Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Mate, I would say that he would be about 6-8 inches long, with claws?

He is table-sized, and was rescued from a fishmonger for the paltry sum of $2.50.

At 1 inch, I'm not too sure how they would integrate with the trout.

Your man Nocky seems more sagely with such matters!


BTx

Ben, this thread might help you decide in regards to keeping yabbies with trout...

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5900&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

cheers guys. ive removed the filter, afraid its going to be survival of the fittest till i get a new system sorted. plenty of hides for the little guys atm in the sump so they shouldne be sucked through . .

well had a major HSM this morning . . woke up to only 2 inches of water in the ft, and the pumps running dry.... so in with the hose and filled the ft back up again, satlted and tested the water. amm at .5, rites at .25 whew. the fish were a little stressed but seem ok now

turns out my largest yabbie had crawled into the 1" pipe joining the FT and ST, and blocked it. so i pulled him out and emptied all the yabbies out of the st. if i can find a way to stop the yabbies crawling through without blocking the poipe completely then im afraid it will be bye bye yabbies....

now just waiting a cpup[le of hours to let the chlorine off-gas and then ill start pumping again. i added some human safe neutraliser to th water so shoiuldnt take too long. oh and the pumps are on a bucket now!!!
till next time . .
Ben

Hey ben if you want to speed up the dechlorination process add an air stone to the newly filled tank or a submersible pump aimed at the surface to agitate the water.

Got 6 of them in the system
Is all fixed now, I'll post pics and descriptions later
Cheers
Ben

ok so hot it all sorted now . . . whew.
ive mounted the pump indise a bucket, with the idea that the pump will keep on sucking poo from the bottom but if the water level drops again (hopenot) it will run dry and leave about 30cm in the bottom of the tank, enough to keep the fish alive. i modeled it off what i believe is called a elephants foot suction something, which i studied alot of in my seafaring days (they use them on oiltankers)
diagram is here: (sorry for the crudeness)

here is a pic of the new gb, 3 weeks old and already picking salads

sorry that last one is a old pic
heres a new pic of the the old gb, with heaps and heaps and heaps of turnips coming through, aswell as heaps of leafy greens
a mutated strawberry . .
and funally a 3week old bukchoi, thats the 25mm polypipe next to it

please let me know what you think of my 'elephants foot', any other ways etc etc

till next time . .
Ben

elephants foot looks good! is a good idea too, should suck up solids fine, but you need a better way to deal with failures I think, this way you'd wind up losing the pump.

Chift/Pist would be a good solution, but you'd have to change your whole setup so no point.

Great growth on those veggies though, good indicator to show that all is well with your system :] and you ahven't lost a fish in a while have you? other than that yabbie

I've had major problems with fish getting into pipes, though only one instance of a blockage and overflow, try putting a power head cover, the little grating thing thats in aquarium filters as well, goes inside the sponge thing, on the cover of the pipe, won't reduce flow or allow yabbies. I'm putting the cover of an old hand orange juicer onto the bottom of my SLO and just raising it an inch so that it get all the flow it needs from the bottom and no fish can get anywhere near it.

Nice work with the system, well done :]

Hi,

New to this forum, but have been a reader of it for some time. Have to say that your system looks great mate, fantastic job and it appears you have further inspired quite a few around here.
I am looking to set up a similar system and have found a provider of an IBC container /bulka bin which I am planning to pick up this weekend. My only concern is the quality of plastic (is it toxic?) for keeping fish that I intend to eat. My supplier advises that the tanks previously held cemment, but has been steam cleaned. Do you think this would be safe enough to use. Or should I specifically shop around for an IBC tank that was previously used to contain food grade items.
Your views/opinions are most appreciated.
Cheers

James

pardon the typo, I meant to write cement (not cemment)

james: ive done some studies on plastics and toxins and personally would not touch any plastic other than food grade or fg tanks. especially one that has contains cement . .thats nasty s*^t . .

however i believt hat some people will use different plastics aslong as algae grows on them . . so maybe your better off asking one of the more experienced guys. iank in IBC Do it yourself thread is one i'd ask....


abdul: id llove to switch to a CHIFTPIST system, the benifits of having no pumps in the FT are great, but unfortunately cant till next system im working on better pump system but rather lose a pump than kill the (still not plate size) fish!!!

cheers
Ben

Ben,

Cheers for that mate, appreciate your input. I think I will have to check it out abit more. Still very much undecided as it is proving difficult to find a food grade container in Perth. If you know of any suppliers, please let me know.

Cheers

James

Ben and James -

When I was hunting for my first IBC, I too found it a real challenge to fing a food grade one.

As a compromise, I found one that had been used once, verified its previous contents and checked the MSDS, then degreased, bleached and hydrochloric acid' it, ensuring it was rinsed well and dried before use.

I set it up and ran it without a hitch!

Most general purpose IBC bladders are made out of HDPE - high density polyethelene. HDPE is impervious and wont allow chemical ingression. Check out the properties of PE's HERE...


BTx

BT

Thanks very much for that info, great help - cheers.

James