Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Sorry to hear about your fish losses... Part of the learning process man...

Thanks for the comments...Ballarat are out, hoping Macclesfield have some mid sizers...will be nice to go for a drive on the weekend either way...

Well, got 30 yearlings form the Aust Rainbow Trout Farm - they have plenty. Not a bad size, around 125-150 grams or so so looking good. I can get back to cycling up again now. Tested the water after 1 day and the Ammonia is still low .5 - no hidden dead fish and the nitrite at .25 where it has been sitting (apart form the big spike when the fish died)- I am guessing it will stay there until this warm weather can hold. PH is holding steady at 6.6. The new residents are still a little wary and didn't feed well this morning - to be expected for a few days. Pump is on. Pump is on. Pump is on.

damn that sucks. hey were abouts in bentleigh are you? im just in ormond off north road. wierd ive got 3 chickens as well are yours isa browns?

Hi moekuc - just off Patterson road. I currently have 4 isa browns and 2 road runner bantams. I'm averaging 4 eggs a day as only 1 bantam is laying at the moment - they seem to do about 20 then have a few months off! - 1 isa brown is getting on a bit so also lays every 3+days...

Have you got a thread going of your system so far or where at you at with yours?

Cheers

Ben

ey mate well at the moment uni is getting in the way of the system progress... all ive done is gathered my materials, cut my blue barrels in half, need a few more stumps to prop up the grow beds... yeah my isa's arent laying just yet we got them about 2 weeks ago from abundant layers in emerald. so yeah looking forward to that soon. ey if your free in a couple of weeks mind if come have a geez at your system? just trying to get some better idea's before construction.

Hey no worries, PM me with your email etc, Next month I'll have a GB upgrade in place which will finish off my system nicely (I hope)

yep too easy. My 3 chooks layed 5 eggs this morning. woot! yeah ive pretty much got the same ideas as your system... blue barrels, ibc, only difference will probably be that i'll get a sump that all the beds drain into and it will be lower down to the ground probably.

I love free range home laid eggs

My set up is a little backwards than what i would do if I had more space. I have re-thought my choice to have the beds drain into the FT - but i still think I would do it again as I want the extra grow bed space. My location isn't the best and heavily shaded in winter on the back end, but still it only a few months and now is spring and the light is getting better every day! Still its the only space ive got so it will have to do

My second lot of trout are super timid, but they are eating so everything is running ok. I hope they get as active as the last lot who were feeding ravenously and boiling the water.

I've put an angle on the return from the two western GBs to swirl the tank water which is doing great. I added two lengths of pvc from the other returns which is sending around 400ltrs of the return water to the bottom of the tank. it is a straight drop from the GB above the FT so is sucking a good deal of air down and getting a pretty good bubbling effect venturi style cycling the bottom water up effectively! - i'll try to get a pick I was pretty happy with the result. I've also changed my solids filter a little to replace my hanging t-shirt filter. I'll try to get a pick of that too...

I'm getting pretty close to fully cycling. With the warmer weather, my FT seems to be 12-14deg and my ammonia has dropped to a steady .5ppm. Nitrites have risen to a steady 1ppm so I'll keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't spike higher. Its been at these levels since Saturday. I have been slowly upping the feed and the levels haven't changed much so I'll keep going at the current level which is around 1-1.25% of fish weight per day across 2 feeds. Nitrates are around 20 at the moment.

Plants are looking good but there are plenty of gaps for more...

ees goood

Hi Gang,
Have been busy busy busy so finding time for the updates has come second to falling asleep on the couch.
All going well. Had a patch of warm weather which seems to have kicked everything along nicely. On the other hand last weeks cold spell left hail damage on all leaves and seedlings.

For some reason I got excited and overfed the fishies, killing one wiht a nitrite spike. 1 days double feed took aweek to settle. 29 trout left...The dead one was 250 grams so I'm happy with that.

Got my act to gether and put in some new beds in the last of the space left. Have now got 1100ltr GB to 1000ltr FT which seems to be pretty ok. Have been in for 3 weeks now.
Usual readings are:
ph. 6.6
Ammonia .25
Nitrites .25
Nitrates 10
Pump running 15m on 1hr off or there abouts truning over about 1500 ltrs per hour
Thinking about getting some air soon...
Have some picks of the vegies. Fish seem ok, bit tempramental in the weather this week...


Had some yummy broccoli, picked the heads but left the body till the new seedlings take to keep the nitrate use up.

Skimmed the bottom of the tank tonight for a clean and scooped some fish along the way.
23, 25 and 28cm so going well. I think largest was @300gms if i had to guess.
Got a zero reading on nitrite tonight for the first time since the system started cycling. tested twice as i didn't trust it. Still have ammo at .25...happy with that!

nice system there Bonsai!!!!

plant growth looks great, Hope to see my PH come down soon and my growth go up

Looking good BB. Like the new beds a lot.

Cheers guys - you will see I went soft and got exie pebbles instead of volcanic scoria. Sooo nice on the hands though! I think they have finally kicked in/colonised which is why I have zero reading for Nitrite second day in a row. Now wish i had forked out for the beds where the barrels were from the beginning...but hey, I'm just happy its running and the fish are happy.

Cross fingers as dad is looking after things till next week as we are of to a wedding in the morning in Renmark.