Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm working on it. And maybe a bigger pump.

and the parameters keep getting better, slowly but surely balancing back out. I thought I might have a HSM at the start of this morning, but then that didn't make scence because the system is already balanced and cycled for months. It is interesting to see what a few plants taken out of the system will do. A Good lesson learnt. The Barra, where breathing hard, and the catfish gave the indication in there behaviour that the water quality wasn't the best.

And everything is back to normal again

Wonder how taking plants out affected the nitrite. Can plants also take in nitrite?

I think there where dead spots and no nitrification happening, there for anerobic conditions in some places maybe...............

check this...... I have a little blue bucket lifting the Ebarra Pump up, it held my cast net, and it the fishes hang out under there , this is one just caught, it was killing me how big they have gotten. the fingerlings came 2 to 3 cm on the 2 october, this guy must be 10cm easily

I'm surprised at how fast eating fish grow. I was planing on adding my smaller goldfish to the pool but had second thoughts because they would get eaten now.

honestly I am stoked. God knows how many I have lost. Time will tell, when they get transitioned back into the main tank, because they will have out grown the sump and soon. I was wondering how i was going to catch them, but the mystery has been solved.

They have a tank full of living bait and food, waiting for there arrival , Lucky I fished the oceans for 12 years, cause i dont feel bad about this true fact of the food chain at all

Very impressive and also a big investment. A courageous venture.
Your mention of catfish inspires me.

A month or two ago one of my sons suggested that we go up river in the Blackwood River into the fresh water section and fish for cobbler. I thought, yeh, good luck, because I have always caught cobbler in estuaries and the ocean. He assured me that the Nannup boys catch them around the town of Nannup which is miles up into the fresh water.

Well we went fishing and between three of us we caught 20 fresh water cobbler. It turns out that these are a different species to those refered to in the ocean and Swan River. Unlike with salt water cobbler one doesn't have to skin these and they fry up well with the skins on. They are a top rate eating fish. The flesh falls away from the fine bones in much the same way as with trout.

It hadn't occured to me but I am now inspired to collect and attempt to breed some of these in my tank. They are bottom dwelling mud feeders. Living up stream in the Blackwood River in the South West of Western Australia means they have to be very tollerant to varying water quality and temperatures.

Hi Trevor, they are a great fish, but I don't think they breed in tanks very well. They are just an all round great fish in indicating water parameters, and hanging out in a tank. \

Nannup hey... great place of the world ..

I'll give em a go.

So far the things which have survived in my tank which is 4.4 metres diameter and now kept at 400mm depth are Marron, Jilgies, Koi and Tilapia. It's a bit cold here for the Tilapia so they are slow to grow and they havn't successfully bred yet (mainly because of my mishandling). I have discovered that Tilapia don't like being moved when they are pregnant and literally spit the dummy or eggs. The mothers will then eat the eggs, seemingly not making the connection between themselves and their offspring.

The rest are existing quite well. I am now only 12 months into this game. Have had a few frustrations but persistance goes together with learning. I would like to get to the point where the fish in the tank will supply me with food in greater quantities than I can catch in the wild around Margaret River and Busselton, but there there is also a lot of fun to be had on the coast around here.

ok out with the old , in with anything but tomato's Going to go for Asian vegies and stuff knows, probably tomato's Doing an order through the Diggers Club tomorrow

Been meaning to try diggers. My last stuff came from http://www.newgipps.com.au/

Have you thought of putting mesh(concrete mesh) tables next to your GB's. You only need the roots of your tomatoes and other vines to be in the GB so you could plant these along the side and grow them over the mesh. Fruit hangs down under the mesh and the rest of the GB is left to plant something else. And no need to tie the plants up.

Just thinking of the upside down tomoto plant when out there picking . But I do like the way those tomato trees grow and hang their fruit down . Mnnn very intresting.

Would have to be able with stand cyclonic winds, so will look industrial and ugly. But will give it some thought. Some of the best looking and well formed tomato' s I grew where from the ones hanging over the egdes.

Here is this afternoons pick , and some chuntney we made All the green ones are going for green tomato pickle

If I am to be able to grow anything remotely resembling it's true form, I shall never have so many tomato plants in the system. Not enough goodness for everything else to have a go at growing. Think I might of grown 100Kg plus, now that is just overkill