Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey all,

I walked into BYAP in Jandakot by accident about 6 months ago (thinking it was the office for the soils bussiness next door) and noticed the aquaponics systems there. The lady showed me around and how everything worked etc..

After a few months and a bit of research, I decided to get myself started on AP. Although some things worry me like balancing ph, amonia nitrites etc.. Anyway, instead of worrying too much and talking myself out of it, I figured that I'd just ask help on the forums if I run into any troubles.

Got myself a 3000L tank and two grow beds and the necessary pipeworks from BYAP for now.. Will be adding more grow beds later on, but thinking of starting with two.

G'day Jerlin, Good to see you made it on here... Thats the best bet, jump in and get started...

Hi,

I put a few goldfish (bronze comets) in my tank to start things up a bit, but all apart from one died overnight. Two things that comes to mind that could have gone wrong was the water temperature, and chlorine in water.

The water was freezing cold in the morning. So could be that they froze to death? I let the water sit (in the tank) for about a day before I put the fishes in. Thought that would have been ok for the gold fishes.

I havent tested the water for anything else. And havent set up grow beds etc yet as I am waiting for some stuff to happen (tradies to lay pavement).

I thought I'd get some dechlorinator, and water testing kits tomorrow. and try again with some more bronze comets later in the week. Pls let me know if anyone have any suggessions for me..

Thx

Don't dechlorinate, just run the system for a few days, then test the water.

You may find that your pH or water temperature was very different from the water the fish initially came from.

A floating thermometer is a quick and cheap well to tell what your water temps are Jerlin and a handy thing to have, especially if you are keeping trout or thinking abour Barra. Usually goldfish are pretty hardy, that does seem very sudden and not something that we hear happening .

Oh yea..need to get a thermometer. I'll hold off on dechlorinating then and run pumps on and off for a week before I put any more fish. Thx for the response

Hi guys,

I need something to cover the holes in the bricks and possibly have a platform sort of thing to sit on. I was thinking maybe I can stick a long plank of timber on it. Problem is, I cannot think of any timber that is good for this. If I put normal pine wouldnt it start to rot after a while? And if I use treated pine, wouldnt it leech toxins into the Fish tank?

Could someone point me in the right direction as to what timber I can saftely use on top of the fish tank? I've ruled out the possibility of having cement pavement cappings on them. (I dont like it..)

Please excuse the asthetics of the brickwork.. Youtube was the only help I got..

jarrah would be nice or any hard wood really

dont wait to get fish get the pump going on whatever cycle you want and just let it go, possibly lookinto the option of fishless cycling (search the forum)

looking good though

Ohh and the test kit is really handy

CHeers
pete

thx pete..Hmm so jarrah wont rot after a few months or rain on it?

The pump is on a 15min per hour timer.. got a lot of tiny feeder fishes in there(tiny enough to go through the pump sometimes..) And also 3 10cm silver perches who are testing the waters to see everything is ok before I can put barra in the summer.

Also got test kits from byap the other day

Note on the dechlorinator, don't be ever tempted to use it. Most of the dechlorinators are not suitable for fish meant for human consumption.

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk

Jerlin,

Not sure if it is available in Australia, but a get wood that will take close to 50 or 60 years to rot (if ever) is cypress! It is use mainly in the southern part of the States here in the Gulf coast areas due to the property of resisting any type of rotting. Only catch is it is rather pricey even in those areas here in the US.

Welcome and I LOVE your system setup, BTW!!!

Hey thx..glad you liked it

Welcome,
Regarding a cover, do you want to walk on it ? if so, then jarrah is the way.
I built a Jarrah cover over my tank using seconds decking timber from Gunns Timber Welshpool (orrong rd). I did a beam across the centre. and put hinges from the centre diving the cover into quarters, it's a solid cover, and i (100kg +) can walk on it to prune an olive tree. it's quite insulating in summer too.

I started just over a year ago, and my first 6 months was a bit painful.
When your starting out, you must do some simple things to get going.

1. Use seasol every few days, diluted with water, in your tank maybe a capful diluted in a bucket, I'm certain someone else will correct me with the quantities !

2. You must put in some Iron Chellates diluted in water and

3. Put in some Trace elements (buy a box of each from the big green store starting with B).

4. I used bore water, and had to put in pool acid to fix my pH. I now ignore my pH, haven't tested for months.

5. A couple of goldfish simply isn't enough, you'll need some silver perch, I held off my fish hoping to get Barramundi, don't bother with Barra or Trout when your starting out.

6. Silver Perch are great, hardy, but very shy, I only lost 1 fish (out of 100 fish) in my 3000lt tank, probably due to stress during transportation.
I bought mine in two batches from Cary Nagle up in Gidgegannup, great guy to deal with.

I now have some Perch that I'm about to harvest which would be easily 30cm probably 40cm.
they all grow at different rates as some are only about 15cm.

PM me if you want some more info.

Hey Phred, thx for the info.

Initially I wanted to make a seat like thing over the top of the brick with the jarrah, but making a tank cover with jarrah sounds good too. I'll be looking into it soon.

I've been running this with fishes for about 6 weeks now(about 40 minnows and a few silver perch). I didn't have a testing kit when I started but I have one now.. Even with all the small fishes, and feeding them 2 times daily my readings are

Ammonia - 0.25
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 0

Hence I'm thinking that maybe its not properly cycled yet? I'll be adding some seasol in from tonight onwards for a while.
Other than that, fishes seem to be ok.. water is getting a slight algal bloom but not a lot. maybe those minnows and few silverperch dont poop enough to cycle the 3000l tank

Anyways, I'm not in any rush. let it take as long as it needs to get sorted out.

You don't really HAVE to do those things though Phred...

Cut back a bit on your feeding and keep it to a minimum Jerlin till you see your system cycling and your ammonia and nitrites drop down.