Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Trout will grow out in six months... Silver are more like an 18 month prospect...

Given your likely water temperatures through winter... Silvers effectively stop eating, just grazing algae off the tank... hence they basically don't grow through winter...

Thanks Rup,
so what do melbournians grow through the summer? To keep the veggi's going?
Also my systems is inside a green house, at the momment my water temp has been between 18 - 22.

regards
matt

Sounds like Silvers all year round then...

Rup,
where do you get the info for the type of fish to keep at what sort of temp thay are best suited?
I had a look thru the fish section here but was unable to find the info i was after.
How hot can silvers tolerate?
Is jade perch keept at the same temp as sliver perch?

regards
Matt

Yes and no... Both Jade and Silver Perch grow best within the same temperature range ... 20 - 30 degrees....

As will Barramundi..... However Jade Perch and Barramundi will have trouble surviving below 20 degrees.... Whereas Silver Perch will survive down to about 6-8 degrees...

So Guys,
I've finally recieved my water test kit, now leads to the questions of what levels should i be looking for?
At the moment, i have
650 L FT
300 L GR (Planted out with a couple of transplanted tomatoes and brocolli + rocket and spanach + strawberries.) I plan to add at lease another 600L of growbed
GB is cycled via bell syphon around 3 times an hour.
Atempting to cycle via peeponics/hummonia
So the system has been up and running for 10 days with out any monitoring, and plants look good, but i want to be able to tell when the system is cycled so i can add fish.
Currently I pee in it onec every 2nd day and add a cap of seasoil.
After all the reading I've done Im still not quite sure of what levels i should be looking for.
Current readings are.

DATE ph AM Nitrite Nitrate FT temp GH temp o/s air
24/09/2009 7.6 0.25 2 5 23 18 18
25/09/2009 7.8 0.5 1 10 22.8 15 14
27/09/2009 7.8 0.25 1 10 21.6 17 11


Any help would be great.
matt
Regards

Date Ph Am Nitrite Nitrate FT Temp GH Temp o/a temp
24/09/2009 7.6 0.25 2 5 23 18 18
25/09/2009 7.8 0.5 1 10 22.8 15 14
27/09/2009 7.8 0.25 1 10 21.6 17 11

Sorry bit hard to read? tried to fix it up but came out the same??

PH 7.6
Ammonia .25
Nitrite 1.0
Nitrate 10
FT temp 21.6

little bit better to read.

Cut down on the pee to every 4th day
What fish are you thinking of running
You can stick a couple of goldfish in now

Thinking of running silver perch,
I’m pretty sure i can keep my water temp above 18 in the winter. if not I’ll most likely run trout in winter and silvers possibly jades in summer (depending how my water temp is in spring to autumn)
What your thoughts??
What should my water measurements be normally
matt

Think you'd struggle to do Jades/Barramundi in Victoria.... unless you're prepared to heat... or eat at around 5/600gm...

Yeah, It seems like wishful thinking for jades, But I'll monitor my water temps over the next year and call it from then.
the first harvest of fish im planning on is Silvers,

What should my nitrite/nitrate/ammonia/PH be?
regards
matt

Silvers are an 18 month grow out where you will have a harvest of trout before then
put silvers in now [at the moment theres only 2 in ones available ] and they wont be ready till march 2011
where you put trout in january and they will be ready dec 2010

On the Ammonia and nitrite levels.
You would like those to be at 0 before putting new fish in.

Nitrates are fine so long as they are in the measurable range, even higher is ok short term but not long term for breeding stock. I wouldn't worry too much about Nitrates other than to see that you have some to confirm that cycling is happening.

As to pH, old time thinking was that between 7 and 7.4 was about perfect. a pH of 8 is ok to start cycling but will hopefully come down to at least 7.6 to keep from having too much trouble with nutrient lock out. There is some danger with low pH causing a bacteria crash as the pH goes too acid but there are plenty of people on the forum currently running systems with a pH in the mid 6 range. Keep some crushed oyster shells on hand to help buffer the pH from dropping too low. The important thing with pH is to keep it stable sudden drastic changes in pH hurt not only the fish but also the bacteria.