Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Salt crystals could "burn" the fish if it happen to rest on it.

Good on you Brett! Nice little gem of a system.
Are you seeing any silt build up against the pipe on the FT floor? Or does the pump get everything out?

Rick

Thanks Rick! Many an hour is being lost watching the fish.

There is a red layer on everything from the clay balls, but I can live with that. The water is crystal clear and the fish are feeding well.

The ammonia has started to rise slightly so will test before I feed and maybe cut back till the GB catches up.

Here's a short video showing the fish feeding and swimming around.

I usually run the system as a flood and drain 15min on and 30min off. This mornings ammonia test showed it had risen to .5 so I changed it over to a constant flow with an auto siphon to get some extra water through the GB. Just did another water test and it has come down closer to .25.

Enjoy.

Looks as if my system is starting to cycle.

Ammonia - .25
Nitrite - .25
Nitrate - 7.5
PH 8.0

The ammonia was .5 yesterday with no trace of Nitrite and the last time I tested Nitrate it was 5.0 and had been at that since the 1st water test.

Just need to get the Ph down, hopefully that will happen by its's self, so plan to leave it alone for a little longer before I start trying other methods.

Water temp was a little cold this morning at 12˚c so the silvers weren’t to interested in the food. luckily the Gold Fish were there to clean it all up.

I'm a happy camper today!

Guess how bought a some new video editing software today!!
What usually takes me 15min's in iMove took most of the day in Final Cut Express, but learnt a heap in the process.

It might be a little over the top but hey if you've got why not flaunt it!

Let me know what you think?

nice video decal :] I especially like the kitty at the beginning.

cool vid.The bell syphon looks great. Any chance of a vid of that in action.

Great news mate, it's a big pat on the back moment when that happens

Dui

That's my helper/great hunter Oracle and that's him hard at work while there are pigeons in the chicken pen and black birds in the veggie garden.
He has doing nothing down to an art!

Just heading interstate for work till Friday, when I get back will do a video on the siphon set-up.

Hi Dui,
Glad to see you back on-line and back in the game!

Thanks for the pat! Feeling good I haven't lost Amy fish yet, the test will be this week being away and having the wife and a friend feeding till I get back.

As long at they do not over feed I think it should be all good.

Been up in Sydney most of last week leaving the system in the hands of whom ever has been staying in the house this week.
Came home yesterday and did a water test with no issues at all, Ammonia .25, Nitrite 0 Ph still a little high at 8.0.

I bought it down before I left with some lemon juice but it is back up again, hopefully will come down as it starts to cycle properly.

For those into cars and can not make it to Sydney for the Motor Show this year here's a look at the Ford Stand. The reason there is a camera boom and equipment on the floor, I took this just after we had done the media show on Friday morning. We were 1st of the rank at 8am.

I didn't have anything to do with the build I was just at the Motor Show to run some slides for the presentation, I had spent the rest of the week doing some other shows attached to Motor Show for Ford.

Enjoy.

Have spent the week doing battle with my PH, is has been as high as 8.2. I can get it back to 7.8 with the juice of half a lemon but it only stays down for 24hrs and then it's back up again.

Looks if I have it holding at 8.0 but not sure if I should keep fiddling or leave it and see what happens?

Guessing the fish would prefer I left it alone?

Here are some pics of how things are progressing.





I'm a bit disappointed with plant growth but I guess it will happen as the fish get bigger and the weather keeps warming up.

The strawberries, zucchini, cucumber and basil all look very un-well, I think that is from the 2ppm of salt I put in early on.

Just did a water test and have the following:
Ammonia 0 - .25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0 - 5
PH 8.0

I have been feeding pretty heavily so the system is doing it's job.

The water was as high as 21˚c yesterday with over night temp at 18˚c, today it has dropped back to 16c with a bit of cooler weather and the rain.

Also today at 'B' I bought this Little Sucker with some birthday money.



Thought it might come in handy if I needed to clean the bottom of the FT, for $29.95 thought it was worth putting in the tool box?

I had some visitor today come and have look at our system, they were from CERES a community environment park based in Brunswick. They run an Aquaponics course and have a couple of systems set up there too. This is a link to their web site http://www.ceres.org.au/greentech/aquaponics.

They are enthusiastic group with lots of questions and all seemed a bit overwhelmed with where to start. Spent about 20 min to half an hour at my place as they looking a few other systems on this side of town.

The course leaders were Stephen Mushin and Dr Wilson Lennard, it was good to have some one else come and look at our set-up and I was able to ask some questions too.

Dr Wilson thinks my PH is so high (8.0) due to having the shell grit in the system and will continue to be high until it all dissolves. Unfortunately for me I mixed it in with the clay balls so I can not easily take it out to see if it helps?

Also he is against adding salt to the FT and thinks the fish should be taken out and treated in separate tank so as not to compromise the water going to the plants. I sort of agree but trying to catch 25 SP fingerlings in a 1000l tank with out stressing them to death is another thing.

A couple of the students were getting a little stressed about Ammonia and Nitrate levels, but as I said the fish are quiet hardy especially if you start with gold fish and the best thing to do is just start.

Also had the test system running with the Affnan auto siphon running which went down very well.

I hope they learnt as much from as me as I learnt from them being there.

Will have to stop past CERES soon and have a look, I drive past it a couple of times a week.