Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Pok Choi seems to flower at this time of year no matter how big, I had some planted a couple of weeks apart and all flowered at same time, but I agree that your plants after that amount of time are screwed and wasting time, so replant, keep some better looking plants and replant the rest, as C1 said Golden Ponds still have fish if you need to buy more, they are a good size but around $5 each, but another 5-10 wouldn't hurt

Okay... Pulled out all the veges that have gone to flower. There are some seeds that have sprouted and hopefully will see some growth over the next few weeks. Will monitor those remaining veges from the first batch of seedlings and pull them out if they are not growing quick enough...

I think I need more than two growbeds...

Hey Ivan good to here things are starting to pick up.
When did you get the second grow bed. I must have missed that bit in your thread.
Warmer weather is on it's way so things will start going crazy.
What summer vegies are you planning on trying ?

I think he's had a two bed system from the start. Or at least the start of this thread anyway.
With so few fish, two beds is probably enough if the plants are using up all the nutrients as it is.

I must be really losing the plot.
Sorry about that I should take more notice next time.

Ivan
If you are thinking of getting a few extra trout Golden Ponds do not have any of the larger size. I contacted them two weeks back and they told me they only have small fingerlings.
I have since been in touch with Troutman and he has fish around the 250mm range. I am picking up 50 from him this Friday
Short notice but if you are wanting some and are not to far from me I can pick them up for you. Just PM me if you are interested and we can sort it out.

Ivan I have 6000lts and 2 grow beds, I know I need more but time is the factor as need to rebuild a few things, but 2 grow beds seem to be fine with 50 trout I have, during the cold weather I had to adjust feed but things have warmed up to 15 and bacteria seem to be doing their thing and amm and nitrite have almost 0ed, another grow bed will take more water out of your tank, so unless you have a sump (can't remember if you have) then you will be taking almost 3/4 of your water out during pumping

Well I think I will stick with the current remaining trouts. Don't want to add more until I know that my system is fully cycled. Don't want to experience another HSM.

So I will be patient and grow out the trouts in time for barra when the water warms up.

Nocky, I know I cannot support another growbed with my existing 1000L tank. Well I will probably have to wait for a while longer, before I get another growbed and new tank setup....

Ahhh... Damn wind blew down all my growing brocolli plants... the roots are not sticking out but being on their sides, I think definitely it has been uprooted from its growing position...

Hi Ivan,
Hey the plants should be easy to re-plant.
Also You maybe flooding too high.

I replanted the broccoli, hopefully they survive but since the broccoli plants are from 3 months back, when the system was still cycling, I think the growth may also be stunned somewhat. Tempted to put them out and plant new ones.

Anyways, I have got a question.

I noticed the bottom and side walls of my fish tank getting coated with a brownish layer of slime. Compared to the clean green BYAP tank colour, it is much harder to see the trouts right now. But water is still clear.

The other day, I took a sponge and cleaned up the tank a bit. The next day I noticed that the ammonia went up slightly.
Could the brown slime contain some nitrifying bacteria??

Since then, I have not cleaned the tank again, but would like to know if there is a relation between the slime and the bacteria? Or just coincidences and the brown slime is actually algae??

The brown is the bio-film that builds up as the system matures... and yes, it does have some nitrifying capacity...

Leave it alone.. it wont do anything but good... remove it, stir your tank up... and yep... you'll get a spike...

I think my system is very close to being cycled, so I want to work out what the feed rate is for my trouts.

Of coz the issue is fishing the trout up and weighing it... Any good ideas?

I read in a couple of places, 1% of body weight per day is the feed rate. Hence if a trout is 100gms, 1% is 1 gm and assuming I have about 20 trouts still (i think less but anyways), does it mean the feed rate is 20gms per day for the
tank?

I just measured each tablespoon I was feeding was about 10gms... I am already up to 3 tablespoons, hence total 30gms.

I doubt my trout is heavier than 100gms, so does it mean I have got to reduce my feed from 30gms to 20gms???

I know what some of the literature says to feed in terms of rates, but I have found it doesn't suit my system. In my FT I have about 2.4kg of fish, but if I feed them 2% i.e. 48grams per day then my ammonia skyrockets and I go into long periods of no-feeding waiting for everything to settle again.

Just until you get the routine for your system, measure your ammonia before feeding; if it's too high then either feed less or wait longer. By this process, I found the times and quantities to feed which work best for my system; at 08:00 they (the fish) get 10grams and at 17:00 they get 15grams (they get more at night because its longer until their next feeding the next morning, giving the ammonia time to be converted). So, per day, they are getting just over 1% and I don't have to scrutinise the ammonia levels as much, unless something else changes.

Of course, I'd love to be fattening the trout faster, but in my current configuration I just cannot do this without upsetting the balance. I guess the optimum result is to feed the trout as much food as they will eat (uneaten food is nasty issue, don't overfeed) and have a system working so efficiently that all the fish's wastes are converted for your plants and you have enough plants to use all this nutrient. Whether that is 1%, 2% or more in your system? Only time, regular testing and regular observation will tell.


Just my $0.02c


Scott

Notes:
To weigh a fish, place a sufficient container of water on the scales, select an "average" fish and add it to the water for weighing, then multiply its weight by the number of fish in the tank for find the total stock weight.

Keep a set of electronic scales near your fish food and weigh each serving. After a little while, you get a good feeling about exactly how much each feeding is without weighing it, but this takes time.