Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi folks,

Water tests for today,

Ambient Temp 13 ,wet,cold,sometimes windy & miserable.
Fish tank temp 11
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 40
Ammonia 0

Fish happy and feeding 4 times a day.

Cheers.

Hi everyone,

Water tests for today.

Ambient temp 18
Fish tank temp 11.9
Look at this Nitrites 0
nitrates 30
pH 7.7

The trout system has cycled,fish feeding 4 times a day and are happy.

Got my trout on the 5th June and my system cycled yesterday.

I want to double the size of the trout grow bed in the next couple of months,by adding three more bays onto my system like I already have,would adding another 700 litres or so have an effect on the bacteria?

Attached are a couple of photos of my trout grow bed.

The first photo is correct to the above readings,It's just the sun came out at the wrong time and cast some shade over the photo.

The last photo is just meant to show how well the plants have grown.

Cheers.

I added a 500lt GB and had no problems BD, all is looking good with the tests, good to see you stuck with it and didn't add or change anything, ammonia will always be around 0.25 - 0 and not a problem at that, Nitrate will come down eventually but nothing to worry about,
How do you get away with playing with AP and not mowing the lawn
I also notice you have a Topst Turvy in a dangerous spot, I bought 4 of them, gave one to a friend and kept 3, freind called after 3 months and said it had ripped and was useless, a week later my 3 did the same, so don't have them above GB's or chairs all broke with in a day or 2 of each other at home, as you can see they are a little undercover and only contained potting mix, no UV resistance at all
Pic

Yes, I know Nocky,

Have you ever heard of gunnadoo? well,thats me with the lawns,I hate mowing them!Really shouldn't be an issue with most normal people,as that is the only bit of lawn on the whole property!I have got my mates lawnmower under the pergola lined up ready to go tomorrow,if it stays dry for a few hours,even the whipper snipper is lined up ready to go.Then I need to tidy up the grow bed liner,then extend the grow bed sometime later.That gets added onto the other jobs,you know the barra enclosure,the trout roof and net,tidy up the pergola from all the other AP rubbish I leave around,yardy dardy dah,blah,blah,blah.

The Topsy Turvy yep,a useless piece of junk I reckon....Must take that down and throw it away soon. I like your wind chimes...

Actually thinking about the ammonia,I didn't post the result,I missed that,at the moment it is showing 0 that picture is a bit deceptive.

Thanks for your help.... it goes a long way.

Cheers.

Good to hear that the system has cycled Bigdaddy, good stuff. Mine still shows ammonia up to 0.5 some days if I have fed heavily but the next day or even later the same day its back to 0.
How big/long do you reckon your trout are now??

Hi Mantis,

Thanks for the info,

My trout would be probably about 175 now at a guess,had a close look at the water this morning and noticed it was going a bit cloudy,so I'll knock off a feed for a while and see how that goes.Are yours about the same?

Has anyone else found their water a bit cloudy like mine?

About how big are your trout now Nocky?

Cheers.

Its hard to tell how big mine are as they stay down the bottom of the tank and only come up to feed, and when they feed they are moving to quick. Might cut a 30cm lenth of something to drop in the bottom of the tank, and watch as they swim past it.
I reckon I have some that would go close to 250mm, but I only have 18 in 500L so they willk probably grow quicker than with your density, dunno.

Yeah,

I know what you mean Mantas.I took a real wild guess,I could be way out.I reckon from the tip of my thumb to the tip of my little finger is about 8-9" 200-225mm spread out,at a real rough guess,Ha,so if anyone was watching me,I looked like Crocodile Dundee hypnotizing the buffalo,or a faith healer, going up to the trout tank with my hand stretched out like that,trying to size them up. I like your idea,might try that one day.

I have the same amount of trout as you 18 in a 500 litre tank(2 jumped out), my 20 barra are in a seperate 500 litre tank.

Cheers.

They always look bigger in the tank anyhow and we all know about fisherman stories,

I meant the distance between the eyes was about 175 mm,not the length.How long do you think yours are Nocky?

BTW I did end up mowing the lawns/weeds yesterday,gave them a real short back and sides,I actually have lawn under all that after all.I'm hoping I wont have to do them for a month now.One day all the weeds will be out from behind the retaining wall at the back too and hopefully(maybe in a year or so) they will become more grow beds.I sort of have a half baked plan to get a bigger fish tank or two and expand,but we'll have to wait and see,that's another story.

Cheers.

I have no Idea how big mine are, about the 250mm I suppose, I just chuck food in at the moment and they eat it, haven't looked in the tank for a while, by the looks of them jumping I would say they are bigger than the $8.99 ones in Coles.
Yep one day all of my weeds will be gone that's 10 years I've been saying that now just can't get the missus motivated