Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I think I'm nut's but I added another 60 trout to my system.. I'll still feed the same amount and see how they go..

I have found that my SC is fairly dirty[think the fish have been getting a bit to much feed..] So I'm thinking that I need to stir it up every few days and get the Crud to Flow into the grow bed's..

The Shade cloth is over the FT and the west Wall has had one layer of Timber added.. Next is to do the Walk way in front of the Fish Tank.. [going to use Sleeps as the walk way..

Then I'll add the Polly roof over that area to give me an area to install the permanent electric's for the system.. Including the Backup Power point's..

Juergen

Psst Photo's when I can..

Ok.. I'm nuts..
I got a message asking where I had gone..

Well not to far...

I have been running the system constantly.. I need to add some more seasol to the mix..

I've added a new Hi-Flow[100w-150lpm[More pressure]] and taken the 2 smaller Air-pump's[35w-[60-75]lpm] off line..

So with the new Pump online I have also gotten the Large airlift happening now..
All I need is the safety overflow system to make sure I don't Flush Water out of the system when I don't want to..
- If think'n of a 2 prong attack for this problem..
--> Electrical - shut the air off via a solinood..
--> Physical - an over flow drain to a separate tank..


Other than that it is going slow as usual..

Juergen

Hey all..

An update..
I have been away for awhile..[from the forum's]

the huge amounts of rain we have had have caused me to have to flush about 1000lt of water out of the system..

The Trout are doing great.. They are very active feeder's.. If you don't wet some thing is wrong..
The work around the tank is going slow.. A decision has been made and the whole grow area behind the garage shall be roofed over with clear panelling..

I'm Still try to decide on a material for a decking that is fish safe..

Juergen

Cypress fence blanks as decking.

You can also get joists and bearers in cypress...or laminate a couple of blanks together to get the required strength.

So what happened to the cod ? You don't mention them any more, just more trout.

Fish number's..
Killed 25 trout from the first try.. Restocked with 20 then added 60 to give me a total of 80trout - 1 on the Dinner plate..

Cod Started with 35 then Added another 50.. which have over the course of the year gone down to 12..[That I could find in their main home.. [Not sure if any have made their way to the sump..


In General The Cod have been a Bit of a Disappointment..

I cleaned out the tank that had the cod in and Only found about 12 of them left..
I'm not sure if it's an issue with the water being TOO cold and not very stable in the tank they were in..

for now they have been caught and Placed with in the aquarium I have that has been empty for a While..
- they are inside the garage where If I need to I can have the water sitting at a constant temperature of 12degree's..

They are range from the initial length of 40mm up to a 90mm, and are taking on the Cod Look..
They will be tanked till they hit about 150mm then they go into the system..

I'm going to be swapping a bucket of Water out/in on a Daily/weekly basis so that both group's of fish trout/cod have the same bacteria in their system's..

Juergen..

Getting ready to do a Plumbing job on the system.. to give me more ability on the way the system flow's.. ie directing the flow to a few different outlet's..
at the same time rerunning the feed pipe from the SC to the growbeds so I can finish the Decking..

J

Bump.... LOL

How are ya Snow? Whats the latest?

Hey guy's.. got a new update of my system..

The fish are still going strong.... Yes I still have my original fish in the system.. and they have not suffered any ill effect's of a Victorian summer.. but then the main Water tank is 1/3 in the ground.. The Sump's are actually buried and the ground after a rain collect's water and hold's it till it slowly evaporates..


Now the main Reason for me revisiting this post..
Last Week my main pump 10k/h stopped for an unknown reason.. and I had to rush around and get a bypass run..

The whole issue has caused me to do a re-think of the system..

here is what I've done so far..

1 - Replaced and re-plumbed the way the pump is situated.. The Pump is now in the tank.. on a Union joiner for quick replacement..

While doing all this I found that 1 of the uni-seals has sprung a slight Leak..
- so while I was sitting and watching the flow of the Pump I came to the decision that I'm going to Pull out Both of the Sump IBC's and replace them with 1 new one..

why Pull them and replace them.. they have at least 2-3 Uni-seals in each and they are below the peak water line.. so they both come out and get replaced with one.. That gives me 1000lt's of sump..
- to make sure that the sump never overflows.. I'm going to add a second Pump and line back to the main Tank.. controlled via a Float switch.. to only Kick in if/when the water get's High..


Yes I'll try to get more photo's of what work's I do..


-- also The spinach that I put in is huge.. Look's like it might go to seed.. and it's taken over 1/2 of the Bed..

Juergen

Charlie I'm good.. Read the above post that tell's you What I have going on at the moment..

Juergen

Ok Latest Update..


