Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

today's progress... gravel, only the first load... washed by my husband by the ute and firehose method. Then of course, came the shovelling

then we called FIL to babysit and we went fishing!

We've got lots of tiny local fish, prawns and bugs.

We'll go back again tomorrow with the cast net for some bigger ones!

hmmm, that sounds like we've got a seafood feed for the family!

Yeah and Jaymie "accidently" fell in the creek Hahahahahahahahahahahahha
but so did I
Alx

hey! I'm a foot! Oh no, thats a leg end, not a LEGEND!



And on the day we get fish in the tank and gravel in the beds!

Congratulations....was gonna give some moral support to "A", but he hasn't even reached the age of consent yet???

I do like 'em young!

Jaymie

O oh! think the cider is doing something to them.!!!!!

Well, after a couple of visits to the creek over the weekend we have about 20 little fish in the tank. There are 3 spangled perch (7 - 10 cm) and a bunch of rainbow perch (5 - 7 cm). There were a heap of tiny fish that have vanished (possibly into the spangles), but they were only about 1cm long and they could be any where.

There were a few casualties, possibly due to the trauma of re-homing, but the chooks didn't mind

We started with a tiny bit of food yesterday, but these poor little wild fish don't know about eating fish pellets. They'll learn, they're hungry already. They've been grabbing the pellets on the way past, but then spitting them out. I think I saw a couple of them actually eaten.

Soon my prettties you will learn!

So let's see if I've got this right - there is ~100grams of fish in 20,000 litre tank.

Safe assumption is:
Ammonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 0

My estimation is that the tank should cycle in................ a looonnnnggggg time (you might want a 2nd opinion on that)

Love it Jaymie , how close are you to connecting grow beds and receiving your 1st batch of bulk fish

hehehe but it will cycle...
and <10K
C1

The un eaten food will help to cycle, as it will decompse..................

Fish, like children learn not to be too picky....hehe

Connecting grow beds, well the first one is full of gravel, the second one soon. We have to put the roof frame up for the greenhouse before major plumbing can happen, as I want to put most of the pipes up in the beams. My brother works for a big-boys hardware shop and he's pricing Grundfos pumps for me (staff rates of course), so we should have some pumps soon.
Fish are due in December, once they're weaned.

alright, the latest pictures. I put up the shadecloth today, partly for shade, but also in an attempt to keep the birds off the fish (found smashed spangles this afternoon )

I also started the other part of the ap system, the plants! The floating styrofoam is for shade, shelter and lettuce. Off we go!

Here are some pix of the rainbow perch. It's nearly impossible to get a picture of the spangles, because they're same colour as the floor of the tank. They ate some of the pellets this afternoon, they also seem quite keen on termites