Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Here are photos of me starting to disassemble my AP system.

But fear not, this is not me giving up!

My wife and I have purchased a house! We move in in 4 weeks so I started to pull apart my draft system. At this stage I have only removed the 2 upstairs barrels. The four downstairs ones will be the last things to be touched.

When I move to the new house, I will be setting up a temporary F&D system to keep everything going until I start on my second system. I am planning on having a system with a 5000ltr tank for the fish, but that is a bit down the track!

This trial set-up has been invaluable as a learning tool. I have made mistakes but have learned soooo much. It has definitely been worthwhile.

One of the growbeds (which contained the Cape gooseberry) had a massive tangle of roots at the running the length of the GB. It was from the gooseberry. I am really surprised that it had not clogged up the drainage hole.

After removing it I had to throw the whole thing into the green bin because there was no way that I was going to be able to get the gravel out within any respectable time duration.

Looks like a great way to spend a Sunday Simon, sunny blue skies and a nice view.

good time to buy Simon!

Hi all,

Thought I would give you a bit of an update on where I am up to.

I have just managed to survive the Move from hell. It was the worst move I have ever had to perform.

Firstly, to save some dollars, my wife (Dayle) and I decided to do most of us ourselves. We only planned to have removalists for the first morning. Dayle pointed out that, in the past, carrying heavy boxes has resulted in her getting a sore back. So we decided to pack everything into smaller boxes, which resulted in lots of boxes. Anyway, I will come back to that in a minute.

The weekend before we were due to move, I was out in the back-yard doing some work on the fence which had been hit by the lawnmower man who mowed the vacant land next door. I hear a smash of glass and called out the Dayle to see if she was all right. She replied "No" so I ran inside to see that, while walking backwards carrying a box, she had stood on a Fowler Vaccola preserving jar and had sliced the bottom of her foot open. So, off to hospital where she received 6 stitches in her foot and instructions to stay off it. So now I had lost the other half of the moving team. No problem, we were due to start the move on Thursday and would have until Sunday night to finish.

Then I came down with a serious case of the flu. I suspect that I picked it up while sitting with Dayle at the emergency ward. So, Thursday morning comes along with my half delirious from fever. The removalists turned up to take care of the heavy stuff that would have taken 2 people to move, and they did a great job. 1 truckload moved in three hours. Then it was up to me to do the rest. Here is where the idea of the small boxes came back to haunt me. The problem with smaller boxes is that there are more of them. Many more! The house that we moved out of had 14 steps. The house we were moving to has 10.

So, poor, sick Simon would pick up a box, walk down the steps, put the box in the trailer, walk up the steps, get another box and repeat (lots of times). Once the trailer was full I would drive to the new house then grab a box, walk up the drive, up the steps, put it inside, then down the steps and repeat! All while fighting off fever and not being able to breath properly.

So, I started moving at 8.30am Thursday and finished at 10pm Sunday night. Hell!

But, we are now in our own house!

This weekend I built a temporary AP system to keep my fish alive (lost 1 SP in the move and 1 since then, probably from stress).

It is very simple. Pump pumps the water up and across then back down. There is a T piece with a pipe which flows to the GB. It takes 3 minutes to fill and about 5 mins to drain. I have started cycling at this stage as I suspect that most of the bacteria would not have survived the trip. I will only be growing simple things (lettuce and cherry tomatoes). This system will keep the AP dream alive while I work on getting another system up and running. At this stage that could be a while away (possibly years). It all depends on the dreaded $$$.

Anyway, here are some photos and I will keep you informed of any further advances.

Simon

Whoops, posted while still uploading photos. A couple more...

A need to go to bed. So tired.

Who put the Submit button so close to the Add button!

That will give you a good supply of gravel for the next system too, well done - use a removalist for everything next time

good to hear you made it!

missed the pull-down post before, but how good is it to be able to see whats been going on under the gravel? Like an autopsy

Nice to hear from you Simon.... I can relate to the moving thing... did 7 moves in six years not so long ago.... I aint moving again, I'm dying where I am ....

Well, after letting my system cycle for a week or so I did a water test last night.

Ammonia - zero
Nitrite - zero
Nitrate - 10ppm (approx)

I am not surprised re: ammonia and nitrite as the gravel is from my last system so should already be full of good bacteria.

I am more concerned about the low Nitrate reading. I have no plants growing so nothing to use up the nitrate.

I have about 20 goldfish which is obviously not giving me enough ammonia. If I am going to get good plant growth I need to increase my fish. I had 4 SP but at least 2 didn't survive the move. Looks like I will need to buy some SP, or more goldfish.

Now.... how to do that without my wife realising that I am spending money.....

Just put them in the tank... and explain it away by saying that the warmer water must have induced breeding ....

##ss in it, its cheap,easy and accessable

$9.95 bag of urea from bunnings, will treat about 60 gazillion litres of water.

Urea wont loose its eyes and die on you either

The fish/fishless cycling debate is a little like ford Vs holden.

I've cycled more systems than I can poke a stick at, and every system has been cycled WITH fish, and NEVER with any fish problems or deaths.. We recommend to people that they cycle their system with fish and most never have a problem, so long as they follow the golden rules.