Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

[quote="Kangaroodog"]ok bit of an update.. was reading murrays forum in the chemical board and happened upon a post that talked about makingt sure you do the nitrate test as it says in the instructions... so curiosity got the better of me and I went and read the book again.... says you have to shake bottle 2 for 30 seconds! I hadnt been doing that.. so shook the bottle, did a test, started shaking the vial and got colour change straight away! Nitrates are quite high! over 100!

Goes to show you should RTFM a bit better, a lot more of a different result when you follow it correctly.

so thats what I learnt today.
Might try that , I've never been able to get a reading
You know what they say , When all else fails read the instructions

hahahaha yes I have found the nitrate test to be rather finicky you really need to follow those instructions correctly.

Good work with the venturi roo.

ok tested teh other day, amm was 0, nitrite still 5 and nitrate was about 10.

Tested nitrite and ammonia today

Amm 0, maybe a slight trace
nitrite still 5

Wish I could get that nitrite down!

Got some compost worms from a mate yesterday, so they are currently making their way into the growbed, been adding a few more worms as I find them around the place too.

Been keeping an eye out for some decent safe and cheap IBC's to start the 2nd system.

Yesterday i hooked up my air pump, and ran it overnight. Testing this arvo and nitrite is 0!!!!!

Got my airstones today so i put them in and they are going good. Very small bubbles. The stones are a lot bigger then i thought they would be too.

So i take it the sys is cycled? Would it be too late for barra? Maybe i get some silver perch instead?

I dont think a system is cycled until you get ammonia up to 1 and it is back to 0 within 24 hours (along with at least nitrite). If you aren't there you wont be far off.


Or use something like Charlie Carp to keep it running until late March/April for Trout.

Not too late for barra if you get larger sized ones! But the weather is all over the place at the moment and I feel sorry for mine with the cool temps that we are currently experiencing, sooo inconsistent.

+1 to that Faye. I still have some Trout swimming at the moment - the ones which keep eluding the net (bloody fast buggers).

tested tonight and results are as follows

Amm = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = not sure but its blood red, not dark like 160... but its very red.

Lettuces seem to be dying still, think the damage is done, got some more to plant yesterday but they havent gone in yet.

new lettuces went in yesterday, been finding heaps of worms in the roots of the old lettuce, looks like they are breeding in the system as there are lots of little ones.

Got 11 silver perch from Wavey yesterday, they have gone in no dramas although this morning I have 1 goldy left of 16, they ate near all of them leaving only 3, with one alive and rather nervous!

Put some jaws music on!!!!!

ok time for an update

Tested teh water about 3 days ago and was as follows

amm 0.25
nitrite 0.25
nitrate blood red(or sort of see thru cordial colour lol)


Tested yesterday and..
amm 0
nitrite 0
Nitrate has come down a bit, still dark red but def not as dark

My 11 silvers are happy, they are getting more used to me, still pretty flighty but a lot better then they were, there is a real nice sized one there, plate size that Im licking my lips for come harvest time. They are eating a small amount, dont want to have a big spike in my system.

Got a old egg carton, cut it in half and then had 6 holes i filled with perlite/vermiculite and dropped the following seeds into(from diggers club)

6 x pak choi (2 seeds per egg hole)
2 x sex without strings beans
1 x heirloom tomato mix seed(be a suprise what it is I guess as its 1 out of 10 varieties in the pack)


Off topic a bit but we grow a few strawberries here in hanging baskets and a few other ones that hang off our patio vertical poles, been having issues for a while with one plant getting sticky white stuff on it. Found out its mealy bugs, never had them before! Well they are resilient little b$#tards!! gave them a dose of confidor on it(generally dont use poison at all but I was going to kill this plant anyway) and they are still there!

Had a heap of ladybirds in the AP system, but now ive sprayed dont think i'll be transferring any of them. Found a dead paperwasp on the strawberry plant, so the confidor is working.

I have also started work on my 2nd system, cut a hole in one ibc for it to be a FT, gave it a bit of a wash out(needs degreasing, I high pressure sprayed today) and then washed in vinegar and left int eh sun for a few days. The other one was a growbed, roughly 550l and the rest will be the sump underneath. Going to swap the IBC's metal containers with each other as one is cleaner so I will use that as the GB/ST setup, I high pressure sprayed the cages out, they come up pretty good, but one is def better.

Pics or it didnt happen

^^^ what he said!!!

System looks good from the photos from a few months ago. We definitely want pictures of the perch though

Reading all these starting threads makes me keen as to start my IBC system! I am hoping to have it ready for fish by the time trout season has started Do you think you will run any trout roodog?

yeah ok will get some pics, will use the phone, bit quicker to post photos that way.

Planning on Trout/Barra, only reason I got silvers is because im building the 2nd system.