Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

HAHAHA yes i did mean to stand on, but hey.....

ahh, yes milk crates would be good to make a platform to reach the GB better.
I don't think I quite weigh that much

I just tried to take a video of my fish, it was too dark in the tank and using a torch just scared the fish. Im also trying to work out how to convert AVCHD(.mts) to some other format so I can edit the video file, I know almost nothing about editing video. I don't really want everyone who watches it to get motion sickness...

650kg is fairly close SV... Lets be honest mate

I am having the same struggle with my video camera. I found a way to convert it using a command line in linux but i forgot what it was... Helpful i know... No thanks necessary.

ummmm....thanks....

Finished ! almost

And this is the current state of the existing system.



The Watercress has gone absolutely ballistic, I rip out handfulls of the stuff and I swear the next day it has all grown back again
The warmer weather might start taking its toll however, it is starting to flower more so I think that might be a sign of stress..

My pristine water has been contaminated by the new beds

I am slowly introducing the new beds to the system to prevent parameter shock.
The second new bed is not connected yet, it is full of tap water anway so will replace some of the water with tank water before it gets switched on. I have a stack of tomato and lettuce seeds in so looking forward to getting those into the new beds.

Every time I open my compost bin about 50-60 compost worms are at the top of the bin on the sides, I have no idea why but they make easy picking to put in the new beds, and give to the SP... I have never seen them eat the worms though, I even cut up a pile of them into little bits and they still didnt really go for them. Ill keep trying

There are two sizes of 25mm poly pipe fittings at B. The elbows are a different brand and are quite tight, the Ts are quite loose and tend to leak, which is annoying cause I need to use clamps now. The 35mm valves are ridiculously tight, It is almost impossible to pull the pipe off once it is one, my only success so far is using boiling water, aside from just cutting it off.

Oh those strawberries are some small variety. They taste very different too, quite sweet but kind of like artificial strawberry flavour in some way... strange but good.

So just have to finish the distribution pipes in the GBs now.

Im not sure if there will be enough nitrates now, I did my quarterly nitrate test and they were at the 2nd yellow level (I dont bother reading the numbers) So basically one step up from zero. Last time I measured them they were really high, my guess is the crapload of watercress combined with the slow feeding of winter has brought them down.
Im not sure if I need more fish now to support the extra GBs..

How long has the tap water been sitting in that one tank? Don't know what is in the water over there but folks that use tap water over here tend to need to offgas the nasties out of the water first. Usually with airstones or similar.

Looks like a nice size system. Good pics.

Looking good SV!

Only for a day or two.
We have chloramine in our water here. It is much harder to get rid of than chlorine because it doesnt just come out of solution. Flouride too.. of course.

Lately I have been topping up a litte with tap water, we haven't had rain for a while and the tiny tank here doesn't last very long so I am rationing it a little. Rainwater is strictly for AP use now
When I conncted the first new GB I had about half tapwater and the rest good (haha) water.

Looking great.

Thanks SV for this great thread. I'm a couple of weekends of elbow grease away from my first system and reading through this has been invaluable.

Cheers,
Dan

Looking good SV.

Do you have any problems with the water being that high in your media?

I'm glad to have helped !



I have since cut the standpipes down a bit rsevs, I do normally have the water a little to high in general, it makes planting those tiny little seedlings easier...
I generally don't get too much algae, the plants soon shade the gravel anyway.

I have been planting out the 2 new GBs, got some tomatoes and lettuce in over the last few days. I still have some more space left, don't think it will last long though

Nice work SV...