Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ok... normally I'd go for a whole story, explain all the facts in chronological order but I tried to do that with my other system and never really completed it so I'm just gonna say what I've got right now and I guess I'll just answer the questions as they come...

My history of note:
1st - Indoor Aquarium and using milk bottles as GB's
2nd - TommyAP, a one FT - one GB system that was outside but only got morning sun. Only roma tomatoes grew in this system. The plant grew enormous but only produced about 5-6 fruit due to not enough sun.
3rd - cubbyAP, this system is semi permanent, I'll always have a system there, its just recently that I've decided that when I've finished with my 4th system and moved some of my plants and all my fish I'll redesign it to best suit it. But it has been very productive, got lots of cherry tomatoes, basil (omg!), a couple of Lebanese cucumbers, Stringless celery, the marigolds love it too and my latest happiness is a capsicum! I didn't think I'd get any but lo and behold it's growing...

This thread will be about my 4th system which will be a lot more permanent - changing probably but definitely here to stay.

My original aim was to get a 2000L fishtank so I could hold up to 50 trout through winter. But quickly found that the tank exceeded my income so looked into ebay and found myself spending 137 dollars for a what I thought was a 1500Litre system. The guy said it was nearly 2000L but the photo didn't look like that so I assumed the possibility of it being about 500L less than what he was saying. It wasn't until I went to get it that I found out and calculated 60cm by 1.20m by pi equals about 680,000 which is only about 680Litres! Boy I was so mad... I wasn't too mad when I took it off the guy, but I was mad by the time I got home. it was small enough to be a sump tank for gadsakes!!
So it took me a while to wrap my head around using this as a fishtank, and when I did, I decided to use it in a chift pist method, for practise. I knew that once I got it going, all I had to do was move it to be a sump tank and get one of the tanks from BYAP for fishtank.

So... Now I have bricks as legs for the GB's and treated pine on them to hold the GB's they're very strong and I figure they can hold at max 200L worth of GB. If they're going to be filled with Hydroton, then it shouldn't matter too much as they're not heavy.so I have about 7 Growbeds all lined up next to the fence (not leaning on the fence as it's too brittle to handle the weight) there's a buried sump in the middle.

The fishtank uses CHIFT to overflow into the buried sump. the pump in the buried sump will send the water to the header tank which will be on the top shelf of that black frame. In the header tank I have 4 flouts. 1 to go back to the fish tank, the other 3 to go to 3 areas of Growbeds.
all the Growbeds have a variety of siphons. a couple are using NHO (No Holes Overflow) piping to get water from it to the next GB. I have a autosiphon, a standpipe with a tiny leechhole for it to drain slowly and completely, and the others with external autosiphons that I've made previously in my cubbyhouse. I think the bell autosiphons that I made in my tomato AP system (2nd system) will work the best in this system and I will change accordingly... for now I'm testing a variety.

At the beginning of 2 weeks ago, I didn't have the header tank set up or the shelves painted yet and a whole lot of things. In the last 2 weeks prompted by family I've managed to do a lot, and earlier this week, made an order to Troutman for some trout this friday (tomorrow). I think I'm making this thread because I'm embarrassed and felt I had show my cards for my actions. I only just canceled my order and if I were in his situation, I'd be understandably upset so...

Right now I'm running into all sorts of little problems, some of the fittings were the wrong size, and I forgot that trout need a lot of oxygen so I'm gonna have to get a bubbler or aerator of some sort and today's weather hasn't helped at all. This morning I checked the Ammonia, Nitrite and the Nitrates. All were zero even though there's a water plant in the FT and some Azolla, and lots of mozzies breeding there.. the pH is 8 and the temperature going up and down between 10 and 20 degrees Celsius. In a month's time it'll be around 5 to 15 * C and I tried to do some research on trout tolerance levels but did not find much other than lots of posts about how they like the cold weather, a neutral pH and plenty of oxygen.

So I still haven't started the system and am too panicky to receive the trout tomorrow. I've sent Troutman an email to delay bringing them up for me by a month. I'm not sure I should get them in a month because if you guys are right that they will get to plate size in 5 months, I'll only be able to get them to plate size in October - which is uncomfortably close to the warmer weather. The Temps around these parts start getting warm in September and we get warm weather flowers halfway through September. I'll probably have to haul them out at end of September if they don't die by then. Also considering Troutman's pricing list, it goes up because the fingerlings grow a bit so, I might only just make it.

