Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

March has been quite hot for Adelaide. The plumbing is fixed, the trees have been removed. We have had new water in the system for approximately a week and a half, gave it a shot of urea and seasol.

ph 6 - so have added a little lime
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 40

the trout farm have asked that we pick up our trout tomorrow, they close for April. It has been 4 yrs since we have had to start the system from scratch, not sure that the water is ready.

Just stay hopeful

Naa, you'll be fine

Now that we have finished fixing the plumbing repairs, we collected the new fish today.

Nice sized fish

Thats cheating!!

.... you win the 2013 Trout Brag thread.... and it hasn't even started yet...

Hey Rupe, you know very well that with the water refraction, sunlight and the plastic combination plus the camera adding 10 pounds, vwalla you have large fingerlings.

no.... really, they do look a lot bigger in the photo than what they really are.

Sunday, trout day (I went and got my fish on Sunday as well.) They told me they had some 4 inch trout for 80c each. When I got home they looked more like 4cm? Not happy. Perhaps I should have got the bigger size?
Have a good year,
David

Hey KE does that mean you can fit more in the tank Hope they grow well for you.

Have spent a couple of weeks developing strawberry towers. At this stage they are hydroponic, we shall see how they go

Looking lovely

Here is the next project completed. Hoping for it to be eventually full of strawberry plants. The Grandkids have a bit of a liking for them and blueberries.

this system is plumbed into the sump, room for another 60 plants

G'day Hopefulls,
I'm just wondering of you are still using diatomite media?

we still have the original media that was put into the system back in 2007. As an experiment, we did remove the maidenwell from the middle bed and replace it with clay balls to try and control some of the mold we were suffering prior to opening the end of the greenhouse up. (summer heat was reaching 50+ degrees Celsius)

we think the maidenwell is the reason we don't suffer high ph levels.

Thanks for getting back to me, I'm glad to hear it's working well.
Did the pH level stabilise alright?
I'm aiming for a low pH system (dreaming possibly...), if it has worked well for you I might not be kidding myself.
The only worry I had was that the pH would continue to drop, the pH6 readings you mentioned in an earlier post would be almost ideal for what I want to do.
I'm all excited again!

Sorry Bodgy we have been offline for a bit.

we try to keep our system around the 6.8 mark, yes the ph does continually drop but very slowly. Bicarb Soda comes in handy when we need a lift.
After awhile you learn to read the water and the fish, they soon let you know when the ph is down. Just remember to investigate what level ph your fish can tolerate as low ph will kill the fish as quickly as high ph will. Just remember it is the fish who are the life of your system, the plants are a byproduct.