Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

How many fish are you placing in your system Dan?
I would not have thought that your system was cycled yet!!??


Those Toop trout are one year old.

hey Dunder, looking at stocking 100. i have 2 1000L fish tanks plus 2 ~400L sumps if i need them with enough room for another couple of 1000L ibc's if i need to reduce stocking levels per tank as well. with my massive grow bed im sure ill have enough biological filtration to cope, this is also the reason i went with scoria over just gravel. i also have the option/plan for a swirl filter if needed to remove fish solids.

its definitely cycled, ive been using fish tank water to fill it when i do water changes on my 500L indoor aquarium and also rain water, ive also been cleaning my sponge filters into the grow bed which seeds them with good bacteria. been adding all the humonia i can manage and it keeps disappearing. if you seed with filter material and tank water you can cycle a new tank/system in a couple of weeks.

im yet to get my massive bed going, between helping out with one of my other interests (Air-Stream Community Wireless Networking, essentially a huge wifi network connecting people from way down south all the way up north) and this crappy weather ive not had a chance.

If you've yet to get your "massive grow bed going".... how can you say that you're cycled??

At best you may have cycled to the level of what ever beds you currently have online.... What size are the beds that you do have online??

yup true, i only have around 300L to 400L of scoria cycled at the moment. but that cycled within about 2 weeks. i plan on having my big bed sorted out within a couple of weeks at worse (at best by the end of his week) and up and running in the system.

if i need to feel sparingly for a week or 2 it wont be the end of my world (i hope). if tooperang was not going on holidays for a month in a few days time i would put off my trout purchase, but unfortunately things didnt work that way.

using my already cycled scoria to seed the rest in my big GB and again cleaning out both of my sponge filters that are if i remember right is one 40cm x 20cm x 20cm odd per aquarium into the bed i have no doubt ill have the large bed cycled within a week or 2 at worst.

obviously ill have to keep daily tabs on my nitrogen levels and feed accordingly.

do you think ive gone wrong somewhere Rupert? your input is very much valued.

With all due respect Dan. Tooperang will open again, and the trout will still be there. You could put a deposit on them, if you think not.

Looking forwards to seeing photos of your system up and running.

urgh, whatta day. been out making my stand for my GB all day and trying to learn how this new welder works with aluminium. got everything but the last 5 of the 10 legs welded up. tomorrow morning hopefully ill get out there again and do the last little bit and ill be finished. havnt got any pics yet caus it was well and truly after dark before i stopped welding.

maybe im just a little ignorant (wouldnt be the first time ive been told worse), but i really dont think ill have a problem. i have been keeping fish for decades as pets and designed my own filters and stuff which have worked awesome (in other words i think i understand filtration both mechanical and biological) ive also read stuff on here where people have done cycling with fish in the system. in a few weeks time when i have a HSM you can all point and laugh at me and tell me "i told you so"

oh, and i also have one of my huge sponge filters running in the system at the moment which should also help things

i cant wait to see it all up and running properly haha. so much money and work for no return yet is killing me. dying for my first taste of something from it.

gah im tired..... did i mention im tired... mumble mumble *something about working outside all day* mumble....

Nah Dan... you cycled the available filtration by the menas you employed...

But your filtration capacity... just doesn't match, and can't cope with the number of fish....

Get that "massive" grow bed online.... feed very lightly, or not at all... and keep an eye on your tests..

No one thinks you're ignorant and I don't think you will have any problems either.
I am just thinking that there is no reason to rush things.
It's to be enjoyed

time for an update

about a week ago i decided i needed somewhere to germinate seeds. i have a 500L aquarium inside and i thought why not incorporate that into AP
so i got some 90mm stormwater pipe and cut some holes in it


a little $17 pump to flow the water through it.

so far seems to have worked very well. seeds are poking there heads through already. just need to get some new globes for my light.

and wednesday i took a drive up to tooperang. hell of a drive from here, to pick up my tasty looking trout. some of these are HUGE, others are only about 1/2 the size. hard to measure caus no matter how often i tell them to "sit" and "stay" they just wont listen like my dogs do, i think we need to work on this in the future. anyway from what i could guesstimate some are a good 6 inches where as the smaller ones are only about 3. they were happily feeding the next day and look to be doing well.

and then the other big job ive been working on, is my new grow bed and stand. so i made this to stand it on. had to do some of this stuff, for anyone that dosnt know, welding aluminium is a pain in the not to pretty, but way strong enough so ive finally got the stand made and the bed sitting on it where i want it. the dogs seem to approve.


and now..... the shovelling begins..... anyone free to come help? the pay is lousy and the hours really long? anyone?

Nice welding mate.

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Good work Dan

I would be very proud of that welding.

Last time I welded alu was in the 70s

Nice work Dan... coming together nicely...

yep yep . cheers