Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Tested my water recently and the nitrate is close to the 80-100 mark. I did harvest all my broccoli recently as well so I presume that is the reason for the increase in nitrate... read somewhere that high nitrate is not a problem for fishes for the short term... so I left that alone...

But I don't seem to be able to get my lettuces and other chinese veges to grow well from seeds... as per what is recommended, drop the seeds into the growbed (hydroton) but the lettuces don't seem to appear, and the chinese veges are either popping up and then later dying back... Only a handful manages to grow pass the sprouting stage... Is the high nitrate giving problems??

Broccoli, cabbage and chinese cabbage seeds also do not seem to be coming up...

Radishes and carrots seems to be growing... Pumpkin (I think) and beans seeds have sprouted and could possibly be regarded as young seedlings now...

Any ideas?? In the interim, I have bought some broccoli seedlings to put into the growbeds...

I imagine the lettuce seeds just get washed down into the deep dark depths because they're so darn small. You can trying growing them in seed raising trays, then washing the dirt off in a seasol solution and whacking them in. I get pretty good transfer rates. You can also put down some cotton wool so that it's wiking the water up and wait until the lettuce is quite large before removing it (do worms eat cotton?).

Just an update... It appears that some seedlings are showing up from the growbeds... maybe it takes a while longer... anyways, I have tried raising some seed in some seed raising punnets... hopefully I get better yields from the seeds...

Also did my first cull of trouts today... 4 of them... as I have been cycling my system for most part of the cool weather, the heaviest of the 4 is only 240gms... the other 3 were from 150gms to 180gms... oh well, better luck next winter...

They still look pretty good though Ivan...

Well I think they tasted okay as well... although I think the stuffing did not really flavour the meat enough...
Could be the recipe we got from the internet... Or maybe oven baked trout is not the best way to cook trout??...

Hi Ivan
I don't foil at all.
Just bung em in with some ginger garlic and lime in the cavity.

good to see you have had a harvest Ivan

how long do you bake them and at what temperature...i've been putting herbs and lemon in the cavity and about 4 minutes a side on a hot bbq but would like to try other methods.

I do mine in a hooded BBQ wrapped in foil for about 20 minutes at a medium heat, use a bit of olive oil and just about any herb or spice you can think of, I got some Chilli salt at the Chilli Festival so thats tonight's recipe, missus prefers lemon from the tree and other green crap but she is trying one with orange tonight also from the tree (not the same tree though )butis a million different recipes on the net some here http://www.trout-fishing.com.au/trout_recipes.htm and here http://www.troutrecipes.org/ and an excellent video on how to de-bone a cooked trout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5IZ2BOCBgA

Well I got my recipe from the internet... oven preheat at 190degC... trout in there for 45 mins... but I thought the meat was a bit tough... probably overdone... should probably check out the links nocky has put up...

190 for 20 min is ok

yep I reckon 20 mins is the time frame

Okay... will try 20mins next time...

As with most system, my system pH has started falling... I reckon it is about 6.6 now... even though I had shellgrit in the tank at a pH of 7.4 ...

Just added some garden lime today... will test again in a few days...

You only need a couple of teaspoons every second day

Yes, I figured just start with teaspoons... so added two teaspoons on Sunday... today looks like pH is about 7.0 ..
Hard to figure the actual colour.... probably should get myself an electronic pH tester... added another two teaspoons today... will test this weekend...