Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well today i spent the day making the Perch system, as iv got trout coming on Tues.

System is Purely for wintering the perch through, minimal feeding, will be heated a bit after i insulate it, but this wont be needed until i start seeing temps below 10c.

3 Barrel system, 2 x 200l and 1 50l.

1 barrel is setup as the FT, has an external SLO pipe with a 50mm internal pipe running along the base of the tank with 8mm holes in it.

the next is full of media from one of my Exsisting GB's (this allowed me to fix the leak in the gb) and i filled it with water from the AP system.

the 3rd barrel holds the pump and will be filled with BIO Balls when they arrive (ordered 200 26mm balls) Might even fill another tub up with bio balls if needed.

iv thrown about 10 perch in there today to make sure the barrels wernt habouring any nasties, salted to 2ppm and running pump solid, its a 3000lph pump but its old n nackered so i reckon its doing around 1000, will bring the pump back on a timer as i play with it and keep an eye on levels, got a basil plant in the to soak up some ates, going to put somthing on top of the tank too maybe....

How are you going to stop the bio-balls from sucking against the pump.... and degrading the (apparantly) already low flow???

And ten perch is probably as many as you could fit in there anyway... provided they were small....

Heating the tank once it reaches 10 degrees... isn't going to do cooee.... the silvers wont feed below 12 at all and hardly until over 15-18.....

You'd be better off putting them in an aquarium inside...

i know sweet FA about keeping silvers but looks great jamie
perhaps you could stick it in the laundry??

You have to insulate all of the barrels, and probably the pipes as well. A 300w heater would keep it at perch happy temps then.

If you only want them to survive, and not grow, why are you doing this at all? They may as well stay hooked up to the trout tank. It just seens to add more chance of failure by trying to keep them in a system that is not actually needed, and using a crappy pump..?

My trout and silver systems are joined, and the perch are fine down to 5 or 6 degrees.

Niiice double post lol

Agreed... just might as well go with the flow and nature... otherwise you need to throw a bit better equipment and a lot more money at it to make it worthwhile...

And for ten silvers... is it worth it...

Seriously... a heated 200L+ aquarium inside would be a much better option...

I guess i should have explained what size the fish are that are going in there.

the silvers i got in late JAN have barely grown due to low temps here in bendigo, there still in between 25mm and 35mm fingerling range, the bigger silvers have been moved to my display, they were so tiny when i got them, the lot before them were 30-40mm when i got them and had solid temps to get them through, since late jan my temps have been under 17 every night (besides 2-3 nights here n there when we had a little heat) and iv seen it upto 25 twice.

there will be around 30 small fingerlings in there, its a halfway house for the time being as were going to be moving house soon. Warming the tank is mainly due to the fact that iv heard that small silvers wont handle the cold too well so keeping it above 10 was to mainly keep them alive.

As for the pump.... it runs well its been in the main FT just pushing water around to make a whirlpool, its my initial pump and the flow has just died right off as soon as you introduce any head. iv got a shed full of pumps i could use but it does the job recycling.

I agree that an indoor aquarium would be a much better idea but space at the moment is scarce, the initial plan was to use the IBC on my main system in my Garage, setup a lot of filtration on it and heat it (as its already insulated) and buy a 2000L tank for outside, but theres not much point in doing anything until we move. and the garage houses a KIA grand Carnival, 5 bikes, 5 scooters, 5 kids worth of sporting equipment, all my stock, and my tools....... there is 0 room to setup an indoor system.

New house will have a descent sized shed where i can setup a descent indoor system. have plenty of space for stock and equipment and do it all right.

Roger, I see.

Good short term plan then.

Well seems to be working well so far, temp is fluxuating from 18c in the morning to 25 in arvo, guessing the media is holding the heat for over night. it gets full sun all morning 8am-midday.

fish are feeding, i'm only feeding lightly Ammo n Ites are 0.

is it hydroton jamey?

I recon 7 deg fluxuation is too much try and aim for less than 4 deg

Nah blue metal from my first GB in the big system.

Cheers milne, was trying to find some info on that. Going to Wrap some Batts around the tanks tonight see if they can hold in some heat, and some out during the day.. going to grab a aquarium heater tomorrow and see if i can try get it too sit around 20-22 all the time.

cool, i was going to sugest that a denser heavier rock will absorb sunlight and retain it better

Yeah thats why i thought to use BM, as the water heats up during the day it will hold in the temp over night, When i get the new IBC im going to hopefully move it all into the garage cos the house move might be held back til the End of Year, just gotta get some more space saving ideas for the whole garage.

System has been in the garage for a month or so now and the temps are constant... sits on about 14c without the heater going

however.

Silver Perch Still going stong, water temp is constant 20c with a 300w heater in there.

Added 23 Jade babies today from Livefish.com (2 were DOA which can be expected with a 48h transit time)

Didnt get photos as i wanted them in the water asap due to lack of oxygen....

will get some photos soonish.