Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

bit rough with the knife mate

Hi Jaymie, Your SPs are going great guns. I was convinced that SPs wouldnt get bigger than 350 odd grams.
I have a 9000 litre tank with 5 bath tub grow beds working on a constant gravity feed and a sump pump return. Do you think that would be O.K.for say 100 SPs?
I know you have a big tank too but I still havent had any fish in mine and couldnt get any over the winter so now I am looking to buy. I still havent had a chance to observe feeding, growth, water quality etc.....
Great result from your setup......
Cheers.

Ira, you would need more grow beds for that many fish. You've probably got about 1000L GB, and should have about double that. Or only get 50 fish.

More growbeds would be good.

Hi Jamie,

Looking to put in some water chestnuts.
How have you got your water chestnuts set up.
How do you drain the grow bed and stopping the sand running through.
Have you any pics on this thread.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

umm, the sand beds fill and drain on the same cycle as everything else. The blue drums have buried drains, with covers over them (there are pictures on here somewhere ). The sand beds have bundled up shadecloth over the drains to slow the sand down.

The water chestnuts are just shoved in the sand (like everything else really)

Thanks for that Jaymie, Do you think I will need that straight away, or just when the little darlings get bigger?
Cheers.

well, it all depends on the size of the fish you get really.

I will get another 5 tubs and put them in as I can. The fish should be 50mm or so I think so will be quite small still......for a while......Thanks.

Aim for 3 kg of fish (6 fish) per 100 litres of growbed for maximum stability.

a few weeks ago our big fish tank pump died. we are waiting for a replacement under warranty. should be here this week.
The fish are good, but the plants are starting to suffer. The standby pump doesn't quite have the power to get the system cycling properly, and I have to stop it a few times a day. The blue drums are barely getting any water and the big beds are nearly drowning. This is with any and all combinations of tap orientations

Anyway, today's weigh in:
Jade Perch
31cm 780g
30.5cm 740g

Silver Perch
30cm 420g
32cm 690g

mmmm, big fish

A couple of thousand litres of water per hour makes a big difference in system functioning.

Yeah, the tomatoes aren't very happy!

what no tomatoes

Good to see some big SP among them.

Can't wait to see more of them at that size or larger, The silvers seem easier to fillet out the bones on the go than the Jades.