Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

A few detail piccies of some of the work. Pipe out of sumps back to FT is 50mm.

Readings this morning;

Amm: 0.5
NO2: 1.0
NO3: 5.0
pH: 7.4

Be careful people don't think it's a spa.....

Yeah, it is a lotta air...... figured too much is probably about right

Were you planning on putting anything over the outlet pipes in the tanks under the growbeds? Just thinking that at certain times of year you might end up with a few floating leaves that could quickly block the pipe.

Perhaps an elbow and pipe down into the water, with lots and lots of holes drilled in it....

Was just going to put some gutter guard mesh over it, but your idea is better - thanks EB

Looking good Nigel, whens the AP opening piss up, I will be in Guilford for the small farm expo on April 10

Not sure it'll be finished then, but come up here anyway - only 10-15 mins from Guidlford !

Now that it is at least functioning I have to pay attention to a few other things around the place for a little while, except for bringing the third GB online.

Unless advised otherwise I'm going to assume I can start planting now that nitrates are sitting at 5ppt

Plant anytime.... We plant when things are at 0, so 5 is definately ok...

I planted seeds 3-4 weeks before fish, and they were on way by time fish went in

Thanks guys ! Will be planting a little later this week and next week. Will spend a bit of time looking into lunar planting - not sure how much cred I give it, but want to learn more first.

Water Readings this morning;

Amm: 0 - 0.25
NO2: 1.0
NO3: 5-10
pH: 7.6

So basically it looks like I'm nearly fully cycled. Given that I only started pumping on Sunday arvo, I'm pretty happy with that. Will need a few more days readings yet to fully confirm this is the case. Fish have been feeding twice a day since Sunday arvo.

For those just tuning in, I have been running yabbies and some redfin in my sumps for about a month now and so when I started pumping, that water entered the system straight away (all 3000 litres of it) and has helped immensely, as well as the moving bed biofilters I have established in those sumps.

Water readings this morning;

Amm: 0 - 0.25
NO2: 1.0
NO3: 5-10
pH: 7.8

Fish didn't feed well, possibly due to lower temperature as they fed well last night when warmer. Thermometer to go in sometime this week.

CD you changed your thread and added 2.5k lts, but your Nitrites are up still so may affect feeding, will come down in a day or so though, but seems to be cycling properly, not feeding will probably help things settle a bit more, anyhow have told you that silvers are a pain in the arse

Looking good...



Nocky must have something against silvers... anyways, I somewhat agree that as we move towards winter,
you will not get too much feeding from them... even my barra has started to slow down in feeding...

Time for trout is drawing near... what would be good is to be able to have both silvers and trouts in the same system (not tanks) during winter... trout powers the system in winter, and as the weather warms up, the silvers power the system... and trout comes out...

I know Rick moved his silvers to the sump last year, I reckon by the size of them he can do the same again (maybe a bite )
Ivan I just haven't seen the growth rates that would make them viable, not down here anyhow