Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I remember seeing some other big roots in a drain pipe somewhere....... Shows that it pays to pull apart the drain system every now and them

picked up the new season trout. 50 little things.

unfortunately we also discovered today that the tomato roots were a little more extensive than first thought. We know have a blockage in the drainage. Number 3 bed has to be turned off until we can figure out how to unblock it. Apparently we glued the pipes together. I know Joel has experience with this one. First warning on his DVD. Do not glue pipes together.

Yeh I wish I'd seenthat one too .......

I got mine on Saturday, mine seem to be much smaller than the ones I brought at the same time last year. How were yours?

Glue pipes that send water to sumps etc, but pipes on top of growbeds,meh
If pipe can empty system: GLUE
If pipe just deliver water to growbed etc and dont effect water level if stuffed, : DONT GLUE
Spoke from experience

Hi KE, we were thinking the exact same thing.
they seem to be getting smaller each year.

Mantis, we havent glued the pipes on top of the grow beds, just the ones going to the sump. Unfortunately the tomato roots had entered into the drain piping, along the drain underneath and then down towards the sump. Turns out they werent far off the sump at all.

The first lot removed were about a metre long. Unbeknown to us, it had broken off. We found one of the growbeds overflowing, due to a blockage. After dismantling the rest of the piping, we found another 2 metre length.

Yah fun........not

Picked up one of Monya's fish tanks yesterday. Absolutely no idea where we are going to put it, or what we are going to put in it. Seemed like a great idea at the time. Current thoughts are Silvers or yabbies. Might have to do a trip to Horsham for some stocks.

been a little while, so thought that we should put some current photos up.

Your plants look great and nice and green. I wish I had some trout to provide some nutes. Hopefully better planning next year

Yep, looking good..as always...

Yeah. I had a root mass in my drain. I just gave the drain a good blast with the hosepipe and found the root mass floating in the sump. Like a pressure cleaning. Since then I keep a careful eye on the drains. The funny thing is it can be a really tiny root that goes into the drain and then it expands into a massive root mass. When I have the hose handy I just give them all a good blasting for good measure. I guess this approach would be problematic for most people with chlorinated water from the hosepipe.

Chlorinated water is small volumes isn't too much of a problem...

Here is the pic.

Hi Brian, our system is approximately 4 years old, this was the first time that we actually checked the drain and that was only cause we were having overflowing issues. It will be one of those jobs that now becomes yearly at a minimum.

Well we got home from work today to discover that after all the rain we have had, our sump has risen out of the ground. Piping is broken. It looks more like ground water from under the sump.

Guess what we will be doing all weekend