I'm going ahead with it because even if the Bacteria don't do well in winter, I'll have the system cycling and when the weather warms up it'll be properly cycling by then and will have the opportunity to mature well and truly. That is if I don't kill the fish before that.

That's my rant for now. new photos tomorrow or Saturday to show latest finishes.

As for the trout info:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1277&hilit=trout

That link should give you just about every thing you need to know about trout in WA.

Nice start Jen, but I don't understand why you have so little faith in getting trout to survive. We have started many systems now and often add fish in the first week or so without mortalities. As long as you have plants in the system, do not overstock and do not overfeed you should not have any problems.
10 fingerlings to 1 square metre of growbed surface area. Backup air pumps are a really good idea too.
Many of us have had trout for the last month so temperature has not been a problem. Minimal feeding in a new system is the key.
Last year the onset of warm weather did not appear until late and many people kept trout in their tanks until xmas. 23 degrees (water temp) top from my experience. Hope this helps.
Faye

Should hunt around Jen, I got a 2000lt tank for a carton of beer, just gave it away last week, I am having my first go with trout, but people here grew them til XMAS, water temp will be cooler than air temp and if your tank is under cover will help, last week it was 25-26c here and water temp was 15c, today around 20 water temp 13-14c, winter here is cold with many nights below 0, water freezes in the hose and also the duck's water bowl freezes, anyone growing trout here had no problems with that either, your in Perth I believe so not that much different to us in spring-summer, only our winter is colder, so don't stress about the temp

I figured out the maximum capacity - that wasn't a problem, the problem was I didn't have all the parts of my system and didn't have the time to put it together this morning. neither I had the time to put more hydroton in, as well as plants. I couldn't even begin to run the cycle. Simply haven't completed my system is my failing at this point...


Ok.. that's news to me, thanks for the heads up. I'll keep that in mind when worrying about how late i'm getting the trout. it helps.. thanks Faye and Nocky for the weather tips.

Also Gemmell, thanks for the links they were very helpful.


Gave the tank away? where do you get these things? I'm not in the country, i'm in the burbs!!

and here's the picture I was gonna get... I wanted to show it to you now!

thanks so much.

head down bum up , you will be right mate

Jens,,, Please do me a favour ,, get yourself a normal Glass tube style thermometer.Find a place that is the southern side of a fence or treee ,, stick that thermometer in the ground. The temp reading will tell you what you need to know.

ok will do that in the morning...

Jen

That header tank and black poly currently looks like solar heater. Even if the fence is facing south you will pick up a lot of radiant heat.

this system will get lots of midday to afternoon sun. except for the fishtank under the mandarin tree.

the 230LBlack tank with stuff in it with the poly pipe on top, its actually my compost bin LOL . I put the pipes there coz i didn't know where to put them. Will use them soon when I'm piping the whole system tomorrow.
Right now I'm just so tired...

Neat little tank Jen. Couple of questions, what is that square tub you are using as a compost bin from/where did you get it? Why are you overflowing from your FT to you sump and not direct to the grow beds?

From your description, the only link back to the FT is one of the flouts from the header tank. This will limit any fish stocking density as there is not a great deal of transfer from the FT through the system to remove ammonia and add oxygen, much of what is going into your GB's is just what has cycled through them and been returned to the sump.

I would get rid of the header tank and raise your FT by a couple of courses of bricks so you can overflow direct to your GB's and pump from your sump to the FT to improve water cycling and aeration.

It's a black heavy duty plastic container(230L) I got from Bunnings for $29 at the time. They usually sell in two sizes- 160L and 230L. They do not hold their shape, it buckles under weight but does hold it in.


I appreciate your comments greatly because those were the issues I've been considering and one of the reasons why I canceled the trout delivery.
"Old" Problem: I thought I couldn't raise the fishtank any higher than it already had.
I have a header tank because I wanted to time the flouts to take turns in filling certain growbeds at a time, so that at any one time, one growbed drains completely and the pump will pump it out before the next growbed drains completely.
I've considered having the fish tank overflow into the header tank, I kept thinking the fishtank couldn't be raised higher, but what you said totally made sense. I'm a bit attached to the header tank (sorry) so now I've got new ideas on how to raise the FT. Thanks so much!

Jen i have used those tubs in the glasshouse system and just put a bit if 6 by 1 around them to stop buckling

good idea F&F!