Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well I pulled the rest of the trout out tonight. Had to call in some help to get them out, they're canny buggers when there's a life at stake.

Estimated they were all around 300gm, with the last one around 400gm maybe. Good eating, just wrapped them in foil and popped them in the oven for what felt like forever.

So now there are 30 SP fingerlings in the left tank, with nothing in the other tank.

Any suggestions as to what I should put in there? Should I have a crack at a few barra, or maybe some marron?

Other option is to wait a year and stick some SP in there and have two batches on the go?

Temps don't seem to be anything unusual, the tanks re buried a fair bit, but do cop full sun in the mornings.

Hi Curly,

Good to see you stopping in. I bet those trout were yummy! 3-400g is perfect plate size.

My SP are a few years old now and are all at different sizes so I wouldnt try to stagger batches this early on.

Options are fairly open with the new available FT.. you have SP so maybe throw in some Koi in the other.. Barra are an option but temps are a battle if you are not prepared. Marron and/or yabbies are also an option but are a constant stress... very PH dependant/cannibalistic etc etc.

You have some eating fish on the go so Id bang in some Koi or Commets... prob commets because they are cheap. When winter comes back around then throw some trout back in.

End of the day, you are sitting pretty with discreet systems and I love it

Hmm, I was thinking about Koi - but then I have the problem of what I do with them when it's trout time again...

Time for an upgrade you say? Hmm

Still haven't decided on what I'm going to put in the second tank, but this warm weather has finally kicked off a bunch of plant growth. I knew it was going to happen, but it really is amazing how quickly things are growing.

All good!

Go with a small cheap fish the trout can later chow on

Ended up tossing a few goldfish in there for the time being.

System is going well - lettuce and chillis are growing well. Tomatos still going crazy, eating heaps of them.

A couple of pak choi aren't doing so well - looking very pale. Assume adding some seasol/maxicrop is the trick - how much are we talking - a capfull?

Had a minor HSM a little while ago. Left the tap on for too long and overflowed it for a while. I'd set a countdown on my phone but must have missed it. Ah well - should have dropped the salt conc down a bit.

I put a 'splash' of seasol in my system once a month, might also be worth putting a spoonful of iron chelate.



Dude, I do this at least twice a month lol

Well the minor HSM turned into a bigger one. The splash of maxicrop might ave been a little too 'splashy'. Did a water test this morning and the Ammonia was up around 2, pH 7.6 and a fair bit of Nitrates as well.

I kind of figured the best option was to nut it out and not touch anything, while obviously not feeding at all.

Tested the water this afternoon, ammo is almost back to normal, -ites are ~1.0. Fingers crossed things are back to normal in the morning.

I'm guessing this will take care of my trace element deficiency, haha.

Thought it was probably time for an update. Things are going really well, fish and plants growing nicely.

With one minor exception, I have one silver perch who is flashing occasionally. I'm not really sure how much salt is in there at present, but at a guess its a fair bit. If there were more fish flashing, I wouldn't hesitate to throw more in, but for just the one?

Doubt that I could identify, catch and quarantine the little guy successfully either...

I think I've probably answered my own question, add another kg or two of salt, just to be safe...

A couple of photos. System running well, trout are hungry but SP have really gone to sleep with the onset of colder weather.

The back half of the GBs look a little bare, but have plenty of seeds just starting to sprout. Really happy with the Broccoli and Basil.

AP system in photo... going great guns.... tick...
Beer bottle in photo... tick....
Toes in photo......... what, no toes... definitely no tick.....

Heh, the beer bottle wasn't on purpose - but it's rarely out of the picture in an afternoon in my garden...

Toes however, that really was an omission. Will get on to it.

With all the rain we've had recently, my tanks were very close to overflowing this morning. Free top up. Hopefully the influx of rainwater won't swing the pH anywhere bad...

Nice system.
How are you supporting the back of the growbeds?

It sits on top of the lower frame around the FT. The IBCs are slightly rectangular, so the long edge of the GB sits sideways, minimising the overhang at the back. The lower frame rests on some bricks under the ground, and is pretty solid.

I was a little worried about it to start with, so figured if I needed to I could put some bracing at the rear. But a year in, it hasn't moved at all. Doesn't appear to have been any sagging in the base of the GB either.

Broccoli is starting to sprout in the centre, finally...

Everything cranking along, and thinking of adding another IBC FT and GB nearby, probably in a separate system