Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I understand that Barra are being farmed in the states also. Do you think they can be polycultured with blue crabs or do you think the crabs would harrass them to much??? Possible have some in the sump?

Well Rupe, you're definately in the right business to be building big AP setups

Going to be very interesting to see just how far south Barra can survive. I assume you'll be running your solar collector the whole time.

What will be really interesting to see is if you can get trout through summer. That'll be a great little challenge, get cold water fish and warm water fish living all year round in the same spot...

Hey have you ever thought of running a peltier? With the hot side on the Barramundi tank and the cold side on the trout tank? At least there's no wastage there.

Things have been a bit slow lately...

So to help ends meet I've been doing some really weird hours doing the stocktake at the IGA stores around the area, and callouts to night deliveries of stock... and grabbing sleep in between...

Up shot is I haven't been paying much attention to my systems lately... especially the Barra system... which still remains under-filtered...

Feed the Barra about 18:00 last night before a 4 hour shift... went back at midnight for another 4 hour shift... and sleep in until about 10:00 this morning...

Checked the Barra tank... spotted a couple of floaters... sometime over night the pump to the Oase filter had died... and the water quality was really bad....

Drained the tank, and netted the Barra into a temporary holding tank... a cutdown rainwater tank intended as a growbed... cleaned the tank, fixed the pump and refilled the tank... and replaced the Barra...

Lost about 25 (out of about 300) all up... coupled with the handling stress and pre-stress of at least 12 hours of no filtration... about expected...

Considered a grading... but the fish are surprisingly uniform... but, although they've doubled in size to about 120-150mm... I'm concerned as to whether I'll get them to a reasonable size before winter... especially if we have an early cold snap in April...

Project for the weekend... is definitely to get the growbeds finished and functioning... or at least some of them...

This is like dejavu to me Rupe. When I bought my barra I was running behind in gtting sufficient filtration going, which meant I couldn't feed to optimum level, which meant I was unable to grow out before winter - and that's where things got shite.

My filter has been coping VB... in terms of ammo, nitrites... but nitrates have been running 200+... and I've been having to do water changes...

With a feed rate of six handfuls a day... I was on the limit of the filter... with the pump dying overnight and 300 Barra... things were always gunna go pear shaped in short time...

As you can see from the photos, most of the fish are pretty much newly dead... dying due to handling stress... and having been weakened/stressed overnight...

If I'd got to them early morning... it might have been a different story...

Regardless... I've done a complete water change... the rest are fine... and feeding...

Mate - not so different from my situation. I was using some biofilters inside the shed to run the barra early on, coping with ammo and nitrite but no nitrate removal at all (therefore water changes required as you are doing). Despite suggestions that nigh nitrates don't damage the health of the fish in the short term, I can't help but wonder whether this contributed to the longer term health of many of my barra and the lying on side thing.

By no means the biggest... probably toward the smaller end size-wise...

But they certainly seem to be developing that "Barra" shape...

Bloody rain... hasn't exactly helped things...

Been nibling away for a couple of weeks... but got bugger all done... other than about two water changes...

Just need to knock up some retaining structures... not going to call them "walls" at the moment... coz time (and money) means I just have to get these things plumbed and working before the Barra get any bigger...

Or I'm going to have to cut back the feed...

Haven't given up hope on my original plan...

Swore blind I was going to do it properly... but time and money has meant I've dragged my feet on getting the Barra system finished...

Decided that this long weekend was the time to pull my finger out... and of course... it's rained on & off until today...

Regardless, I chucked some plastic down to keep the mud manageable... and hooked a couple of growbeds up (temporarily)... to act as heatsinks...

I'll finish the levelling of the section where the tank, and another growbed + 2 small rafts are going.... and get the crusher dust down, and the lower retaining walls finished tomorrow...

Then I'll enclose the crusher dust area in a low hoop house.... and hopefully get some heat back into the tank for a while longer...

Photos of the beds and washing the clay out of them... plumb them inline and ran them a couple of times before dark... set the timer to kick them in all day... and leave them off overnight...

Well, my two trusted gnarly old weather forecasters... a long time local farmer... and an aboriginal elder... have been pretty spot on with their predictions...

Both said that we'd be warm, real warm, through until end of April and maybe into the second week of May... but a good chance of a cold snap for a week at the end of April...

