Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I had lots of fish flashing on the bottom of the tank. Individual fish were looking a bit ragged, swimming slowly in the current at the side of the tank with their heads higher than their tail for a day or so then dying. I found a NSW Department of Primary Industries document on Silver Perch diseases (www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/aquacultur ... lver-perch) which indicated that this was symptomatic of the following:

Chilodonella hexasticha is a ciliate protozoan; ovoid to kidney shaped; dorso‑ventrally flattened; 50–70 μm in
length, 20–40 μm wide.

Signs
• Chronic to acute morbidity and/or mortality rates
• Loss of appetite
• Flashing
• Lethargy, swimming slowly, head‑up position, often near surface and edges
• Ragged fins
• Emaciation
• Skin may have mottled and/or grey appearance

1000 litre tank + 500 litres in the sump = 6 kg salt added. Fish were much happier but unfortunately my plants suffered badly.

On the bright side my wife made some very tasty spinach roles and didn't need to add salt to the recipe

No worries Sleep I didn't find anything wrong with what you wrote. I just didn't explain myself very well.

I know I sometimes type in an abrupt manner due to lazyness but no offense is meant from me either.

The new grow bed is in place (thanks Rope) and has started to sprout. I put some roly poly carrots in so it will be interesting to see how they go. Others have had success do hopefully mine will do well also.

Got some yabbies (thanks again Rope) and they are in their new palace. I added a couple of small grow beds (blue containers) on top of the yabbie palace for herbs and strawberries.

I have a small pump in the sump pumping water up into the blue containers. These then drain via standpipes into the yabbie tank which in turn drains back into the sump. I did this so there were no pipes or power leads running in and out of the tank for the little buggers to climb up and escape. The pumps runs on a timer for 20 minutes per hour or so.

New grow beds and new plants.



Yabbie palace and blue grow beds.



Overview.

Great! Neat backyard system!

Very nice, I love those growbeds...

Thanks guys. The grow beds are great.

This has to be the last stage of expansion, I've run out of shed space

This is the yabbie system, if the yabbies don't work out then a second low stocking level system for winter trout or pet goldfish.

The little helper and me putting in seeds.



Yuck dirty water, no I don't want to go for a swim dad.



Custom yabbie homes.

Using toes for scale that size make the system look a whole lot bigger. He' so cute.
the system looks good, but I hope that isn't the wifes favourite tea pot that you broke.

you really take your signature seriously don't you?

Everybody else says he's cute. I usually say it's a good thing he looks like his mother or; he's not so cute at 3AM in the morning.

Yep KP, I reckon if you have a motto you'd better stick by it. In this case the hammer was a actually a hand held grinder with a brick blade but who's going to know

Wow, I'd have gone the hammer for sure! Way too much work, this is looking to be Hotel Crustacea again

FF nice system. Really impressive!

Are you adding any type of food / nutrient for the plants other than those produced by the your AP system?

Hi Muj

Just the standard small dose of Seasol (seaweed extract) every few weeks for trace elements and the occassional dose of chelated iron.

Plant growth has been a bit slow lately I think due to the recent salting. But things are picking up again now.

Yabbie System Update

This is what happens when you add a little too much humonia . Good thing nobody is living in this pond yet.

Ammonia 4

Nitrite 1

Nitrate 40

PH 8 (terracotta pots really raise the PH)



I am down to my last 2 yabbies in the little breeding tank. The larger one is a girl the smaller a boy.



Plant growth is starting to pick up in the new bed.

System Update

No more yabbies, all dead RIP

Not sure what killed them as they were in the same water as my fish.

PH 7.2

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 20ish

They came from the same recent batch that other members have had trouble with. I don't want to make a big deal of this, but it would be nice to know if it was a problem created by the supplier or if I stuffed something up myself.

Anyway will get the big yabbie system cycled up and will try again.