Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

To keep the Atlantic Salmon in good health, the estimated volume of air was about 40lpm but given that water temps in summer with 2 grow beds in the glasshouse are around 20 - 22 degrees, I figured upping the air supply was a better safety margin than coming home after a hot day and seeing the fish floating on the surface.

So 4 air stones are now connected. If the temp rises to 24 - 26, and the fish are approaching harvest size, then by all sums, we'll need every bit of air we can get..I think a DO sensor really would be handy though as its all pretty much calculated guess work for something that's in constant flux

Air, air and more air...

And that's about it.. The system is now completely finished, stocked with fish, and plenty of happy plants...

So far we have,
- 3 x 550lt grow beds. 2 in a glass house, 1 out side.
- Grow beds are filled with half scoria rock and a 'drizzle' of crushed shell grit covered with clay fired pebbles. (next time I'd use just clay pebbles)
- A 9000lph pump connected to a 15min on / 45min off cycle timer.
- A 32mm HD outlet is connected to the manifold of the rain water tank(s) pump so that the fish tank can be topped up at leisure with a 'flick of the handle'.
- A 90mm storm water outlet allows any overflow to simply drain away (covered with fly wire to prevent the unexpected loss fish out onto the road.. )
- A 12v battery back up system run by a solenoid relay switch that turns on a 2000lph bilge pump to aerate the tank water only in the event of a power failure. A siren and a blue strobe operates during the power failure until turned off by an illuminated switch.
Maximum run time is 7 - 9 hours. Once power is restored, then all automatically switches back.
- A 55lpm air pump running 4 air stones for continued aeration of the tank.


Definitely the next step is pH, ammonia, DO, and 'power out' sensors connected to a wireless outlet for email and SMS notification..

But this might take me awhile..

far out man....

you didnt just get bitten by the ap bug......

you got hit by the ap bus.......


awesome system tony.....

"Definitely the next step is pH, ammonia, DO, and 'power out' sensors connected to a wireless outlet for email and SMS notification.."

Check out http://www.gsmcommander.com as an option. I've recently convinced the creator of the GSM Commander to get a new obsession He converted his indoor fishtank to grow some lettuce (and algae) and he is currently planning a much larger outdoor system.

I can't wait to hear how the Salmon go...

Damn, more positives to Tasmania hey......

I sent them an email, and within an hour had a reply.. Talk about fast..! Unfortunately they currently do not support 3G or NextG.. They said it would be too expensive currently.. Oh well.. Will look around..
Cheers
T

I haven't gotten through all of your build but it looks awesome. As for the strobe flash going, you need to increase your shutter speed so that it is faster than the strobe. than just take about 5 pictures in a row. this assumes you have a digital SLR with the ability to take sport scenes and adjust the shutter speed.

Well yeh apart from kayaking across the bay yesterday in absolute perfect weather, not another boat on the water and finding a completely deserted beach to stop and have a picnic lunch, go for a dive and spear a couple of Bastard Trumpeter, and then kayak home again.. Its not a bad place at all to live. But shhhh don't tell anyone.

In just under 4 weeks the ave fingerling weight has grown from 12gms to 36gms. Some are considerably bigger than that too. And all 79 are still going strong.

Water temps have fluctuated in the high teens, been steady at 21 for a few days at a time and even reached 24 there for one day.
Ammonia levels sit pretty much at 0.0 with an occasional spike to 0.25. Other values i.e. nitrates and nitrites are at 0.0 and have remained there for over 7 weeks now.

But happy happy days I finally have about 3 BSF larvae a day falling into my biopod bucket..! A handful of common house and garden fly maggots a day have kept the fingerlings happy, but the BSF started showing up 4 days ago.. Wooo hoo.. With the cooler weather approaching any week now, it will be interesting to see just what sort of colony (if any) I get.
T

We are a little different to most, I think

Hi Tony

Great setup
I have an air pump 120Lpm and the manifold that came with it was prety usles where did you get the taps for yours

Thanks Gabriel

Hi Tony, I love the professional way you have built your system

Wish I had of had time to visit at Xmas.

Yeah, they're gunna love those maggots Tony, and the BSF once the fish have grown a little more - nice

Oh well mate. Always next time. I'm thinking of expanding it already.. But amount of plant growth is already out stripping fish waste supply / conversion. Will be different story when the fish grow out though..!


Cheers Gabriel. Checkout http://www.aquasonic.com.au and speak with Bruce. Just let him know how many outlets you need and he'll price it up for you as a complete manifold if you like. The outlets alone were $11 each.


Chilli you should see the little mites tuck into the BSF and larger fly maggots now.! They go ballistic. Its great to see. BSF have already started to slow now the weather temp has dropped this past 2 weeks. But I'm going to turn it into a house/blow fly factory instead. At least they are reliable.

As life has it, the BSF pretty much stopped awhile ago so I have all but given up on using the Biopod for this purpose. Instead, it has now been placed down the back yard and is being topped up with fish frames, vegie scraps, and meat to harvest fly maggots. This is working a treat and far far better than BSF..

And this week I decided to go one step further and made up a hanging basket out of scraps lying around the house. With a quick hot melt glue gun, an old plant base, a meat try, and some chain, it was done in about 10 mins..

Within three days of putting some scraps in it, there are maggots galore.. The salmon have loved it. Only problem was, I lost 3 recently jumping clean out of the tank to die a horrible dry death.

So now I have netting over it as well.. Need to swap it for horticultural netting soon so they don't get stuck in it but that's for another day..