Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

love the concept for a school, more schools should be doing it
I have a couple of daughters who are or are studying to be teachers, one is doing bilogy, agriculture and earth science and I think has a changing view on how bad things are and what needs to be done. Its good to watch her evolve, I think the more of this sort of things they can do in schools the better
Bree

Few more hours today and I now have the plumbing complete and the system full of water and cycling. Tomorrow I will try and get hold of some Koi, pond muck and a test kit to give things a bit more of a kick along.

It looks pretty shocking at the moment as I have had to cobble together a dodgy lid for the tank and some mesh for the sump. We do have a fancy four piece mesh lid being made up by another school (thanks Rick) and I am yet to chase down some tread mesh for the sump. If anyone can help out with ideas on where to obtain the tread mesh from at a good price (or better) I am listening.

Fitted the temperature gauge I was given into the lip of the tank so the kids can monitor it. The probe is down at the bottom of the tank with the lead wire taped to the side of the tank with duct tape. Current temp is 22 degrees, hope it cools down a bit more over the next two weeks before the trout arrive.

Hi Burnsy - I know you say you were given the gauge, but do you have any idea where it was purchased from? I like the look of that and would like to add it to my 3kl BYAP tank too.

All I know is it had a small paper sticker on it saying Gruter Italy. It also had 89 printed on it so may be back from 1989. I googled it and found nothing. Here is another thread that talks a bit about it, viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5195

Dufflight said he had a similar gauge, you could try him for where he got it. I know the guy who gave it to me use to construct and look after fish ponds so it probably came from a fish pond supplier. I would not mind knowing where you can get them either as I would love one on my home system when I get it up and going, simple and effective, pitty I did not cut the hole level though .

Local refrigeration guy. They use them a lot for coolrooms etc. Ask for one that is stainless steel. If you can only get the one with a copper end you will have to seal it.

Thank you both for your replies. I will keep my ears and eye's open. It's a cool idea how you've mounted it - I'll definately be keeping that in my bag of tricks for a later day

Thats a sexy temp gauge, I want one too!!

Your system is looking good. Does drilling through the lips on the tank and GB for pipes weaken the sides at all?

I must admit I was a little worried about this but it has made no noticeable difference to either. The tank was a lot thicker than I thought it would be. I did make the holes for both the tank and GB's pretty much exact so that the pipe is friction fitted into each hole, there is no play. Setting the grow beds this way has worked out really well, you need to be exact with measurements but the top section of 25mm pipe is glued to the socket and elbow while being in the hole and then the socket screws down into the ball valve so that everything fits exactly. It supports the pipe enough that you can adjust the ball valve without holding the pipe and also keeps the pipe and valve out of harms way (think about primary aged boys pushing past it, if it can be knocked it will be).

I am really happy with how it is going together mind you I have spent many sleepless nights going through exact details in my head to try and make sure all possibilities are considered. Wish it was at my house!

Dumped 20 litres of pond filter gunk into the two grow beds Tuesday and 14 Koi into the sump yesterday. No more construction, spent today running around trying to find tread mesh at scrap yards to no avail. If anyone in Perth can help me out where to source some secondhand or works for a big engineering firm that may be willing to help us out it would be appreciated. All up I need to cover an area 1200 x 1800 and can do this with several pieces if needed or make the area smaller by framing it in decking. Was hoping to have this done before the holidays finish but it is unlikely now.

Also picked up a testing kit from BYAP so I can start monitoring the system but with only 14 Koi and the pond sludge I am doubtfull that anything exciting will be visible in the results. Trout arrivive in 9 days

Here is my daughter making sure I released the fish correctly (cutest toes I have seen on here), checked them today and they are all still happy

Two more grow bed stands, screwed off the front section of decking that still needed work and added some seasol for the plants. These two GB's will have blue metal as the media, hopefully Monday. The centre two will have pea gravel.

Koi are still happy and so are my five gilgies in the classroom system, despite not having been looked at or fed for two weeks.

is anyone concerned about the chemicals and paint from the treated decking going into the water when it rains. I may be missing something or overly concerned.

Only two joists come partly over the sump, all the bearers and the rest of the joists are nowhere near the water. I doubt whether there would be enough leachate from rain contact come off the part of the two that cross the sump to effect the fish and there certainly would not be enough to effect a human. Even still, I have joist and bearer covers (black rubber made specific for the purpose) that are going over that section before the grid mesh goes down to keep the treated pine dry. This will also make it look better as black become invisible whereas the pine stands out.

Trout arrive in two days

One more GB online today (blue metal media), second blue metal one tomorrow. Left the rock dusty to cycle the rock dust through the system after reading the thread on it's benefits (I have seen this before - olives perform well when mulched with rockdust). Hope the fines don't upset the Koi to much, sump was pretty cloudy, it should be clear again by morning and I will need to check whether it has raised the pH.

The lateritic gravel for the last two GB's will be washed as the clay fines are just to messy, after all I have no excuses not to do it, the kids love doing that kind of thing. Only took them 10 minutes today to fill the blue metal GB from the trailer using a human chain and ice cream containers .

No pictures as all those I had were filled with little people. Will get progress shots tomorrow.

It's a pity kids don't stay like that. A bit after Y8 they change. Volunteering for doing something usually only works if it means they can go for a walk, say on an errand, but shovel blue metal, NO way.
Your FT lid started to take shape today. I'm pushing to get them to finish by the end of the week as I can get it up to Perth via my daughter's boyfriend. Being a short week may be wishful thinking.