Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

how time flies...have been busy with work..and not been able to do much but a quick check at night when i get back..

this is an update of my system.. all is going well..the purple beans are awesome...not sure how big they get too.. the tomatoes and lettuces are picking up speed growth wise and the spaghetti squash is flowering..

strawbs arent doing too good..

no more fish found in the gb's for awhile... andno losses in the redclaw tank!!! thanks for the input aquamad... hey are all looking well..
the silvers wont/dont come to the surface to feed... they just wait till it sinks and get stuck into the feed. the reds will gladly come out of ther hides when the food hits the floor..

here is some of the redclaws..

there is a lid that keeps all the leaves from falling into the tank.... but 2 days ago i went to lift it off and dropped a pallet onto my foot.... i was wearing qld saftey boots at the time..... double plugger thongs... add this to the finger i broke at work(slammed a door with finger in the way...).. i tipped all the leaves into the tank...


all my test have remained the same

ammonia...0
nitrites....0
nitrates...10-20
ph..... 7.8

the silvers get 2 heaped teaspoons at night... the reds about 10 peas every couple of days... or a spray of the fish food..

OUCH

But good to hear that the system is doing well

Always good to read that a system is improving
I second that OUCH!!! THose kinds of incidents are why I went and bought a pair of real sefety boots- got tired of the aches and pains

HSM...HSM.....one of plenty to come no doubt...

ordered a dc back up from guppys... the on rupe pointed out on another thread....as it was cheap..... but this is another thread!!

the night before it arrives...of course..... a transformer further down the road blew up in a pretty array of lights... 7 hours later.. the power returns..... no air, no pump...gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands...

now over a week later.... no loss of fish..no loss of crays... nothin!!! i have about 17 silvers in 1000ltr ibc... so i think i was lucky

everything is shiny...

many sacrifices to all god like entities....

i will endevour to place some more picks on...tonight..

these purple magic beans... were great..

they didnt last too long... and oddly they disappeared overnight

the lettuces have been culled ... and tasted good..

the caterpillars LOVE my cabbages.... i had used a very strong chilli and garlic spray.. spraying the gbs was like being pepper sprayed... cough cough gasp...eyes watering...

but still they persisted..caterpillars that is... so i have just used dipel...now plants looking happier..insert evil laugh here....

also had a number of fish who wanted to experience life on a grow bed... not sure if they were sucidial or just got lost...

so i came up with a guard tht protected them from themselves...

this siphon would not start so i put a dog leg in the pipe from the siphon to the drain...which worked well in starting ......but then it wouldnt break....

so i put this breather hose in and she works awesomely...

so...

i went to the fish farm guy,when i picked up the reddies some time ago, and asked him what do they eat...

he is like ... hey man they're like vegans man.. hate meat and eat nuthin but vegies and stuff... like when you were a kid catchin yabbies with meat on a string.. these guys are like wow.. lets drag this away from where we live in our vegetarian utopian dream.....


yeah right....


i put my smallest redclaw in with three goldfish... all was well until................................

cant believe they said they dont eat meat!!!
Heck, a can of cat food with hole poked in it is fantastic bait for redclaw
I would move the redclaw out of there asap... even if it does not kill the others it will nip at their fins and cause them distress

found this the other morning... he was up against the grate i had made to stop the fish ending up in the grow beds...

i took some test two days later...post dead fish...

they were normal..
ammo..... 0
nitrates... 0
nitrites ... 0
ph..... 7.6.

so i was not too concerned.....

the next few days were really hot... the water temp in the fish tank was 31c...

i had run out of water and the hot days had lowered the systems water dramatically!!
so i put a spare ibc on the back of the ute and drove into town.... i wont say from where i got the water...but there was a line up there to get some.. so i didnt get a chance to wash out the ibc and it had some sodium lactate left in it... dont know how strong the sugar level was but.....

two days later.. the was algae everywhere... it covered everything..all the hides were hairy.. and the water was too murky to see the fish and red claws... i had replaced two grow beds with a 1/3 of an ibc..and hadnt painted the out side... so i did and cooler weather all has cleared up..

however... now none of the original siphons will trigger... and when i ...encourage.. them the out flow seems slow...

so would the 90mm pipe that alll the beds drain into get clogged from the algae?? to check them will be a major disassemble.. but i am running out of ideas... i have changed the 1 inch pipe from the siphons and there is no real difference..

any ideas or advice????????????

there has been a stack of greens provided by the gardens already...

the growth has been fantastic...

Looking good. I like the arch between the gb's.