Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Electrics all connected today, now all nicely locked away in the pretty box - only took me an hour to use a demo saw and jackhammer to chase through the 1m wide path to the building. Pavers are all layed on a 100mm layer of concrete, what a shocker of a job that would have been to have to do a whole school like that

Second half of the lid is still awaiting my fitting as I did not get time to grind back the old welds yet after making the upside down 1/4 good

Water tests seem to indicate the system has cycled, Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0.5 Nitrate 10 and it is crystal clear. Plants are doing well and I need to get on and finish putting in the plat support trellis poles for the peas and beans. Fish are feeding like crazy and look to have grown a fair bit.

How is the system burnsy, I see you had a nitrite problem, mine is up but not stressing (much) as yet, fish are doing fine (except the dead one ), how's your fish, any any student interference yet

Fish are extremely happy and always hungry, no student or outside interference, they are quite into looking after them. Nitrite has settled down, they did not seem to mind bathing in the Nitrate's of 5ppm for the day or so it was up.

We have started updating the school website, it is linked in the first post so keep your eye on that to see how involved the kids have been in the construction.

Busy week so still have not finished the other side of the lid but I have ordered the tread mesh for over the sump and it is ready. Western Power have been testing the longevity of 100 trout at about 80 grams each in a 5000 litre tank without backup oxygen 36 hours with no power so far

Trout are still all happy and as the tank is open it gets plenty of movement via rain and wind during this type of whether to keep the O2 levels up. Also topped up with another 1000 odd litres via hose with spray nozzle on this afternoon as we had lost some water due to sump over flow. Measured water parameters and there has been no increase on ammonia or nitrite so all is good.

36 hours with no power????? Are you living in Australia? AHH I see you are near LOL.
It is unimaginable for me to think of 36 hours power out,, just never happens in Sydney.
Ok , so you should be ok with 100 X 80 gramme fish ,, but obviously you need to plan for this occuraNCE WHEN YOU HAVE 100 OR MORE 1,000 GRAMME FISH.
Small petrol/diesel back-up generator.

Planning is underway, I have messaged Murray about his switches but not heard back, does anyone know if he is around at the moment?

Is the power still out>???
I really don't give a poop about the fish , but the faces on the children if they see their fish dead is something I would not want to see.
In the mean time ,, does anyone have a 12V AIR pump and a SPARE CAR BATTERY?

Power is on, I went in thiis morning to check and feed, all is good. I have the same concerns about dead fish and this is why planning is underway for backup aeration.

The are easy to make for under $20 Burnsy if you want to make one parts are available at Jaycar in Maddington and I'll talk you through it.

Lungy ... How about posting it up in a thread, with pics and/or diagrams and instructions?

I'm sure there would be a lot of members that would be interested... like me...

Lungy, would love to have your assistance to make one but talking me through would probably not be enough, I think I would need a hands on tutorial or step by step picture guide. When it gets to anything more complex than wiring a trailer, electronics and me have nothing in common

Ok I'll grab a few pics in the morning and do a write up

Thanks Lungy

Burnsy 36 hours without power is unbelievable, I think longest I can remember here was around 6 hours, but a guy in a weather forum I use lives in Parkwood and he was 43 hours I hope all the people in the affected area's hit western power up big time, good to see the fish made it through