Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi TT

The fish are doing fabulously. They seem to luv our current weather, feeding well & jumping around like acrobats. We could probably start harvesting them as they are of size, although trying to hang off til Xmas.

Good to read your trout are going great.
I'm sure feeding time is lot's of fun. Why wait till Christmas? I've been eating a couple every now and then, fun to catch, good to eat.
Cheers

Re your broccoli...my caulis and broccoli all did much the same...lots of big leaves then finally great flower heads.
The cabbages were similar with slightly dissapointing heads.
My 'minature' cauliflowers produced flowers about the size of a large orange (just the size they should be), while the plants were 600mm high and 300 wide.

Hi Peterall,
our miniture cauliflowers are probably the same, large sized orange. The Broccoli flower has doubled in size this week, getting close to picking.

Well after 7 months of fish growing and vegie trials we can definitely say that Rupert was right. The maidenwell likes to hold a ph of around 6.0, which it is designed for vegie growth not fish growth. Even with our permanent shellgrit supply in the sump to hold around the 6.0 - 6.4.

At this ph range we have not lost any trout, but we have notice a destinct behavoural change when lifting the ph.

some updated photos, on the hunt for some seedlings and the broccoli roots are healthy.

Like what sort of changes in behaviour???

when the ph is down, they are docile and slow eaters. Mind you they are healthy. When the ph gets to 6.4 and up they tend to be very speedy and hungry.

OK... yeah pH 6.0 is getting stressful... pH 6.5 is just such a nice value for plants... and tolerable for fis also I believe...

At those pH values... would I be right that your plants haven't shown any signs of trace element deficiencies???

That would be correct. We havent had any trouble with our vegetables and no signs of any disease with the fish.

the lettuces in the nft look great

it appears we have a sudden spike in the nitrate in our water.

ph 6.4
Ammonia 0.25
nitrate 40

the ph and ammonia are reasonably stable, however should we be doing anything about the nitrate? If so any ideas on what?
Admittedly we dont check the water often, only when the fish appear to be behaving oddly.

Try not testing the water, that should help.

Nitrate wont do fish any harm until it is really high - but aparently it does flavour the flesh - plant more plants

No proof that it does so at all... but I know where you might have gained that impression from ...

Off-flavours in fresh water fish (particularly farmed fish) are almost without exception caused by blue-green algae.... or by contaminated water, inferior/tainted feed or by fridge burn/breaks in the cold chain...

Some fish, like the Silver Perch, more readily take up "flavours" than others... and the Silver Perch market demands a set period of purging for this reason...

my barra definately needed purging only when the nitrate levels got really high ie off the chart due to a harvest.