Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yep it's not a fish but the bags of whale chow might give you away. On the plus side you wouldn't need to add air to the system and fish poo would be plentiful.

The Japanese whaling vessel parked out the front might give it away also

I like it. And the council just delivered two new bins, And I brought one with me so I have a spare.

It's a pity there isn't a stealth system competition running

hey bullwinkle

Now.... all I need is a fresh water whale, and four olympic sized swimming pools.

...and a gravel washing machine.

There's going to be a lot of gravel washing.

Hey BW, a yabby is not a fish, what about those?

Oh yeah

Or crayfish to go smaller. (name is deceiving, isn't it?)

I found this alien looking silver perch peaking out of the hole in the bottom of a flower pot

Hey BW, that's a teaser if ever there was one. Is there a stealth system that alien perch is hooked into for life support?

no, but I did just pass an inspection

I put the fish in my car for a few hours running an air pump via an inverter and the lighter socket in the car

They were in water, not just lying on some newspaper

I'm thinking of going with the wheely bin idea or perhaps a chest freezer. Could get a broken one for free. A freezer would explain any gurgling noises and power cords better than a bin . Either way I have 3 months now to work something out. And I'm a big fan of putting things off.

My silvers seem to be very active given the water is only 10 deg c

I think the powerhead I'm running might be a better way of keeping fish active in cold water than a heater. It seems to be keeping them feeding.

A power head is more like an outboard motor rather than a pump but moves a lot of water for not much power. This one claims 5000 litres per hour running at 12 watts or there abouts.

As you can see there is some calm water to the left and there are some even calmer areas out of frame, but the fish seem to love being in the rapid flow.

The biggest one is around 210 mm.

The missing scales on one of the fish is an injury sustained while trying to escape my efforts to catch them. They all decided to jam themselves under the broken terracotta pot I put in the FT for cover. Rather than go in through the opening, the scaled one decided to try to work under the pot.

I wonder if the powerhead heats up the water as it moves it? They do look active. I was thinking about running a powerhead as a form of backup aeration since they are much cheaper than a good air pump. Do you know if anyone has done this?



and the inspectors didn't wonder why you had the car running the whole time?

Thats what I do re backup. I run my powerhead through via a 200 amp hour deep cycle battery that I keep on a trickle charge. The power head pulls only 10 or 12 watts so I can run it always off the battery via an inverter. if the power goes out it just keeps running for ever. I get the feeling it might last for 2 days or so just from watching the voltage drop over time when I unplugged the charger.

I cant remember the maths but it might even be that 12 watts at 12 volts is one amp. if thats the case It might even last for 100 hours or more before it ran the battery too flat.

The car battery showed no sign of being flat. It wasnt running.

At my old house there were a lot of blackouts so I run a little pump off the inverter as well so there was no interruption at all when the power went off. The battery is always kept fully charged so has a very long expected lifespan. I had the battery already because I ran an electric outboard on a boat, but to buy the battery and a 200 watt inverter would cost around $250AU I think. You could get by with a smaller battery as well depending on your system.

The water temp was what I would expect so I dont think the powerhead was heating it. Also there is some law of physics that means you cant get more than 12 watts of heat out of 12 watts so I think it might be the fish warming themselves up.... How do you take a fishes temperature.

Anyone got a tiny rectal thermometer?

Thanks for the info BW. Glad this is working for you since I'd like to do something along these lines as well.