Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Here is a pic of the exit pipe

I like the angled barrel. You could even lean it up against the tank, and let them merrily climb to their demise.
You may want to add a moisture drain, from some of the things I've read.

The rectangular containers also have some appeal. I will have to work on my design...

I really like BSF. They seem like a great way to keep fish, and remove waste of all types.

I have scanned through and not been able to see a post where someone in Perth is breeding BSF larvae. EB said he was going to try and see if he could get some growing in his kitchen scraps but no followup. From the pictures and descriptions I am pretty sure we had them in our worm farm at school last year when it went bad, the again maybe it was just cockroach larvae, there were lots of roaches around.

Can anyone confirm whether they are around in Perth? I can just see how excited the kids at school would get watching a ramped drum system like Dan's where they dropped straight out into the trout tank!

Pretty sure that BYAP has them growing in a "BioPod" at the shop...

They are selling BSF buckets at the shop now... I think they debuted at the Gardenweek several weeks ago. Well at least, I saw them at the Gardenweek show.
Seems like they fell in love with the process

Yep plenty of soldier fly around Perth

Yep, definately around Perth.. Big thanks to Lungy for first bringing a few down to the shop many months back, I didn't realize we had them here in Perth... We've produced heaps over summer and Faye has developed a bit of a soft spot for them.

Definitely look like what we had in our worm farm at school last year. Kids love seeing things eat each other, crickets found at school are prize possessions at the moment, it is the only thing that I have told them they can feed the trout other than allocated fish food.

Just went out to check my compost bin for BSF larvae and lift the lid so that it is accessable to the flys. Found no larvae but look what landed on the bin while I was there. It looks like the BSF's I have seen, can anyone confirm this?

Thanks,
Mike

Here is a pic of a soldier fly that followed us to garden week last month. Note the stripes on its legs.

Do they all have stripes, does that mean mine is not a soldier fly?

Ones we have around here don't have strips either.

My BSF composter is nasty, the larva are so sticky they can climb vertical walls and are on the underside of the lid. I've been feeding them heavy with a lot of wet vegitation including pears and peaches. Should I clean it out and start over or add some dry leaves etc to help the situation. Also reaks of ammonia. I think this 100F+ weather has something to do with it also.

At least the rats are gone

i saw them as a kid in the 80's in boyanup, inland from bunbury
so they are native? but definitely naturally present in WA.