Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Rupert's OverstockingRadar(TM) just exploded.

I'm assuming it's a typo.... I hope...

Mmmmm, something just went shwoosh straight over my head. Trying to figure out what you mean but I missed the boat.

No typo, 200 Trout and 500 Silver perch and 3 stages, plus a few black bream and mullet.

Knew you had a big tank... and a big brush filter....

What's the total volume of your grow beds???

And what aeration are you running??

Ahhh... forgot you had the big moving bed filter tank as well....

How many litres of kaldnes is in there???

Thers's 200L of K1 in there at the moment, and I have 6000L of growbeds with a few more small ones coming.

Thats why I want to fine tune my filtration as well. My pump has turned up so I will experiment with the hydrocyclone i've made and possibly a upflowing gravel filter after it.

I was running 2 160L/min pumps at 100w each driving 7, 175mm air diffusers. When Troutman was dropping the Trout off at easter he gave me some advise about there positioning, as in depths and have since cut back to one pump.

Kewl... don't know how I hadn't followed this thread more in the past....

Have you thought about a key start generator.... wired to mains.... as a backup....

I certainly did today Rupert, At the moment I have a check valve in the air line between the fish tanks and the moving bed filter. Usally the 240v air pump supplies both the MBF and the FT's, when the power fails the 12v compressor kicks in and only supplies the FT's.

I will put a new fully charged battery in and test how much the compressor draws and calculate how much run time I get out of a 100A/hr battery. I want to be able to run the compressor for 14 hours plus on the battery, the solar panels are good for plus 10 amps so they should be able to run the compressor and charge the battery providing I have sunlight.

As I have my brothers genset I dont see the point of buying another just yet, just need the 12v compressor to get me over the hump. Which it didn't today but thats my own fault.

Will certainly be focusing on it this 2 weeks home. I've also been looking at industrial operator touch screens with built in PLC, It can be accessed remotely so I could monitor parameters while at work or away and change if required. Thinks like my cloverleaf fish feeders could be driven by it and parameters varied depending on water temp, PH, DO etc I could also run all my retic from it and input my weather station to it. It can send out alarms to messages and emails. Plus you can hook cameras up to it and view remotely. Still thinking about this project but if I blow up another cloverleaf timer or retic controller its a done deal.

You must eat a lot of fish Muzz

Hey Charlie, I sure do.....but so do all my friends and family. And There not getting Balchin Groper, Snapper and Mackerel. This is only my 2nd year but I found the 100 Trout I had last year soon got eaten and given away. The 1st lot of Silver Perch wont be ready for another 2 years going by the growth from last season. The rest are some where between 20-60mm long.

Have put a new 105 A/hr battery on to my back up air system. Tested my compressor for power draw. It's a Hailea 110 L/min and uses 6.7amps which will only give me a max of 10 hours from the 1 battery. So I might eventually get a 2nd battery. Still have to wire up the solar panels and regulator..next week

Muzza

Hey Muzza - quick question regarding your mullet.

How are they doing? Seeing any growth at all? I have the opportunity of acquiring some fry/juveniles and was wondering what your experience was. Did you adapt them from brackish water or were they straight out of fresh water?

(And also, great system and great thread, wonderful place you have there)

Thanks in advance - tojo

Hi Tojo, the Mullet are doing well, can't say I've noticed much growth. They feed on the fish pellets, they don't actually swallow the pellets but suck on them then spit them out. They also skim the surface when the pellets are fed and get all the pellet dust. They also feed on the algae build up on the pond and tank walls.

Mine did come out of brackish water and I converted them to freshwater.

My system temps are down at 11 deg at the moment and expect them to drop as low as 8 deg in the coming weeks so I'm interested if they survive. Mine are ornamental so not fussed about growth but believe they would take 4-5 years.

I'd be going with the likes of Talapia if your chasing a feed.

Cheers Muzza

Thank you for the kind and quick response.

I think I will try the mullet mainly because they are the easiest to obtain edible I can lay hands upon at the moment. Did you 'fish' them yourself? Are they what you call 'poddy' mullet in Australia?

Tilapia are not an option in my neck of the woods, last night the FT temp (currently go,dfish btw) got to 8 degrees even though we're less than a month away from summer.

Thanks again!