (sp?) on them, so either soak then for some time to get most of it off before plating in the AP or get some organic ones.

My prediction would be that if you'd used seeds they'd be going great guns by now :-)

You can find the MS Resize tool download here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/usin ... lman2.mspx
By far the easiest option IMHO. I use medium.

Hi Rupert and VB

Yes I am heating the water, it generally sits between 23 and 25 degrees. Drops down to 20ish if we get rainy cold weather like last week. The cover I made for the tank makes all the difference.

The SPS John gave me came out of his round fibreglass tanks not his pond but your right they must be hardy, I haven't managed to kill any of them.....yet

It is surprising the difference in growth, several of them have already bolted in length and overall size but some look no different.

Thyrim? is that the pink stuff that you find in corn/pea seed etc. Some sort of fungicide I assume.

Thanks for the link VB, will sort it out, ta.

Is that a tornado pump ff?

Most be a bloody big heater Fishfodder.... no wonder our power has been browning out down here all month....

What size are you running... how long for?....and any idea how much it costing you?