Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi there, love to join the international AP ring.

I've been reading the from about 1 year back, and started my small AP system from scrap (all dump material) for about 6 months now. Was planning to have flood and drain, but due to tools limitation I ended continuously flow system.

Using pea gravels as growing medium. Started with 50 cat fish, all died after 30 days ^.^. Next try was with 200 Tilapia fingerlings and gladly only 2 died the next day. Now all Tilapia has grown but somehow stunted due to very small pond (barrel).

Veggies planted was Okra, Tomatoes, Pak Choy, Brocoly, Spinach, Long beans, parsley and Honey Dew. All plant was rather slow in the beginning, however after 3 months in cycle growth shows significant improvement especially the long beans (leaves was 7-10 times larger than normal), but still slow in producing pods.

ATM, nutrient deficiency is evident (about 3 weeks back) leaves turning yellows and some dried, also a lot of root rot and mild dews attack on my tomatoes.

Too bad all my photo stuck in my broken hard disk..... but will be getting some new photo soon.

Just saying hi to everyone

Cheers!
DA

Welcome
We love pic's!

Hi Dusan Aroma....welcome. Your system sounds so interesting. Thanks for sharing the tough problems you have experienced in setting up your system..

G'Day Dasun,
Good to see new members from different parts of the world. It's sad to hear of your losses, but now that your system is cycled hopefully things should work out better for you.
I'm due to visit Borneo for work later this year. I just can't wait!
Stunted fish primarily comes from underfeeding. Unless your tank is massively overcrowded, I doubt the tank size is limiting growth.
As for nutrient deficiency, this also suggests not enough feed. Or it could be lack of trace elements? Do you have any salt in your system? Do you live close to the coast? Adding some sea water to the mix could add trace elements and serve to keep the fish happier too.

Indeed... welcome to the forum

Hi Dusun,
Welcome! How large is your grow bed? And what is the size of your fish tank? Here's a nutrient deficiency chart that might come in handy for you!

Woot! thks for the warm welcome, I noe u guys rocks!

KP: Which part of Borneo you will be visiting? if it happen to be in my place, then it will be my pleasure to cheers you with some pints of our locally brewed wine (my tradition).

I actually feed my fish at least 2 times a day. From what I gained in this forum, I think my system is a bit overcrowded. I have almost approx 198 tilapia fish (sized 10-18 cm) all in a barrel (the normal blue barrel) ~ very crowded? It was planned as a temporary pond and waiting for my ability to get a larger one.

I don't have any salt in my system, however I did put some sea shells from time to time into the system. I'm willing to add some sea water if recommended. I was also thinking to put rusted iron bar into the grow bed, is it practical and safe way to add Iron deficiency?

FYI, I had bought some Moringa seeds from someone in Australia. Thinking to use it later on as part of my Tilapia diet.

KM09: Thank your for the nutrient deficiency chart. Something that I really need in deed.

Cheers!

Not sure exactly where, somewhere in central Sabah. But I think we need to come through kota kinabalu so we're likely to pass your place. Where is it that you live exactly?

Wow that's a lot of tillapia in one tank. They are probably overcrowded, this will make filtering their waste and providing air most difficult. I still think you're not feeding enough and that is why they are stunted, but if you feed more it is likely you will not be able tomprocess their waste properly. Have you done any water tests? I'd be interested what the quality is like.
I think things will become better for you once you have a larger tank.

KP: yeah it pretty crowded, filtering was quite a challenge but as I said so far no mortality and infection noticed. When it gets a bit cloudy, I leave them un-feed for a day and the will water gets clearer. I am so inadequate here - no water, ph temp, nitrate, ammonia testing what so ever. Playing with my guest based on what I read in the forum and other articles.

I got plan for a tailor made tank, will share it here later once I get the scan machine working ^.^

I live here in Kota Kinabalu, great! I would be more than happy to meet up with you, if it's not too troublesome to your itinerary.

Excellent. I'll pm you when I have further details. Get working on that tank. It will give you more stability in case of mishap.
Sampai kunjungi.

You are lucky tilapia are so dang tough. Definitely need a bigger tank for them, of course you might then have a problem with them trying to breed more!!! I keep my tilapia in a cage within a bigger tank to keep them from breeding out of control (if they can't pick the eggs back up off the bottom of the tank, they can't hatch more tilapia.)

So how much grow bed do you have and how much fish tank?

TCL: ATM am having 2 AP grow bed (a barrel cut into two section), 2 small size soil plant bed getting fish water (for experiment), and one fish pond.

I truly respect those Tilapia for their toughness. Had a several blackout for about 2 hours, they just live thru it. However, am really need to work on the new tank. The fish ain't happy. it's overly crowded.

KP: Cool, i'll be waiting.

Why don't you just get another coupla barrels and connect them up in series? Methinks you got way too many fish for just 200 litres of FT. Or better still duplicate the same system and split the fish among the two barrels. That way you get two more half barrels of grow beds and many more vegggies!

Which would also halve your chances of a complete disaster...

How's it going Dasun?
I'm here in Sabah now. It's a beautiful country. I'm staying in Lahad Datu, which is nice, but everything is palm oil trees. I would like to see some real jungle, perhaps the Orangutans.
How's your system coming along? It's been a long time since we've heard from you.