Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi folks....great to be on board, great to see so many amazing systems. I thought I'd add a little by showing what I'm doing. It's not impressive by any means and isnt meant to be, but hopefully it will teach me some of the practical side of this science in preparation for a system capable of feeding myself, wife, dog, parrots, reptiles and the odd hungry happen byer.

Added a couple of pics to show how basic this is and whats happening with it.

Its a bathtub that I have been keeping a Murray river short neck turtle in since he was a tiny pet shop acquisition a few years back...hence my start up water probably already had some degree of nitrification taking place. Anyway started with the green tub as seen on top, built an affnan type siphon that works a treat, dropped in an 'el cheapo Bunnings pump which I covered the water take up end in shade cloth to stop fish being sucked in and leaves etc. I soon found the dirty water blocked the intake with debris....erm, as well as the slow passer-by fish. Overstocked with 50 small feeder fish and 20 small gold fish....probably overkill, but what the hell I can always remove some to another tank.....probably my 5000L rainwater tank thats not used on my country property....my future AP FT. All it does at the moment is breed mossies and water some of the local parrots.

Anyway, I have a tendency to go about things ass up, its a rare personality disorder I have that somehow drives my desire to see what happens when things are not conducted in the orthodox manner. So, instead of waiting for the system to mature (cycle) I added plants right away, thinking at least if they had water they shouldnt die off during the cycling phase, and they havent, although nearly all the new leaves on one of the tomato plants were yellow until the nitrates kicked in. Its been nearly a month now and things are well into the cycling phase.

I had a panic earlier this week when I didnt know about un-ionised vs ionised ammonia...eeeek! I thought my total ammonia reading was the actual reading....so dumped water 3 days in a row, until I read that I need to convert that reading into the harmful un-ionised form....well, no panic needed, the levels were never that high. I stopped feeding for 3 days too. I added 100g of sea salt yesterday as the water was way too soft and the nitrites were a little higher than they should be, but of course the nitrobacter pop'n is still growing, hence that should be expected.

My tomato plants are now growing quite rapidly as the nitrate levels rise. Today my readings approximate:

Water temp: 20C
GH: 120
KH: 40
pH: 7.0
Nitrite: 1
Nitrate: 40
TAN: 1ppm
Amm(un-ionised): .004

welcome Newt one thing, if your using a tutle i dont hink you can eat the food, as they are warm blooded animals. maybe do a bit of a search on the forum??

Thanks mate. I cant imagine it would make any difference re the turtle, but thanks for bringing it up...maybe someone can offer advice......

I'm glad you brought this topic up as I was unaware of the potential for Salmonella cross contamination. it seems the potential is there and effectively significantly higher than it is in fish. I'd rather play it safe than have a bad experience. My turtle is not dirty though as many seem to suggest they are, probably because I don't over feed it, its environment has always remained relatively clean other than algae of course. This wont stop the growth and proliferation of Salmonella though. I think the risk with this particular species is probably relatively low as it is fully aquatic and Salmonella is a far greater problem with warm blooded creatures. Regardless, I appreciate you bringing this to my attention, so much to learn. I'll err on the side of safety I think and relocate him to a different pond.

Cheers

A little down the track now and things have been going and growing quite well. I thought 70 fish might have been overkill but the system seems well balanced with about everything near zero much of the time and feeding almost daily. Chucked in a couple of yabbies too. It took around 3 weeks for the system to fully cycle. No fish deaths thankfully, at one stage I stopped feeding for about 5 days while the final part of the cycle kicked in - the ammonia levels were a tad high, but not dangerously high. My only problem thus far has been water leaking into the soil from the tubs plug hole, adding tap water has been necessary.

It looks good!

Down the track, dont forget to check that the big future tank has a liner as the zinc will kill everything if it hasn't.

And I thought turtles were cold blooded ...

from wikipedia...

Like other reptiles, turtles are ectotherms—their internal temperature varies according to the ambient environment, commonly called cold-blooded. However, leatherback sea turtles have noticeably higher body temperature than surrounding water because of their high metabolic rate.


but also from the same page...

In the United States, due to the ease of contracting salmonellosis through casual contact with turtles, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) established a regulation in 1975 to discontinue the sale of turtles under 4 inches.[23] It is illegal in every state in the U.S. for anyone to sell any turtles under 4 inches (10 cm) long. Many stores and flea markets still sell small turtles due to a loophole in the FDA regulation which allows turtles under 4 inches to be sold for educational purposes.[24][25]


Does anyone know why a turtle over 4 inches long is safer? I cant wait to find out. The world is getting stranger by the minute.

I remember way back when I was a little kid in WI you could buy a turtle house then they would give you a free turtle that was tiny to go with it. They thought they got around the law like that until they changed it from "sales of turtles" to "distribution"

When they would hatch tiny ones and sell them that small most would get tossed out into a creek after a few weeks when the kid got bored of it. The common pet ones are all over the world now.

"Does anyone know why a turtle over 4 inches long is safer?"

Harder for small children to stick the turtle in their mouths? No idea, but that would be my first guess.

is the water actually leaking out? Water will always need topping up due to evaporation and transpiration through the plants...

Yes.... the system needs regular top ups, especially during those STINKING HOT summer days......thankfully not too many this year.

I wasnt aware steel tubs can be dangerous to organisms etc... I kept a turtle in one for about 10 years, he was fine,,,,then I let him go in the Darling, too big....that was when I was a kid. I have another one now in a steel tub also that is growing like a mushroom. It has an aquaponics setup, but only a Hakea and Protea to take up the nutrients....darn pH hovers around 9, but turtle seems fine.....and so are the plants.....hell green with algae..which turtle likes as he easily hides.

Anyway......lost goldfish over our hot days, the reduced nutrient output didn't do the plants any good. Have added a heap more rosy barbs, they seem very tolerant of the extremes and eat quite a bit. System as recently photographed below.....not fantastic, but going well enough for a learner system. Have had all zeros for ages now and pH hovers around 7.5. Hot summer temp is the big issue. Had hundreds of tomatoes off it and lots of chillies, spinach, bok choi, pak choi etc... My future big system will have the FT deep in the ground with constant FT water level.