Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

that's what my wife says

Sure she wasn't saying... "there's still a way to go ...."

My wifes saying is that the best you can do

Things have been a bit busy in the last couple of months, but i have still managed to get a little bit of "sanity" time in the green house occasionally.

Last post in September the green house was still waiting for plastic. I finally gave up waiting and paid someone to come and do it. It took two experienced guys a full day and cost me $250, but it would have taken me and 10 mates a week so i figure im ahead if i consider the beer and food bill

Finally some progress. Trailer has blue stone gravel for the grow beds.

Grow beds are starting to take shape. I have used 50ltr tubs with loop siphons for flood and drain to the bath tub sumps. I am having problems with reliability and have bell siphons in the new tubs which is working much better.

I have two bunnings 500ltr tanks inside the greenhouse. I have noticed rather large temperature fluctuations already so i am going to put two more outside so i can use them over summer.

Plants have been a bit of a fialure so far. I planted them from the beginning as recommended on this forum, but their is not enough nutrience despite adding seasol. I probably need to get the concentration right, but i have added fish now and will just keep planting until they finally start to kick on.

This is my AP tomatoe. Pretty sad really.


This is one of the same batch of seedlings in soil.


I know that i have to be patient and let the system settle before i can get the tomatoes growing in AP, but i had to try.

Looking great Mr Fisho

Hey neato Fisho.....

Hi fisho i think you will find that amount of grow beds in the green house will be giving the temp differences a nother set of grow beds plus tanks outside would be better then join the two with a bypass

How much water, and how much seasol have you added, how often?

Thats what i was thinking. This time i'll buy a couple of large grow beds so the system is a bit simpler to set up. I probably need to build something to keep the tanks in the shade which is not too difficult. Any ideas where to buy grow beds? Not exactly something i will find at Bunnings (well at least not until the rest of the world catches on to AP )

Plumbing the two systems together might present a challenge. Also moving fish doesnt really sound feasable. Any bright ideas on this?

Tez

1000 - 1100ltrs of water and about 2 capfulls of seasol every second day. I have changed my approach now. I am follar feeding the plants with diluted seasol twice a day when i feed the fish. I cant tell if it makes a difference yet only been doing it for a couple of days.

Tez

Something i noticed today that i never really thought about before is that my flood and drain cycle is only about 5 minutes long. Does this make any difference to anything?

Thanks,

Tez