Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

It depends on how your going to access the sump if you need to

Yeah Gnash.. That would be a problem now! I am going to put the tank in what is now the corner of my new Greenhouse . I have got walls and a basic roof structure up. need to figure out the door and windows on both sides but at least its a good start. I figure I will grow out tilapia over winter and then put them in the big system in summer where they can get really big. Then when winter comes I go back to trout in the big system and keep with the tilapia in the greenhouse system again. I will start a new thread for the greenhouse system. I'll call it 'Brian's greenhouse system'. I only have 20 of the 30 trout left. I have baked, fried, roasted, smoked and grilled and all where great. The veg is doing very well but the seedling success has been very poor. I am using a whole bunch of old seeds though so not too sure. I will probably use the greenhouse to propagate seedlings and then plant them out in the system. I am planning on doing cucumbers and tomatoes in the greenhouse.

here are some pics

Made some saur-kraut with the cabbage. Here are some more pics of the greenhouse.

Looking good Brian, you going to give the greenhouse a glass roof I take it?

And why din't you go for a hoop house of some sort, not a lot of brick greenhouses I seen around, its because of the wind ainnit?

Hay Brian, been a while since I caught up on your system.

Several posts back you mention putting a fish tank over a sump and the picture didn't look like you would have much room to access the sump. Probably a bad idea. You need to be able to get into it enough to swap pumps and such if there is a problem. Inaccessible tanks or spaces around a system can become a problem, especially if there are ever any rodents around. (I learned this the hard way.)

Your photos are tagged with "Judes Birthday" If I spent my wifes birthday building a green house I think I would have to start sleeping in it!

Hi tcl. Yip I have ditched the idea of the sump over the tank. I am going to put the tank in the corner next to the sump. The pics where just labeled judes birthday because that's what most of the pics where in that batch on the camera when I downloaded them. Rodents abound in this place so I am going to make all areas accessible!
I have started building a deck over the big sump. I need to get it done as soon as possible before the summer sun turns the system to pea soup. I have now only got 20 trout in the system. Next season I need to put about 300 trout in as soon as temps allow. And then harvest half or them when they are plate size which should be around mid winter. The rest I can grow out more. The system seems almost devoid of fish with only the 20 trout in there. I prefer the fish when they are smaller, they are a little tough when they are very big. Still great though.

I have made a more satisfactory road kill processor. It is a plastic tote with a red top fly catcher fitted to the lid. This allows flys in but not out. About 5 inches from the bottom of the tote there are some bigish holes where flys can escape. But they escape into a net skirt which hangs from above the escape holes down to a floating pipe ring on the surface of the tank. The theory is that all flies entering the trap and all flies that breed out in the tote and all maggots land up in the bellies of the trout. I will post some pics soon. And I will let you know how it works out.

I had some guests over for the weekend and we had Hot smoked trout with coleslaw salad and baked beetroot and spinach with rice for dinner. All but the rice and other condiments came from the ap system. . The trout where very big and we had two trout between five people. Some pics.

Sorry got that pic sideways! Here is a better pic of the greenhouse so far.

So how is the smell around the roadkill processor?

I'm finding our BSF bins a bit pungent for my liking though the smell is really only bad when you open them up.

I've noticed that the ducks and chickens spend a lot of time under the BSF bins scratching around and looking for the escaped larva that have dropped to the ground.

Well it smells! But it is not too bad... Fortunately we have pretty reliable wind directions here. Either south east or north west and the house lies pretty much south west of the system so it is never downwind of the ap system. I think if I had a small garden I would not do it. It is much better than the open tub I had before in terms of smell. It does however work well as a fly trap and there seem to be less flies around the workshop and system since I put it up. It's amazing how many different kinds of critters come to feast and lay their eggs, and how long the carcasses keep producing creepy crawly things.

I have a bucket out with kitchen scraps to see if I get any BSF. Not sure that we get them here. so far just loads of midges around it.

here are some pics of the sump with its cover. The floor is really strong and my plan is to have some additional growbeds on top of the sump. This will be very convenient as they can just be drained directly down into the sump. The water temps are rising rapidly! The trout days are now numbered. I am wondering how high temps can go before the trout start to suffer. I have heard 27 degrees. Here are some pics of the cover.

Looking real good Brian nice work on the sump lid

Ok. It's getting hot here. temps reached 21 the other day in the tank. I am going to need to turn my attention to shade soon . I also have an iron deficiency. Got some chelated iron powder but have no idea how much or how to add it.