Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks charlie. I was thinking some type of herb too. Basil means pesto which is always good.

Faye, i removed the rhubarb because it was taking up all the sunlight from the rest of the GB. When i get more space it will be going back in for sure

I am wondering if i can have some help with a pre-death autopsy.

One of my trout is swimming down to the bottom of the tank. Every now and then it will swim around like normal for a bit but then goes back to swimming down. I only noticed it doing this today.

I also noticed this morning that the top of the water looks a bit thick. I dont know how to describe this other than it looks like it has a skin. There are also a few small bubbles.

The only changes i have made in the last few days is a water top up and some food.

Water test as follows:

Ph: 6.4
Amm: 0.25 (They have been fed a few hours ago. I also noticed today that there was still a bit of food in the bottom that i mixed up.)
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 160+

Sorry about the poor photos, it is hard to get one by yourself without stressing the fish too much.





I will hold off on any food till i can find an answer.

Sorry to ask a question that has been asked a million times, i am flat out getting ready for a 7 day trip to exmouth that im leaving for tomorrow

A quick update. The fish in the above post died a few days after the photos were taken. No idea what caused it but the other fish seem healthy enough.

Growthof over all system.



Here you can see the toms are stating to grow and some seed potato that i need to plant somewhere. I wonder how they would go in a wicking bed...



The lettuce are starting to grow too and the capsys are starting to ripen up.

Over the last few days i have been growing a bit concerned with my water quality. I have always had brown water from adding worm tea but it is now a bit cloudy. As soon as everyone is up and i can make some noise i will be testing the water. I also have a few plans in my mind about how to add another 50L or so of filtration which will also give me a bit more grow space.

I didn't see the previous post about the "thick water" at the time, but the slime which coats fish is basically protein and obviously isn't completely soluble, so when it comes off the fish you can get a build-up of this protein on the surface of the water. The film can trap air resulting in little persistent bubbles, but this is actually bad for the oxygen exchange at the surface boundary, so it's best to skim the protein from the surface to remove it. You can simply make a PVC "rake" which floats in the FT and continuously collects the protein, or there are a thousand other designs for protein skimmers on the WWW; if I see a build-up I just use a clean Chux wipe dragged over the surface of the water for a few seconds and it seems to sort itself out pretty quickly from there.

I believe fish lose their slime faster, and hence the protein film builds up faster when they are stressed, but you'd need to check with someone more knowledgeable than I if you wanted to be sure (give Fremantle TAFE a call if you're really interested, they are really helpful when it comes to sorting out fish related issues).


I have never had much luck with root veges or bulbs in an AP system, but others have, however I am led to believe wicking beds are the go for growing potatoes, carrots etc. Have a look at Jessy's, JT's and a few other threads dedicated to wicking.


What size pump do you have and what's your pumping regime now? If the cloudiness is caused by suspended solids (and not just a discolouration from your usual tea) and you're running on a timer, you could just pump for longer and slower which should improve the filtration. Of course, system expansion by adding more GBs is a great solution too!


Scott

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the reply. Sorry mate i didnt see it come up in the new posts otherwise i would have replied sooner. I have a 3000L/hr pump running constant flood. As you can imagine, most of the flow is returned straight back to the tank. A few days after posting about my concerns i noticed that it didnt sound like much water was flowing out of my grow bed. So i closed the valve up a bit but it didnt increase the flow. Even with the valve fully closed i was getting stuff all flow from my grow bed. So the pump cam out straight away. I gave it a bit of a clean and now it is flowing much better. That was a few days ago and the water is much clearer now.

So a lesson learnt there, dont just rely on your hearing to check your pump!

Even with all the additional flow i am still seeing a few bubbles appearing on the surface. I have also read that uneaten food can cause a high oil/protein content to cause a surface skin. I will get out the Chux wipes tomorrow to see if that helps the situation. I know that there is a good chance they were overfed for the week i was on holidays, my Aquarium got about 3 months food in a week! It has taken me about 3 weeks to fix that up Thanks again for the reply Scott.

UPDATE TIME!!! WOOOOOO

Ph: 6.4
Amm: 0.25 (Heavy feed a few hours ago)
Ite:0
Ate: 160+

Since the last update i have added a new chilli variety, some mini broccoli, garlic and some beets. Below is an overview.




Here you can see the new broccoli, the garlic, a beet, the tomato growth and on the far left is the new chilli. The variety is 'hot carrot' and apparently the heat is a bit of a creeper. (i.e. you eat it thinking it is nothing more than a capsi and slowly but surely it brings the pain... ) It has a rating of very hot on the plant info tab. I am yet to try it...



Another shot... You cant see it but the snow peas are really doing well now the rhubarb is out.



Here is a shot of a few of the beets.

Looking great Ryan.

How are your temps up there?

looks great champ!


I havnt had any luck with peas yet so hope you get some action there.

Thanks Marc. Air temps have been up around the low 20's and water temp at the moment is a touch over 15degC. Still nice and worm. Trout are hitting the food really hard.

How are the temps at your place?

Thanks Charlie. I have had a few peas off it so far. They have tasted amazing. Definitely worth trying again mate. Especially those sugar snap peas...

Bloody cold at the moment, wish I was up your way

tank temps are running between 10C and 15C. The outside beds are taking all the heat out of the water. The good side to the cold weather is that the while fly in the green house are getting hammered. With your warmer temps do you get much problem with white fly?

I bumped the PH up on the tanks from 6 to 6.5 and the trout are now smashing the food. I am not sure that it is related. I have gone through 650gms since Saturday. At this rate the trout will cost me a fortune in food.

Let us know how your rhubarb goes. I was going to put some in but I thought that it would be too big and waste too much space. The ones in my dirt garden have leaves over 800mm across. Was thinking about getting an IBC and cutting in half for my rhubarb.

Also what is the grass like plant at the front?

How are your trout going?

Cheers
Marc

dang it. i missed the free hat???

Looks good. What's plant is that hanging over the front edge in the first picture?

Marc or water temps are probably fairly similar then. I dont get as low as 10 but i rarely exceed 15/16 degrees. I havnt had any white fly problems as yet. I have been really lucky with pest with only a few caterpillars. You are getting through a serious amount of food. Perks of having a decent grow bed space i suppose. Mine feed well but i dont let them eat anything near that with only a small amount of grow space. Already my nitrates are above the scale. I know nitrates arnt too much of a concern, but i see that as an early indicator that the grow bed is at its limit.

I actually pulled the rhubarb out for the very reason you mentioned. The leaves were starting to block out a lot of light to the other plants. With my system being under the patio sunlight is an issue already. If you were to cut an IBC in half i think that would be ideal. You really need a decent area to get enough stalks to get a feed. Also that would add a lot of filtration which is always excellent to have. I have seen pics of rhubarb where the leaf is probably as big as the IBC itself. Wish i knew where i saw it. Most likely on here somewhere.

The plant that is hanging over the edge is Brahmi. It is a herb that is supposedly good for your memory. The most common use is to chop it up and put it in your food. Spag Bog/Stews etc are perfect. Also you can dry out the leaves and make a tea or you can make a tea with the green leaves which also has a bitters effect. What ever that is. The green leaf tea will give you the squirts though if you arnt careful I think that might be part of the bitters.

Hows it coming along Ryan?

It going great mate. Just looking back, i haven't told everyone about my little expansion!

Pics to follow later tonight. (If i remember... Me and memory are like oil and water. We just dont get along)

replying to be able to stalk your thread