I've been Keeping myself busy.. My brother and I finally got the old house finished and ready for Auction..
- Boy did we get a surprise.. the Time and effort we spent on the house paid of.
My brother was only expecting about 420-430k and was saying not to Expect More.. Me I set my sights a bit higher.. the end result.. I got What I expected and my Brother was very surprised..

The next project is A self contained Motor-home..
- The Aim is to have a electric system That will give me the ability to not have to run a generator or hook up to an external Power source.. {The system will give me all the comforts you could ask for}
Let me say that there is a Battery system that has an unknown reputation and has been Bad-mouthed by people that don't know what they are talking about..[No I'm not going to name the Batteries]


The ideas that are floating out there would surprise you..



Ok that's enough about My personal life Let's Talk about SnowT's System..




-1 --2 ---3 -----5 -------7 -----------11 -------------13 -----------------17





My system has Crashed..


Over the Last few Day's Melbourne and Victoria has gone thru a Heat Wave..


- About this time last year we did the same and I came thru fine.. This year is a completely different outcome..
It looks Like the water in my system spiked at over 27c+ and the amount of O2 in the system was not enough..

the fish were doing ok yesterday morning, but this Afternoon on inspection I found All 20+ Trout floating..
We have not had any Brownout's/Power-loss's ..

the system has been running at full capacity, the only issue that I have had is Massive evaporation.. I estimate that I lost over 1000lts of water in a 24hr period.. This could of contributed to the issue..

I was losing about 200lt's or so on a normal day..

As you know I run a constant Flood/flow system.. the Water lvl's in each grow-bed area are about 3-4cm below the surface..


The Fish I lost range from 400gm's to 1+kg fish..
I'll do a Weigh as I depose of the Fish..

---- 0 ---- 0 ---- 0 ---- 0 ---- 0 ---- 0 ---- 0 ---- 0 ---- 0 ---- 0 ---- 0 ---- 0 ---- 0 ---- 0 ---- 0 ----

Ok here are the numbers and the weight's..


01 - 1.20kg
02 - 960gm
03 - 520gm
04 - 870gm
05 - 1.05kg
06 - 1.07kg
07 - 1.47kg
08 - 800gm
09 - 1.60kg
10 - 850gm
11 - 1.20kg
12 - 1.40 kg
13 - 1.36kg
14 - 850gm
15 - 540gm
16 - 1.20kg
17 - 1.69kg
18 - 1.70kg
19 - 1.00kg
20 - 1.10kg
21 - 1.30kg
22 - 1.50kg
23 - 750gm
24 - 1.30kg
25 - 1.45kg
26 - 470gm


So All up I had a total of 30.2kg of fish in the tank system..
Am I happy that I lost the Lot.. Hell No..

---- 1 ---- 2 ---- 3 ---- 4 ---- 5 ---- 6 ---- 7 ---- 8 ---- 9 ----


I was getting ready to do a cull, so my mistake was to let it go..

No Fresh Trout for me..


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The Only real Benefit in this Lose is that I can afford to shut down the system for a few Day's to REDO the defect's in the whole Plumbing pipe system.
- That issue was how I ran the main feed Pipe for the grow-beds and the number of sump tank's I have..
- I rerouting the feed pipe so I can finally finish of the Deck and The Sump tank issue is just to big..
- I want to rerun the Pump Feed line's..[Smaller 50mm is bigger than I need for the flow I have..]



Does anyone have any ideas for a Fish species that is legal and that should be able to take the spread of Water temp we have in Melbourne.. <10c to 25-30c..

So that is the Issue I'm need to cope with..



Juergen

You Have the same problem as me. Catfish are the way to go but not legal here in South Africa.

I made the mistake of trying to run the trout till too late in the summer more than once. Not a good idea. Just set a date and do the deed. It is not worth trying to get them through. You will lose them without fail.

Run trout in the winter and get some ammonia in some other form for the 4 really hot summer months.

Hey all,

Yes I have been Gone for a While and I'm sad to say that That due to a Health Issue - - I will be Dismantling My WHOLE system and Probably all of the small system, to help clean up Yard, even thou the system is up the back of the yard it is hard for Mum to get up there.

The Last time the system was Run was about the time that I had the Massive Fish Kill, when the sun decided that we Victorians need that whole string of 30+ degree days which Eventually got my system WAY to hot for all my Lovely fish..

It Killed off my 5 Huge Trout..

So if anyone in Melbourne is Looking for a Aquaponic system and Want's one I have one..

I'm Moving out EVERYTHING.

I have the start of a Mini system 2 IBC Tanks and a 1/2 IBC Grow-bed..
and Numerous Other IBC to go as well.. All IBC's I used in my system came from the Food industry.


Juergen