Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Blossom end rot is usually caused by calcium deficiency, ensure pH is OK and add calcium!

pH is low a bit but my garden grown roma's are the same yet Beef Steak and Mortgage lifters are fine, I have read roma's are a bit finicky, like trout I suppose

Here are the pics, have you ever seen toms so lovely? I'm not sure what those red ones are, but they're fantastically regular. The smaller ones are Tommy Toes, the yellow one is a Wassippicon Peach, and the others are Black Russians (I think).

Lovely tomatoes! Always wanted to grow some that good, maybe one day.
How do you add the potasium sulphate? and how much?
I assume its fish safe obviously.
I have some richgro "sulphate of potash" is this the same thing?
I'm a bit reluctant to add anything like this but with your results I'm thinking about it.

ok gemmell enough blow arsing but seriously great stuff, must be the canberra air

You've got the toms Gemmel... I've got the basil.... meet you half way....

We'll meet half way at a bakery which does nice italian bread - bruschetta!!



Yeh, fish safe. The sulphate brings pH down, so if you're pH is below 7 you're better off using Potassium Bicarbonate. "Sulphate of potash" is the same thing. Just make sure it's the water soluble one! Seasol also has a pretty high level of potassium (I read everything on the box whilst in the car once).

Added 300 trout yesterday. Photo's to come.

Toms are still going, but looking a bit straggly now.

The guy delivering the trout was a bit strange. He says "can I let a bit of water out here?", and I say "err, yeh, no worries" - so he takes the side outlet off the tanks on the back of his truck and dumps about 2000L straight onto a garden bed, washing it down my driveway. I'm standing there thinking "a bit of water eh?". Then on the way out he managed to drive into a bag of canna and split it open. So I've dirt and canna clay all over my driveway.

As for the trout - 298 look great, 1 we found on the driveway ( ) and the other looked a bit sick but is making a recovery.

Congrats Gemmell - always great to get the fish in

Yep - sounds like an interesting guy alright. Be using him next year ?

Yeh, probably, I used him last year too, he's a bit odd, but his fish are tough and at $1ea they're pretty good value.

Hey Gemmell, nice system. Im just setting mine up now. Im in Canberra too and have a greenhouse with flood and drain hydro beds that I want to convert to AP.

I have been thinking about trout in winter and something else in summer, you seemed to have fantastic results with the trout though...how long were you able to grow them for in the end? Nearly 9 months? How did your goldens go?

Can you get brook or brown fingerlings? The rivers around Canberra are loaded with wild rainbows so I was kind of hoping to get something a bit different.

Of course the other thing im thinking of is murray cod.

Brendan

Brendan,

My system is outside with only the shed roof covering the tank. It is great for trout from late March to early December. So nearly 9 months. It's a bit cool for silverperch in those months, but you're in a greenhouse. UncleYarra has a system in a shed come greenhouse which he raised silverperch exclusivley (no trout). They didn't grow much over the winter - it wasn't warm enough. I would guess he got a good 6 months growth rather than my 3 or 4.

Goldens are boring. Don't bother. Silverperch are interesting and grow really fast. Worth it. Murray cod would be like GP - boring. Any ambush predator just sits around and waits for the food to float past it's face, so they're not much fun.

Our summer isn't long enough to get silver perch to full size in one year - you gotta fatten them up and get them to last through a winter. I haven't done this yet though.

I got rainbows, not sure if you can get brook or brown - they don't grow as quickly though, so you can't get them quite so big.

You could get eel tailed catfish!

Eel tailed catties would be awesome. Id definately give them a go!

I think ill just keep it simple and start with rainbows, then look at other stuff down the track. If only I had this idea a month or two ago, I could have been ready to get fingerlings now....if I went flat out I could probably be ready in 4 - 6 weeks, by which time i might have missed the boat for trout.

Did you cull your trout before the water got too hot? How hot was your water by december?

I'm pretty sure you can get trout right through winter. You just get 'em bigger (and pay a premium for it). My water was up at 25's and 26's in December. I could possibly have added more oxygen to keep them alive, but I was fighting it. They are also large at this point - when they're fingerlings they have less of an O2 requirement than when they're 30cm, so you can get away with 26 when you put them in in March (I reckon) but not December - you could go mental on the O2 like RupertOfOz has done (and I think he got them through the summer, but he's down the coast).

I agree - stick with something known and researched before you start experimenting - go rainbows.

From my experience it always takes longer than you think to set up,... my advice is to not rush it though. It takes longer (and more $$$) to re-jig a system than to get it right in the first place.Post your system design in your own thread in the systems forum and we'll pick it to pieces =)

OK will do. Im playing with google sketch up now....cool toy!

Brendan