Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just had a thought on how that would look. The kissing fish that they have overseas comes to mind. Wonder if they offer full service.

Just updating- all is going well in our pool. The barra are eating well, and now come up to the surface-now that is fun! We have put a small-holed net across the shallow end ready to receive silver perth fingerlings by the end of the month (hopefully). We have had fairly high (though consistent) ammonia and nitrite levels, so have put some zeolite in the pool filter (instead of the existing sand). Hopefully if we run this periodically it will help drop the ammonia and we are keeping an eye on the pH which seems to be dropping (currently 6.9-7). It is pretty hot in Perth, so we have been swimming everyday. The barra are quite curious but do not seem perturbed at all!

Wait for them to start nibbling at your dangly bits ...mine nip my fingers when I am trying to test the water

Hi guys,
I'd love a pool like that for my Barra.

How many, how big are they now and when you got them and how much were they?

I just saw some at 40 to 50 cm swimming about at Golden ponds today.
They would be fun to watch feeding!

Hope it all goes really well and cant wait to see it with lots of grow beds attached...

How are your water temps now after a bit of warmer weather?
I found mine didnt die when the temps got down to 17 or 18 a couple of times but I bought enough heating to warm my tank straight away after I saw that happen for a couple of nights in a row.

That would be the only disadvantage I can see to having a huge tank - the cost to heat or cool it if needed...

Al, we got the barra from Golden Ponds, at $15 per kilo (they were about 500g- so a good size to start off with in a 10,000 litre pool). We only have 10 left, some became our dinner and some died over the first few weeks-mainly from the stress of transit and the cold temps we put them in (unseasonal 17-18C, which would have been a shock from the heated tanks they were in). They do seem to have grown, but perhaps not as much as they should have because they took a long time to start feeding, and in fact it was a helpful contributor suggesting to soak the pellets first that got them started (plus the warmer temps would have helped). Also, because the NH4 and NO2 are high, we have only been feeding them 1% of their weight. Hopefully once we can bring those down, we can increase the feed and growth rate. The temperature now is 28-29 by the end of the day...pretty nice to swim in too!! Our plan is to only keep them during the warmer months, hence the perch to keep year round. We are also thinking of trout in the colder month- we won't be swimming then!) We would like to start thinking of grow beds, but because of the size of the pool would like to get everything stable and in control before we consider the next step!!
In the meantime, we are having fun (and keeping an eye on the 'dangly bits'!!

you got your mouth in that water

I tasted my water ONCE....and never again, stupid fishhead here wanted to sea how salty 5ppm was

Picked up 20 of them this arvo they are pretty lively when you take them in buckets out to the car,had a free shower

Sorry my mistake, the efficent airator has arrived

I have seen those fish there - I cant wait till mine are that big (If I dont euthenase them first by mistake).
Cant imagine them staying put in a bucket for all that long?

I saw mine yesterday and I think that the biggest would be about 22 cm (ish).

Would adding grow beds one at a time help stabilise the system better?

In winter your dangly bits would disapear any way so no danger from the trout.

I add GB's all the time. Just hooked up another one yesterday. It will help the more gb's that are going. But it does take a little time for the new ones to age. So I play a little musical gravel while filling the new one. Just throw some of the older gravel in with it.

Another update:
The barra still going well, and now eating 2% of bodyweight, and the water quality has remained stable! Yay! We added some crushed limestone as the pH kept going down, but it has gone up and remained up now.

We now have 50 silver perch in a tank, also growing by the day, and 3 marron in another tank (this should have been four but one went walkabout before we put a cover over the tank.

Still no grow beds, but we are really enjoying getting a grip on the fish side of things first.

Hiya dandm

Great looking pool you have there, we have a big inground but I just can't quite talk the cheese and kisses into letting me convert it

Have thought about adding a solar heating panel to your pool filtration?
This would enable you to maintain a reasonably constant temp and hooked to a ups you should have no drameas at all in keeping the big fellas chopping!

Cheers
VM

A solar heating panel...that's a good idea. Thanks for the suggestion! I must say we are enjoying the barramundi and keeping the water warm would be good, though when the water gets too cool we were planning on having trout instead.
dandm

If you run black pipe up on the roof and have your pool pump divert water through that it heats up the pool. Ice cold to warm in one pass in the middle of winter. Reminds me I should check on the pipe up on the roof.

This was an interesting visitor by the back door and fish ponds today!! Just as we were congratulating ourselves on only having 2 tiger snakes this season compared to 8 last summer!! oh well...that is what nature is all about.

On the barramundi front...they are feeding less, which I presume is the lower water temperatures (though it still gets up to 24 but is cooler first thing in the morning). They really have grown though, and we are planning to try one out on the weekend! We were thinking catching them with a lure gave them a 'chance'...has anyone done this or is netting the way generally?

The perch fingerlings have grown too, but are still too small to put in our netted off section of the pool so are staying in a tank for now.

Time to start thinking about trout....