Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Man if your driving past call into Ford after the rondabout and say hello I won't bite
Well changes appear to be working, the winter veggies were a bit sad but all appears ok now so will post some pic's, changes you will notice
1) Veggies actually growing
2) air pump
3) Pots have moved location and have a water supply
4) Mesh on top of tank to stop the Marron escaping
5) Daylight saving has already faded the shade cloth

in the pots I have Chinese Cabbage and strawberries, in the PVC i have Broad Beans (Don't know if I have ever tried a Broad bean, but an easy grow experiment), a Gooseberry, a Mortgage Lifter tomato, Satan's Kiss Chilli and baby carrots, this keeps with my theme of trying unusual things
so heres the pic's

Your system looks very nice.

I have something similar.

My plant are floating pots supported with thick styrofoam with a hole cut in the stryrofoam to fit around the pot.
I used to suspend my pots from the side of my tank but then I found the Marron were using them as a ladder to get out and go bush. My water levels were close to the top of the tank so I have now reduced the water depth.

The floating rafts I also had but then I found the Trout would jump up onto the raft and suffocate.

With the floating plants: dense planting, and the small size of the pots, and their being full of gravel, the jumping fish are prevented from being able to remain in them when they land on them.

The other advantage of the floating plants is that with enough of them they can cover a fair percentage of the water surface and reduce the onset of algae growth by reducing the light penetrating the water.

After a while the growth of leaves and root mats makes the pots heavy so it is necessary to trim both the plants and the root mats.

The plants suited to this kind of aquaplant culture also tend to reproduce rapidly, which gives us a good source of plants to share out or with which to revegetate wet lands.

So yeah, I am a big fan of flaquaplanting, floating aquaplants.

yes Trev had the same problem with the escaping Marron hence the mesh ETC, tried the floating thing but alas it failed, the floating thing in my tank is just a lid with the centre out this houses duck weed which the pygmy perch seem to like, this seems much better so far. Below a closer pic of watering system, in the pvc water jets against the backboard and splashes back much like a sprinkler also some little sprays to plug previous failed holes. Yes they block but I don't worry about that so much as the jets do the job, also if you look real close you can see the baby carrots just coming out, they have germinated well, the ones in soil have done nothing as yet.
Plan is for a 4500lt system next year with more conventional grow beds and probably silver perch, I think I will stay with raised mesh floor and have Marron underneath and perch on top

The raised floor for the yabbies sounds like a good idea.

My floating plants are herbatious, either ornamental from the local creeks or for flavour in cooking such as Vietnamese mint and Yogoslavian water cress, European water cress.

I have found leeks and garlic chives to grow well in my drained system.

My attempt with floating vegetables didn't work because the pots are permenantly in water with no drainage.

Between emails I droped down to the Margaret River and collected about 50 fresh water muscles and have just included them into my systems. I have eaten these in the past and find they cook up quite well in a light curry.
They are a little chewy directly from the wild and I imagine a little less so when they don't have to fight moving river currents.

The variety we have are chewy but better tasting than the ones I got from the Blackwood, don't know much about your variety trev, have a look at my construction pic's link in my signature

Added another 20 Mussels, and as posted elsewhere have a high PH problem which has knocked the cabbage around, have NFI what caused the rise in PH up to 8.6 but can only monitor it for now, I am throwing in a net to check on the Blue Marron today haven't seen them since they went in, will be a bit anxious until I see them, hope they have breed already, weather has been crap since summer veggies went in, but they seem to be hanging in

My next hair brained scheme, have found a huge dam, more like a lake with freshwater shrimp, so have nets in yesterday and going to check today, never caught shrimp before so had to rely on old Google to help us out, but the plan is to have them in tank with Marron, Pygmy Perch and Mussels to breed up for new 4500lt Tank (that missus is going to by me with her tax refund this was after much sulking, ass kissing and roll on the floor tantrums not really she is a nice lady) that I plan to have Black Bream in. We have a spot way out in deliverance country (again), that has heaps of bream that grow only just past fingerling stage (must be some adults their though) due to population, haven't seen the spot but my mate who knows all the spots for unusual things is going to take us out in the new year. I believe Bream will breed in tank so one trip enough I hope. We will also stock mates dam as well.
One day I might just give in and do things the conventional way, but I doubt it
Will post on how the shrimp thing goes. If successful they are meant to breed faster than can be eaten.

Ive just been reading about your system and its been a while since your last post, hows the shrimp any chance of a closeup pic of one

+1

Hi Tea, this system is almost finished with, you can see my new beginnings by clicking my system link below, The shrimp appear to be going ok will try and catch one and take a pic, they live mainly in the sludge at bottom of tank, when we got them from the lake we had to scap the net in the dirt also to get them, I will empty this tank in a month or so and will be able to provide photo's then, I hope to have baby mussels on emptying tank as well as heaps of shrimp