Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

P.S .... brickies lime is probably a bit stronger.... so if you use it at some stage... go lightly...

Roger that.
Decided today that my standpipes were to high as I could see water down in gravel so chopped them back about 25mm. Cant see water now.
Washed top of gravel and picked out all leaves and crap.
Put in seeds of broad beens, snow peas and spinich as I had seeds lying around.

Pulled out sheets of white Corru. iron in bottem of FT today. I thought I lost a fish under it from trying to get goldfish out.
Man what mess that made the FT turned black with all the crap from under it. The missing goldfish turned up alive but there was another fish stuck to bottem of sheet, almost completly decomposed.
Time for complete water change, I was thankful of having my old tethered float pump and was able to quickly dump FT and refill.
Salted 1ppt, tried to scoop as much crap out with net as poss and went of to Kids birthday with fingers and toes crossed.
Got back this arvo and all good.
Water temp 24 deg this afternoon.
All other water params,
rites 0
Ammonia 0
Ph 7.6
Touch and go times, I wont be putting sheets back in.

All still good, no deaths from black muck and sudden water change.
Cant see bottem of FT now. Can only see Koi, the rest of the fish just blend into the black coloured tank.
When I buy a couple of IBCs I plan to empty FT and sink it into the ground about 600mm so that I can use its whole volume.
When empty I was thinking I might paint bottem with light coloured paint.
Does anyone know of a light coloured paint or pond sealer that would be Ok to use.

Anyone know what bugs these are? I sprated with dipel last night but missed a few.
And the black bug with orangeish stripes. I left it on plant as I didnt know if he was a goody or a baddy..

I am almost certain that the black bug with orange stripes is a ladybug instar... so leave that one alone... and the first photo seems like you have some aphids... which is food for the ladybug... so it is really your choice... if you remove too many aphids, then there is no food for the ladybug...

I do have Ladybugs so sounds like your your right, is an instar the stage before thr ladybug stage?
Cheers Ivan.

yup, the little black bug is a ladybird baby.. i've got a few now myself, quite happy to see the little buggers eatin the aphids!

Cool.

Good bugs are at work there Skipd
Ladybird larva if you are really lucky you might get a photo of the larva eating an aphid, they can eat up to 400 in there lifetime, so I am told, not sure who counted them?

Went to BYAP shop today and bought a refractometer and a couple of mags.
The magazines are great, full of interesting stuff.
The shop continues to look better and better. The plant growth you guys have is awesome.
Keep up the great work people.

Strange that the stage before a lady bug should be another kickarse predator thing like a lady bug. Everything else seems to have a slug shaped stage.

It looks like it would have been cheaper to just grow wings and stick with the original body rather than do the change into a 3d cartoon looking thing.

Dont get me wrong, I'm all for extravagance in nature, and now ladybugs are officially my favourite bugs.

oh yeah, those lady bug larva are really something.. they look like a little miniature alligator with coloring really the opposite of the mature bug.. black bodies with orange to read body markings.. wish i could kept track of how they came out!

I've seen them before but thought they were little spiders.

Should have done a leg count.

Hi Yall,
Its been a while. My system seems to have stabilised since loosing a few SP.
Lack of airation being the problem as I saw it.
After much consideration about changing fish and getting barra and trout rotation I have come back to thinking of just running SP year round.
I havnt eaten any yet but my initial stock are now pretty much eating size and look nice in tank with my Koi.
I recon I will get another 30 SP to bring my fish numbers up to around 50 for my 1700 lt FT and 1100 lt GB., (and try to keep this number constant.)
After my galv scare I am now not so fussed. I think maybe I will keep existing system in same location but buy IBC to use as temporary FT and re treat FT with a cream coloured pond paint from Crommlens (I am pretty sure that it exists).
This will give tank extra galv protection and make it easier to see fish.
I will probably give the existing system another year and see how it goes without the messing about that I have subjected it to thus far.
An increased and stable fish number should help a fair bit hopefully.
I would still like to do another system but have many other house jobs to get done.