Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The pellets are 2mm. They just float all day and I guess as they saturate with water eventually sink, but they are clogging up my sponge filter in my pump. Thinking of removing the sponge filter but worried about excess f. food going into the gbs.

Also looking for organic fish food. Any ideas on where to source them from around the Melb area?

Quachy

PM "Monya" or visit his website.... www.fishfarm.com.au

Monya is getting some of the organic feed in I believe.... and has just ordered in some "Lukie" pellets which he will be making available during the upcoming SA meet...

There's a couple of Vic people going over... F&F for example.... that might be able to brings some back for you....

Or perhaps "Live Beyond"..... (sorry Dean forgotten your webby)

IMO... go for a sinking feed.... I'd suspect what you're currently using is a Barra or Trout feed...

Hi Quachy

As discussed the fish will slowly get accustomed to their new home. They have been fed the 2mm pellets since I received them and will eventually come up to feed on them.
At the moment they are still suspicious of humans after being chased around the tub with a net. You will find that they will slowly increase their intake of food and then will feed in front of you...
I would remove the foam filter of the pump to allow and solids to pump to growbed.
Once they have tasted the worms they would probably prefer this feed to the pellet.
Looking good
LB

Hi all, was going to stop feeding for a ouple of days as perLBs suggestions, but couldn't help myself nad hey presto, the little buggers started swimming up to the surface to feed! They fed on the pellets fine so just paranoid I guess. I took the foam filter out tonight so will check to see what has made it to the gbs tomorrow. They do love the worms, but are also going for the pellets which is great! There are a few bigguns in there and they go nuts on the worms then they go nuts on the pellets! Water temp 23degs, ammonia 0/ppm nitrite 0/ppm and ph 7.2. I don't know about AP systems but back in my aquarium days, these figures were perfect. I'll keep monitoring and posting to see the changes as the system matures.

Quachy

Yep.. those water values are just fine...

"P" as in patients

Once again a big thanks to LB. 30 silver in the system now, four grow beds up and running.

If you look hard enough you can see the fish.

Next to turn the old bath tub into a yabbie tank and to get another 500lt tank for trout. Looks like i'll need another few grow beds as well!

Quachy.

Expanding rapidly Quachy. Hope you have a big enough backyard...
LB

LB,

Got a pretty big backyard, 1/3 acre, so not bad for suburban block these days!

Convinced the minister for war and finance that we need a huge system to go as self sufficient as possible. We'll see how this little system goes and then I be talking a big baby, 3000lts+ 10-12 (or more) grow beds. No joke, will be keeping in touch!

Quachy

Here is an update of my system. I now have 2x500lt (450lts usable in each) tanks and 4 100lt gbs. I have 30 sps in one tanks and the second one I am getting ready for winter trout. I figure that instead of heating the sp, I'll just let them go through winter and hopefully not lose any (gets damn cold in bacchus marsh) and run 15-20 trout in the other tank. Is this too many? I plan on getting a couple more olive barrels to make another 4 gbs.

After three weeks the little seedlings I put in are going off and we are regularly harvetsing the lettuce.

Ph - 7.5
Ammonia - 0.25
Nitrites - inbetween 0 and first reading
Temp - got to 22 today (warm day) wonder what it will get down to in the morning?

Need to get a nitrate test kit.

More photos.

More

In total, I have:

Tomatoes (will train them over the edge of the gbs)
Lettuce (heaps and different varieties)
Stawberries (two types to see which does better)
Basil
Sugar snap peas (seeds emerged after 3 days and are fast catching the ones we have in the ground from 2 weeks ago - will get comparison photos soon forgot tonight)
Sage
Parsley
Capsicum
Chillis

Once all the gbs are in and running, this will be the test system for the next 12 mths.
If sucessfull for both vegies and fish, then I will be uping the stakes to a big mumma of a system to hopefully completly feed the family 2 boys , my wife (how is a vegetarian) and me!

Quachy

Why do people grow sunflowers. Is it for the bee's the oil or cos they are pretty.
System is looking good.

Dufflight,
grew the sunflowers to see how well they would grow. We planted giant russians (biggest flower head was 50cm in diameter!) The other variety was a sunset mix. We give the seeds to the duck and chickens and also eat them. They are bloody painful to hull, but very x-files tasty. (For those non x-files fans, Moulder loves them). We have also kept a heap of seed for next year. Plan is to make an oil press and see how much oil I get for my effort. The stalks we keep for stakes. They do attack heaps of bees and ladybugs. One night, my wife and I did a ladybug count when the flowers were blooming and we counted over 50! The more the merrier I say.

Any idea on how many trout to stock in my trout tank? 15-20 or is that too much?

Quachy