Daytime temps have been around 27/28 for the last week or so... with the Barra tank holding around 23, the trout tank about 20... and the perch tank with the solar array up around 25-27 (today)....

The only downside has been carrying over some trout fingerlings... that were meant to be picked up about ten days ago.... in a 1000L tank... which has been nudging 24... and has needed daily water changes..


Althought the weekend was supposed to hold around 25+.... the forecast for Tuesday and the rest of this week is maximums of about 20....

So while I'm happy that the meaures I took to keep some heat in the Barra tank have played out... and I've been able to get things in place... a major re-shuffle of both my Barramundi & Silver Perch systems wias destined to take place over the long weekend...

The plan was basically to drain down the Silver Perch tank... clove oil the Silvers... and move them into a new 4500L tank...

Then drain down the Barra tank... and move them into the 1200L Silver Perch tank.. with the attached solar array, and fully functioning growbeds... which should be able to keep the Barra above 22 degrees for at least another month, or two...

The only problem may be just too many fish (100+)... for the size of the tank... which may require some water changes... and a few feeds of Barra...

I'm hoping the established growbeds, and a feed rate about equivalent to the current feed rate of the Silvers... will cope...


The 60+ Silvers... quite a few around the kilo mark... will go into the 4500L tank with the new growbeds... and some onto the plate and into the fridge..

I then planned to re- stock about 50-60 new Silvers, around the 200-250mm mark into the 4500L tank ready for next summer...

So a busy weekend was ahead...

Well despite making good progress on both the swapping of the trout filters and getting the Barra growbeds online....

A combination of rain and visitors on both Sunday & Monday... meant I didn't go ahead with the fish move over the weekend...

Two days of cold clear nights, and cloudy cold days.... saw both the Barra and Silver Perch tanks plummet dramatically... with the both tanks down around 15.5 this morning....

Doubted the Barra would be that interested in any feed, especially as they'd been really slow to feed the night before.... didn't get a nibble...

Noticed the water was also quite dirty which didn't surprise me as I'd planned a water change as part of the fish swapping...

Then noticed a floater.... stirred the tank... and noticed a few more....

Despite my best efforts to get some heat back into the tank today... I never got it above 17.5... even the Silver Perch tank with the solar array didn't get beyond 18...

Result.... sadly, the Barramundi experiment is effectively over...

Overnight & throughout the day... with a combination of cold water, and the quality of the water.... I watched the majority of the Barra keel over...

Water tests were fine, other than a trace of ammonia, probably due to 100+ Barra dying... but the water had a lot of crap in it...

With the Barra chilled to the bone...and with minimal movement of water over their gills... I think the fine sediment just clung to their slow moving gills....

And that was the straw that broke the Barras back...

I'll post some pics up tomorrow, had so much to do today on top of trying to save them... that I didn't have time to deal with them or take photos...

So close, so damn close... some of them are certainly plate size... and another couple of weeks wold have seen them near enough...

For those that want to know... haven't counted them... but total weight of dead fish was around 17kg... uncleaned...

I estimate about 100... managed to move about twenty+ to other tanks... but not optimistic...

It's certainly been a depressing day.. but lessons have been learned...

Firstly and most importantly... set your system up with enough filtration... before you get your fish... rather than playing catchup along the way...

Two... if I'd got the Barra about six weeks earlier than I did... when I was supposed to...

Even with the unseasonally cold February we had.... I think that they're "doable"... just....

But it's a 50:50 proposition as it's just so hard to predict how warm we might be mid October... and late April...

Other lesson, perhaps applicable to all who might be considering trying to hold them... anything below 16 degrees will kill them ... rapidly...

Sorry to hear about the Barra losses Rupe
Remember I was kidding you about fixing that fence now I see your plan your just going to let it collapse then slowly do a land claim with your ever increasing AP systems

There's a part truth in that DR... at one stage I fixed the fence up pretty neatly... but the neighbour knocked a section of it with his bobcat... never fixed it, in fact built some garden beds along his side of the fence, leaving the damaged piece leaning into my yard...

So I just left things to fall apart... now he's got a puppy for his young kids... and needs to secure the fence... so looks like we might have a brand new colourbond fence very shortly...

Which suits me, as I've got plans to remove the hydro trays and rebuild my "mega" system along the lines I first envisaged..