Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

try this for a starter

swedish fact sheet with links
http://www.frammandearter.se/0/2english ... mykiss.pdf
AU report
http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/frr/frr130/frr130.pdf
US manual
http://www.aces.edu/dept/fisheries/educ ... ztrout.pdf
IMO you should do fine with RT

If your water temp is 23 without an airpump making te water boil, your trout will die

It's not water temp you need to worry about. It's the lack of DO as the water temp rises.

one more
Danish
http://www.aqua.dtu.dk/upload/dfu/pulik ... ark-v2.pdf

last season I made it through to December with my trout (southern hemisphere) My water temps where hitting 26 degrees and I only had the water splashing in on the 30min pump cycle. Pretty good aeration when the pump was on but nothing for the 45mins when off. Eventually a trout with a mouth deformity died and I panicked and harvested all the rest. Apparently the mouth deformity made that trout unable to force enough water through its gills, like it could if the mouth was able to close properly. This year I am going to see if I can get through the summer with a few trout. I now have extra aeration in the tank so should be fine. The local trout supplier said that 28 degrees was the max temp for the trout. Also different strains of trout can tolerate different temperatures depending on where they come from.

Now that is what im affraid of. These fish live in 9-13C water all year round...

Well if you dear look towards aqua culture as for the fish part of your AP operation,
you will find/see that the optimal temp is considerd 16-19 deegre C.
There is a few strains that can tolerate a slightly higer temp. documented (africa), and still bee fed/gain growth over 19C
However the RBT you can get hold of will be european?
So don't worry, just stop feeding at 18-20 deegre C, and keep a good look/watch at the DO iff/when the temp peeks.

Cheers

the last 24 hours was:

temp outside: 14 - 29 C
temp inside: 17 - 28 C
water(to of FT): 19,5-24 C

Ready to take a tour with me?

HSM yesterday

Its a daily routine to give some food for our two bunnies and to check is everithing is all right in the greenhouse, which I do every morning shortly after waking up while the rest of the family is just awaken.

Yesterday we where late, so I missed my early morning tour that I use to do, instead right before leaving home, Idid it with my kids.

So just like regular the bunnies got their share of food and water, than I headed for the aquaponics. I walked into the greenhouse like I do every morning, and my heart stopped when I saw the catfish lieing ont the floor between the two sumps.

- I newer saw him comming close to the surface, or doing a quick move.H ow could he jump out? These run through my mind fist.

I took an other step towards him, while my heart was doing ower 200. The skin was silky, so he should have been out for a while, but he was breating.

An other step and I realized, that he was damaged, and bleading on the lower jaws and on the tail as well. Something catched him!

I heared stg and turned by instincts backwards facing the open door I just entered. Just in time to see the back of the bastard... A cat!

A mid sized cat, about 2 kg-s pulled my 1,5 kg catfish out. From the bottom of the 40cm deep sump that is full of water.

I grabed the fish and put him back to the sump. How the hell the cat made him to come to the surface? How could hit grab the fish and pull it out?

Quick check on the fish, he is breathing, he is in an abnormal posture, cant see how bad is the damage. But we must leave soon as the whole family is late already. I decided to give him some time to see if he can make, and check back on him by noon.

I closed the door of the greenhouse, and blocked it with so it wont open.

My whole day was ruined, I could hardly concentrate on my work. I was full of unanswered questions...


I got home shortly after noon and found the catfis floting abnormal but still breathing... That was the worst I could imagine.

I quickly decided to release him from his pains. My father was around and helped to processing him. It was a pain. I wanted to stay away from him so I could kill him. But he was my only fish and after loosing so much fish he was a hero for staying allive, it was so hard to see it suffering.

I know he was 1557gr when I bought him, but I forgot to measure him, so I dont know if he gained some weight or not in the last 5 weeks. The injuries that he had when I go him where completely gone, the meet, grills and all the internal organs looked absolutely healty. My father has cleaned some catfishes, he said he newer saw such a clean and healty one.

I got the fillets and the liver, my father decided to take the rest for a tasty fishsoup.

Its my fault, I saw the cats going in and out but never thought the yould catch such a big fish... With this assault, the status quo with neighborhood cats is over... no tresspassing on my lawn.


I organized 50 trout last week, but i can only pick them up next weekend. Till then, we go fishless again

Ahh that sucks, well it just shows that cats will always be cats, they love to hunt! My cat here hunts from my mouth whenever i eat something he tries to snatch it from my hands with his sharp claws.
Don't feel too down, install a net door to prevent these things to happen and don't be angry on the cat. You'll have a system full of trout soon enough!

Stay good!

Its been for a while since my last photos, Time to show some.

Tomorrow its fish day. The whole family will go topick up the trouts. I have bought an other IBC, and borrowed a may father in law's car and trailer. The fish are 10-12 cms so 50-60 litersof water is not enough this time.


These are the current system data.

ph:6,5
am: 0,25
no2: 0
no3: 80
water temp: 18C
indor temp: 21C (8 am)
outdoor temp: 17C (8 am)




Its now clear that my initial panting system is a failiure. The place became a jungle

I had to get rid of aprox half of the tomato trees as they overtook the whole place. What you see on the west wall and on the back side is 1 + 3 bigtomato trees.

After long searching and calculating options finaly stay with the barrels for thermal mass, they are the best price/value. The 220l would be better but they dont fit the space, they are too big. The 30-50l cans are way too expensive. I found a source of used 120l barels, for a good price, I ordered 18 and I already have 6 of my own.

Put the first 4 in place, 20 more to come. They will cover the whole north wall.

We had a long day yesterday. We had a hard start, with nothing going as it should have, but than it straightened out. We had a nice family day and brought home 50 fish without loss.

The fishery http://pisztrangtelep.hu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29&Itemid=42 had a full house, on sunday.

But they where very kind and friendly. I bought 50pcs of 10-14cm fingerlinks of RT.


Their water is 12C all year and ph 7,8. We had a 2hour trip back home, my inverter gave up 50km-s from home, but we made it without problem. The water heated up to 18C.

We are having extreme weather again. The daily top temp was 31C yesterday, with a daily low of 16C, and the forecast says it will stay an outher 4-5 days. I have to do everithing to keep the system as cool as possible.

The system was 21C and ph 6,5 so it was not very hard to transver the fish to the system, it took about two hours.

The night came quickly yesterday, it was too dark to take a picture of the new ones.

Today morning I got out early. The system was 18C I added about 500l of well water to the system, as a replacement. The well water is 12C and ph 8 it helps to lower the temp.



If the temp is bellow 20C they might get some food this afternoon.