Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

WATER FLOWS !!

emptied system , scrubbed clean , refilled & conditioned water , put most of the black bream into the blue barrel and
pump number 1 has been turned on !

the smaller of the two pumps now pushes water up the wall & across to the black GB above the blue barrel , autosiphon down to the blue barrel which overflows back into the main tank

hopefully tomorrow I'll get around to getting gravel for the first of the 3 big growbeds ( initially I thought would be 500L each , but this ones gonna hold 600L ) , then the main pump can be turned on and we can start cycling

The wine barrel has been sealed with black potable-water silicon & looks like it'll hold , im short a length of pipe and couldnt bring myself to ruin a good day by going to Bumnings

the bream in the blue barrel / this system are eating , the bream in the IBC system are not eating and are swimming as if their swim bladders are stuffed ( this doesnt affect the fat trout in that system though ) .As soon as I transferred 3 of the bream from the IBC system they started to swim normally ....
baby trout more affected by the small amount of ammonia in the IBC system and fat trout have become used to it ?

now , to start looking desperately for silver perch to fill the new 1600L system thats about to start cranking ...

Let us know if you find silvers - I am ready for another 200.

got the gravel in the new Gb today , added some water & gunk from the other system , but ...

pump miscalculation

the 3600LPH pump that I put in to flood the 3 GBs barely floods the first one in 20 minutes at 1.1m head , so I need a bigger pump ...$$$$

maybe someone can work out how much of a pump I need :

I need to pump 250 - 300 litres into each of the three GBs ( around 900L ) in 15 minutes , 1.1m high

Im hoping that I can put this 3600L pump into the IBC system and take out the 6000LPH pump thats in the sump and is waaay too powerful for the job .
Hopefully a 6000LPH pump will push enough water 1.1m high in 15 minutes to flood & overflow for a while all 3 of em , then I wont need to throw more cash in the hole

Black Bream are eating , and trout are eating like CRAZY . 14 trout ate 5 big handfulls of pellets today ...

if the water in the trout system gets TOO dirty , I'll just use half of it to fill & kickstart the new system

5 big handfulls for 14 trout... sounds a bit much Boris... check your water parameters tomorrow...

You'd probably be better feeding smaller amounts twice a day rather than a lot in one hit...

wise words Rupe

5 handfulls per 14 trout is ok, if your water is clear, and they keep eating, my 50 trout have over 200 grams of food per day. Its all about the filtration.

as for pumps (here we go again ) 900 litres per 15 minutes at 1.1m head - closest is http://www.rockaroundtheblock.com.au/product.asp?pID=329&cID=63

This will provide over 1000 litres per 15 minutes, at your head.

If your water is dirty, stop feeding, if its clear, keep feeding.

I have absolutely nothing to do with Ratb, ask Joel if he can supply a similar pump. All my pumps are from Joel.

50 trout ... 200grams .... 1 trout/4grams...

14 trout at the same rate = 56grams....

5 handfuls would be more than 56 grams wouldn't it ...

And trout are one of those fish which will overeat....

But not necessarily metabolise all the feed.... indeed a lot of it may actually not be being eaten at all.... what is may not be being converted to fish protein...

Not just a matter of filtration issues... but also cost effeciency of feed to flesh conversion... FCR...

Feeding twice a day is preferable from a metabolic standpoint.... and allows for better observation of fish feeding behaviour... and the ability to modify the amount fed accordingly...

Im not feeding 5 times a day , only 3 as I always have , theyre just taking more food every feed .
I think Ive figured out why too :

they started getting REALLY greedy , and swimming around more exitedly the day I put the black bream in the sump . I wonder if they can smell / taste the smaller / different species fish in the water and its exciting their appetite ...

as to the pump - thanks for the link OBO , the pump youve suggested has got the same flow / head etc as ....
the pump Ive got in the IBC system which is WAY overpowered for the job its doing . cool - I can go to sleep tonight & stop thinking about it , I'll just swap the pumps tomorrow & it'll work fine !
excellent , saved some cash , maybe I can spend it on beer ...

Id better weigh my food again

hmmmm

the 3 remaining bream in the IBC system are swimming around facing upwards - their swim bladders are stuffed , as were most of the small bream from TAFE . the water in that system is at pH 7

the water in the Blue Barrel is at pH9 and ALL the bream with busted swim bladders Ive put in there have magically gotten better ...

but - pH 9 , thats why my plants werent growing in that system . Now Ive plumbed the blue barrel into the new pond system & the pH will drop slightly with each cycle as the pH in the NEW system is at 7 .
Once theyre both stabilised at the same pH I'll move some trout into the new system to start filling it with yummy yummy trout poop

another problem today - had to throw out a third of my trout pellets as there were big lumps of food stuck together with mould and crawling with maggots ...
Cleaned out most of the food by spreading it on some stretched shadecloth and picking the maggots out , after finding out my trout DON'T like to eat maggots . picky bastards

oh - planted out the newly filled growbed with purpel capsicum and basil seedlings grown from seed .

turns out IBC flipped upside down and cut at 50cm hold exactly 640 litres of gravel

Apart from the initial deaths of Bream in my quarantine system, even the ones with dodgy swim bladders are still going strong, PH 7.6 ish. They are so cute swimming all munty like

lost a trout today - jumped out of the new system late last night / early thismorning .

took the other remaining trout out and put it back with the others in the IBC system

I've replaced them with 2 fat deformed goldfish that ive been trying to passivly kill for 6 months now , they dont seem to want to die ...

Ammonia in this system & the blue barrel thats plumbed into it is at zero & ive got 100 10cm silver perch going in in just over a week . time for some drastic measures ....

4 buckets of water from the cycled system poured over the gravel in this one , then I added 32 grams ( 4 scoops ) of Yates "Thrive" soluble flower & fruit food . Ammonia reading has gone up to 0.5 instantly .

pH had balanced last night between the two parts - blue barrel was at 9 and pond / tank was at 7 , now theyre both stable at just over 7

going to add more "Thrive" tomorrow , and every day till I get a Nitrite reading .
Here's the analysis of whats in it :
Nitrogen as Nitrate 8.8%
Nitrogen as Ammonia 3.6%
Nitrogen as Urea 2.6%
water soluble phosphorous 4%
potassium 26%
Mg ( sulphate )0.5%
Fe 0.18%
Mn ( sulphate )0.045
Zn ( sulphate )0.02%
Boron (sodium borate) 0.005%
Cu ( sulphate )0.005%
Mo (sodium molybdate)0.002%

less that 1ppm lead
less than 0.5ppm Cad
less than 0.2ppm mercury

the goldfish and little feeder fish in there dont seem to mind ...

Boris be wary of "Thrive"... some people in the early days of the forum used Thrive... and attribute their fish kills (shortly after) to it...