Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

HI Arbe, I read somewhere else on the forum that you did not like the Trout you ate. You might try one cooked with out all the other stuff so you can determine what it tastes like. I like fish cooked in butter and tiny bit of salt. Just clean it, butter it up, and salt to taste, roll up in a tin foil and throw it on the fire or in the oven for a bit and eat it right off the fire while it is still hot. That should give you a clean taste of the fish.

hi arbe,

would that BB filter work with just gravel in it do you think?

Fabian,

That was my original plan but I didnt think it would be all that easy to move if needed. I was also lucky enough to get hold of some bio blocks.

You could also use shade cloth, bio balls, off cuts of poly pipe or what ever you can get your hands on which gives a large amount of surface area for the bacteria to colonise.

If I was able to start again I would put it in line (between the fish tank and growbeds) rather than how it is currently configured.

thanks arbe

might have a shot putting one in, unfortunately I dont think I'd be able to put it inline either..but we'll how it goes

Thanks for the tip Donone.

Good luck with your filter Fabian.

Here are the fish I ate a couple of weeks ago - slack aren't I!




Largest one was about 20cm without its head and weighted about 125 grams gutted etc.

Might try some more this weekend if I can get a new net - broke the handle on mine the other day chasing them around and then the dog got hold of it and chewed the net. Darn dog!

Came home tonight and found these:





Sorry about the quality of the pics. It was dark and I was trying to hold a torch and camera at the same time.

The first two pics I think show a dragonfly which has recently emerged from its nymph stage.

If it is still there in the morning I will try and get some better quality pics.

My son tells me he has seen quiet a few dragonflies around lately.

We get heaps of them over here in Central Victoria in summer... my kids love them!

Im not sure what they eat or that but they allways hang around my AP im guessing for a drink of that Pure water!!

I was at a frog/insect eating plant shop/hippy's house, and he said dragon fly larvae ate his tadpoles. I'm guessing they eat all kinds of water critters. I doubt they are any danger to fish or anything.

And the guy was clearly crazy so I'm not sure how much weight we should give his expertise

I love dragon flies. Nature's helicopter. And those little wasps that pull aphids off your plants. I can watch hovering things for hours for some reason. Anything that can hang in space totally motionless is pretty impressive. Even in a breeze.

I watched them at my old house dipping their tails into the dam water (laying eggs I think).

The larvae swim like seals and would have made much better "sea monkeys" than brine shrimp.

The larvae are almost as interesting at dragonflies to watch.

the larvae will eat small tadpoles when it's bigger, even minnows!

Cool, coming out of your sump tank I guess? I don't think they would last long in your fish tank.

arbe was there a reason for eating the trout when they are this small? I think mine are roughly the same size but it seems like a waste eating them at this stage

Just thought we would try some. Plus I think I have too many for my amount of filtration. I started with 100 trout and have 1700 litres of filtration.

1 has jumped out, I have given 15 away and eaten 6 so I now should have 78 left (providing none have eaten each other) so I should now have adequate filtration.

Ah ok

As we are getting closer to the end of trout season and I have a few still quiet small I would like to try and 'fatten' them up, however my ammonia and nitrite levels seem to increase to levels which concern me.

My system is approximately 6 months old so it may not be fully cycled.

I have 78 trout with approximately 1700 litres of filtration. Currently running constant flood.

Lately when I feed over a few days the ammonia and nitrite get to between 1 and 2 where I stop feeding until they reach 0. This could take 2 - 3 days.

I dont think I am feeding too much as the fish eat all that I put in the tank. They are very aggressive when hitting the food too. You can even hear them jump out of the water when you walk past the tank as if they are saying feed me.

My pH is approximately 7.6 and yesterday the water temp got to 18 (celcius).

The feeding pattern since last Wednesday (28/09) has been:
Wednesday: 3 handfuls
Thursday: None
Friday: 3 handfuls
Saturday: 2 x 3 handfuls
Sunday: 2 x 3 handfuls
Monday: None

There is no excess food. I have salted which should help with the Nitrite.

Any suggestions? Ideas? Any more information needed?

Arbe, don't think there's much you can do other than wait as the system matures - you should be able to handle that load of trout next year.

Sounds like a long time but it's really only six months before we look at putting trout in again.