Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

@ rup

2 goldfish currently MIA ... The redfin may be feeding itself unaided


added some eggwhites to the system and now it smells kinda funky..I hope thats normal and there isn't deadfish souffle at the bottom

did a test yesterday and everything was trace finally my Ni had come down to .25ppm

and my leak (my only serious leak) has been fully plugged for 2 days now running the pump 24/7

Things are looking up ^^

you can see the insidiousness of twitter creeping into the forum...@@@@... ahhhhhhh...

Hi Fabian

I'd love to know how you go with your redfin.

My folks have got a lagoon full of them. I wanted to use them as a starter fish for my system but they wouldn't eat pellets. I tried for weeks keeping them fed with worms and they helped themselves to my minnows. In the end it was just too much hard work trying to feed them.

They are a cool looking fish though

Hey keenas,

Im about the same as you at the moment feeding it goldfish and worms from my worm farm...it definitely seems to be chowing down on the goldfish but cant be certain about the worms but I would say that it is eating them too as I cant find them when scooping the bottom.

It doesn't seem to take floating goldfish pellets..thats the only food I have at the moment

would red fin breed in a RAS system? because they do unlike trout breed in lakes etc don't they?

System update

tested today

PH - 6.8
Amm .5
Ni .25
Na 10

I had a Ni spike of 2-5+ for over a week, I gather that now it has come down I should be expecting smaller and smaller fluctuations as my flora diversifies

I commandeered 2 strawberry seedlings/plants that have been in dirt for 2 years and have produced a grand total of 0 strawberries.

and planted out the rest of the beds with celery and spinach





I am currently using mums $20 dollar a pair socks as a manual filter, that fine cotton weave makes all the difference..

and my pak choi that was looking yellow and spindly is no longer yellow as the chelated iron fixed up the deficiency but it has bolted I guess due to insufficient light.

Looking good fabian. Nice redfin too.

Hhhhmmmm interesting.
Maybe reflect some of that light from 10 feet up down to your growbeds using mirrors or some of that foam board with the reflective foil on one side.
Don't know if the reflected light will actually reflect the whole light spectrum for the photosynthesis to occur in the plants though... hhhmmmm, interesting...

thanks for the input bill, this system is backed right up against the house, so is partially shaded almost all of the time. however the band just above the system gets hammered all day, some kind of relective material would be great, although it would have to be lightweight..due to shoddy fencing.

the date has been set trout day is tomorrow heading to emerald to get b/w 10 and 15 yearlings, barring any unforseen difficulties.

I beleive the system has cycled to a point that it can cope with this if fed lightly for a time however I am slightly concerned that although the Ni spike of 2-5+ has come down to consistent trace levels, I am retaining an Am level of .5 to 1

You will be fine, just go slow on the feed and keep monitoring so there is no spike.

if all my fish die...im going to put kitty litter in your system again...^^

but really, thanks fingers crossed it all goes well.

12 rainbows in the tank now they said there were like 6-8" dunno how much that means they weigh... gave them a few pellets and they nomed em

bought 3.5kg of pellets the dude at macclesfield said they get the pellets from tassie ie Skrettings

nice one - good luck with the feeding/monitoring...

well its been 4 days..and I have lost 2 trout

levels are consistantly better and better ie lower and lower I can only guess due to better quality food

Am has been testing at .5
Ni .25-.5

only thing I can thing of is I am overfeeding them to death or the pellets are too big?

I had 12 trout @ ~100gm each and was feeding them 30gm over 3 feeds

i just randomly picked this number as i would feed until they were not taking the food voraciously anymore and it worked out to be roughly 30gm

I salted to 3ppsomething not long ago and have thrown in a few handfuls of salt as i added a few hundred liters ofwater so there is definately salt in the system..

dunno the size of pellets they just sold them to me at the trout farm but they are about the size of a pea..a big pea

any ideas?