Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Like the worm farm idea BF.

BF for some reason i think it would be good to have an airstone in the worm far return tank, keep all that runn off nice and oxygenated and aerobic. nice one.

Think I might try something like that myself when I get my arse into gear. Would be great stuff for the conventional garden also and could add some shredded comfrey - excellent.

what i plan to do is have a submersible pump in there constantly oxygenating the water. i will also have a pipe with a tap leading to the fish tanks. if my nitrate levels drop i will turn on the tap and adjust accordingly. this may not work and if not i will just use the worm leachate for watering soil garden beds.

You have been busy BF...

comfrey is excellent for worm farms. so is alfalfa. i can't recommend highly enough the addition of alfalfa into a worm farm. its like rocket fuel for plants. you only need a little bit though. powerful stuff.

yeah was easier to get done with a deadline. i really did push through sound boundaries to get this done. i'm off tomorrow on a wild fishing expedition to hopefully stock these tanks. i have the worms and daphnia ready for when they arrive, so hopefully they will quickly come to like their new home.

i take it you've been busy as you haven't been around much. hope 2007 is treating you well.

just another note:

my tap wate ph is above 8 even after letting it air off the chlorine.

i am going to attempt to lower it using lemons.

does anyone know roughly how many lemons i should at to bring the ph down from 8.5 to 7.5? the system has about 1000l in it.

thanks

Very nice progress BF... It is all coming together now, I can see it almost finished, will look great. Where you heading to get the fish BF...?

Make sure to file the barbs off the hooks and don't take too many undersize fish from the one spot, move up and down the river/stream... I was a bit naughty with mine, but I still follow the general rules. One of my fish I caught twice before I kept him, we caught and released at least 50 jueveniles while we were up there, but never caught a size one... the moore river is being fished to death... count of 20 15"+ boats in two days. Plenty of yellow fin too, I was going to grab one and give it a go, no size restriction on them I don't think.

good advice on the filing of hooks.

i'm heading down south to nannup in search of marron, cobbler and any other natives i can get my hands on. i may even bring back a trout or brim. hopefully my dc pump arrives tommorow for the trip home. if not i will stop every 30 mins or so and manually aerate the containers. hopefully they will make the journey back. if not i eat them. hehe. win win.

Cool Nannup is a nice area, Blackwood is such a diverse river you are likely to catch anything in there... Be very careful with catching marron, if they are undersize or if you don't have a licence the fines are huge... The season opened today so there will be a fair few rangers/fisheries about.
Here: http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/pub/Fish ... x.php?0100

Get a few nice lures to play around with, I recommend the "Crawdaddy" fake yabbie about 3 cm long. For bream/cobbler/freshwater catfish use a small ball sinker then a swivel and a 40 cm trace with a mustad no 6 or 8 bait holder hook. Watch the snags!... but it will get your hook on the bottom where all these fish eat...

yeah i got my full fishing license the other day so i'm covered.

thanks for the advice on the rod setup.

i may just get a few lures.

Looking good B/F!

Done a lot of works in just one day. I'm bit confused though, with all the grow beds where is the place for YOUR bed? With all these new babies on the way it would make sense, and save you getting up all night long !

Enjoy the fishing trip, ya lucky bastard

'going off' there BF!
Hope you have some luck with the fishing.
tonight will be a good night for marron with the moon gone all night.

They get you though with the marron season having it begin and end during half to full moon. Thats so people can't catch too many... Sneaky buggers.