Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

If your living in the Northern Territory and would like to possibly speak with others in your area, please reply to this post, and give people an idea of where you are (no exact details, town or postcode perhaps) and whether or not you have an aquaponic system.

G'day Mustard here and I live in Bees Creek 40k's south of Darwin.
It would be good to talk with someone who is at this end of the world.

Cheers

Hi, I'm new to forum and will hopefully set up my first system over the coming wet season. If there is anyone in the Darwin area who wants a chat that would be great. I live at Noonamah, about 50km south of Darwin.

Cheers
Moonie

G'day Moonie, welcome to the forum, looking forward to pics of progress on your system

Hey Moonie... welcome.... darn nice piece of country up that way....

How ya gunna stop everything eating your greens? ....

Hi Mooney, and Mustard, could nearly write a song with those two names
Love to watch the progress, I have been thinking, the higher the humidity, and the heat, maybe faster growth results. Just an idea , will see in the comming months.

Welcome again

I have had some success with growing some vegies (Pumpkin, bok choy, beans, sweet potatoe)in a normal garden over the wet. Main bug killer I use is white oil and I also have about 50 Guinea Fowl that help out in the pumpkin patch. More of a problem is mouldy mildew.
And yes this is gods country up here. we had our first rain for 6 months 2 nights ago (18mm)and the grass is already green, the cow's and sheep are very happy

Haven't heard of anyone game enough to use white oil in AP beacuse of its properties, but there are a few large threads on the site with known safe bug remedies.
Go the search engine, it can work a treat ( most of the time )

RAIN, lucky you, we havent seen rain since Febuary and wont see it again until the next cyclone or major low depression that might pass.

Yep, humidity and water loss through transpiration/evaporation are likely to be the two biggest problems you face..... powdery mildew will be a problem....

Keep as much airflow going over your plants as possible.... maybe even a couple of rotating fans....

You're going to need to shade everything through summer anyway... both for the plants, fish tank, and fish.....

You face a unique set of problems... but at least you can grow Barra all year round....

Planning on converting the old horse stables in the shed. this area is covered but will still receive the morning sun and i have heaps of shade cloth aswell.
As for the evaporation problem, is it OK to have the plant bed's in the open and use rain water to re-fill the system and then divert excess water from the fish tank? I was thinking that the plant beds would get to much of a flush with the amount of rain we get and the system might don't work correctly.

Given the amount of rain you can get in a short period of time Monnie... I'd cover the beds... for both that reason and the sheer heat of the day....

Collect whatever rain you can get though.... you'll probably need to do regular top-ups to the system as a whole... transpiration, will be a big factor in your system IMO....

Hi Moonie and all the other NT members
Have a few friends up that way and sure you probably know some of them, that's one of the great features of living in the Territory
In Alice Springs there are about 5 or 6 systems we all have meet each other through word of mouth, I'm sure there are a couple of AP systems still to be discovered
When travelling I try to make links with other Aquaponist, its great to see the variety and ideas of AP systems and provides the opportunity to meet like-minded people.
So if ever travelling through the Alice and you would like to look at a "Desertponic" system drop me an email
Cheers from the Alice

Another from the NT here, Im in Humpty Doo, so not far from you Moonie and Mustard.

I am form Humpty Doo as well... and new here...

Hey guys I am here as well, i live in Rosebery. Just started a system using 3 IBC's. Chop2 design. Not having a terrible amount of luck at the moment though. Good to hear from anyone local.