Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Been very busy but not much work on the AP set up.
We now have the second FT sealed and full of water. You will note in the pic the 65mm pipe used to keep the water in the two tanks level. The siphon in the 2nd FT has not been fitted yet. There had been very little growth in the vegies but in the past seven days the growth has doubled. The Celery in particular grew 60+mm in five days.
The yabbies are growing with plenty of empty shells and a lot of soft shelled yabs.
We hope to put SP in next or the following week with fifty in each tank.
The FT's are holding at 12o and 7.4ph 24/7 would this be OK for the SP's?
Note in the pic that we have moved both GB siphons to the outside of the tank and put the 90mm pipes back in the beds. We can now keep a good check on the water levels and have not glued the siphons so we can if required, lower the start up of the siphons. Both GB's are filling to approx 50mm under the gravel.

In my search for a method of heating my fish tanks I have come up with several ideas.
One is to use an old gas hot water system.
You will find these at your local tip or have a chat to your plumber.
This unit has a hollow centre/flue going up through the water tank.
Remove all the gas fittings, leave the outer cover in place to help insulate, repair the leak in the tank which is why it is being thrown out, build a fire box below the unit by welding legs on or use bricks. Now you have an old style wood chip heater. This would suit those with access to rubbish/cheap timber(not treated) packing cases and the like.
It could also be located in a hot house where it would give some radiant heat on cold nights.
Circulate the hot water through a stainless steel coil in the FT.

I have a very large hot water service in the old dairy which I am going to experiment with. If it works ok I have plans to build a solar water heater to keep the HW tank heat levels topped up.

Have not had much time to work on the AP unit. Did not go up to the farm last weekend and when I checked the growth on the vegs yesterday I was very disappointed.
We do not have enough light in the shed at the moment. The water is too cold to put fish in at the moment at 9o. Trout would be OK but not enough time to finish them before the spring is with us.
I do not have the time to set up the heating system. Will have to wait until we move up there.
The pics show the duckweed on the yabby tank/sump and the growth of the vegs one month after transplanting into the bed!!!!!!
You may note the one sheet of smoked acrylic sheet in the background still to be put up along with another four clear sheets which we will pick up from B's next weekend. We will have the smokey coloured ones over the fish tanks.

This pic shows some of the 41 queensland blue pumpkins produced from one plant, picked today (sunday 1/6/08) and put into storage. We had already eaten two (very sweet) and given another four away. One Jarrahdale plant produced seven making a total of 48 on the two shelves in the pic.

I can see a LOT of pumpkin soup being eaten this winter!!!!

puts my 14 to shame.................

Hi all
went up to the farm last weekend for the first time in three weeks.
The Celery has grown well but everything else has been slow. No fish yet and do not intend putting any in until we move up to the farm in late August.
The system is running very well. The water is holding at 10o and 7.4PH and is very clean.
Spent Saturday carting sleepers home from Strathmerton for fire wood they are very rough old and dusty but should burn well. So no work on the AP unit. Planted Broad beans into the dirt beds on Sunday.
The attached pics show the pipes around the celery these pipes are 300mm high. Yes one pipe is longer it is a spare siphon so did not want to cut it.
The mini caulies are going well but we need more light. Still have not put the four clear sheets of acrylic up yet.

All my life I have spent with animals sheep, cattle horses, dogs and cats.
None of which I killed other than a sheep for the table and now I have killed 13 trout.
I was inexperenced with transporting fish, yes, but this is no excuse for not being well prepared for transporting fish.

I picked up 29 trout all in one bag and travelled for forty minutes before stopping at a pet store in Shepparton to pick up some feed for them.
On checking the bag almost all of them were belly up. I purchased an air pump and air stone and rushed to a service station where we plugged the unit in and put the air stone into the bag. All but two recovered over an hour period with the stone in the bag. We still had 40 minutes of travel time and no way of keeping an air supply to the fish.

During the first period of travel the bag was sealed with a rubber band. The final dash home I left the bag open. Still not sure if this was the right way to go but I had to try something.
On arrival at home we had seven or eight ok but the rest were belly up.
We put the bag into the tank and put the air stone in. After 20 minutes twelve were OK so we let all the ones that seemed Ok into the tank.
This left us with 17 still in the bag. After another half hour we had four more up and going and let them into the tank.
Final tally 16 live and 13 dead.

Before we transport any more fish we will have a 12v air pump and stone in the car.

We were unable to get the pellets they had been fed just a bag of fish food which does not have the strong fish smell.
The fish are very active. The pellets are floating but we have not seen the fish feeding. The pellets are not there next morning but we are still not sure if the fish have eaten them.
I purchased some larger pellets in Bendigo last week but will not be up to the farm until next weekend to try them out.
Any advice re the feeding would be most welcome.

Really fling the pellets at the water, make them splash, and the trout will go at them.

Sorry for your losses, trout are not the best fish to be learning transporting with

29 trout that size in a bag.... is just way to much Alex IMHO....

Even if it was filled with oxygen and had an airstone....

Think you'd struggle with half that number with fish that size... even 10.... especially since trout have a preference for higher DO than most other fish....

Frankly, for 30 trout that size... reckon you'd need a 200ltr blue barrel, with airstones...

OBO... how many/what size did you guys transport???

Sorry to hear about your loses Alex...

Think of it this way Alex.... 30 trout in 200ltr....

Same as 3 trout (of that size) in 20 litres... equivalent to 2 buckets... minimum, I reckon

Sorry to read about those losses - and surprised at the level they stocked the bag I hope the survivors do well and grow fast!

my trout were about that size when i picked them up, and they'd only put 15 per bag max and filled it with pure 02 before sealing.

dropped in at a mates place on the way back so was a total of between 2 and 3 hrs in transit. all were ok.

Just to give you an idea...................

I wonder if they even used O2?

Did they face toward Mecca at their death?

Don;t stress on an error,,,learn,and moove on.
First time to err is a lessson,,second time is EXPERIENCE,,third ,,nahh that's just dumb,,4th ,,well you gotta be Blonde.

Alex, normal procedure for fish farms is 1/3 of water and 2/3 of oxygen in the bag...even with an air pump, you would have had losses with that stocking qty

Next time - more bags, less fish/bag and possibly another fish farm