Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

this is just a few pics of the setup i have at home. They are 2 seperate units with the pipe work running behind them.

is has been a big learning curve and a challenge to get it right and still seems to be.

Russell Roberts

the extras thet wouldnt fit in first one

Good pictures.
That is a good start.
How many fish?

had it up and running for 6 months now with gold fish in the Balcony system with great results and it just about looks after its self producing great herbs for all my cooking.

the second is an IBC set up in a flood and drain system, and to take the next step to see how i go with Trout and some vegies. Groth on plants has been slow and i have lost 5 of the 6 trout i have in the process but learning alot about water levels as the trout are a little more sensitive on the water levels.

so any help here would be great.

i have 8 gold fish in the Balcony sys and now only 1 trout out of the 6 i had in the tank. so that put some dissaapointment into me as they had been going great for aleast a month then then when bad quick with Amm levels, resulting in the death of 5 i think.

Too bad about the ammonia levels. Sorry you lost 5 good trouts.

Was your system ready before you added the trout?
By ready I mean did the grow beds were producing enough bacteria to take care of ammonia?
I had my system running with minnows for few weeks before adding Tilapia to it.

yes the system had been up and running for about 4 months and all levels were looking really good. the fished played the normal game and went in and went quiet for about a week then started feeding well. They were all good for about a month. I think i just disreguarded watching the water levels at this time and over fed them(well fed them till they stopped eating not ever leaving food in the tank). not to sure how long Amm levels were up before i picked it up.

yes sad to loose them espically at the price they cost and avaliblity of them. $6 each and just about last ones i could find in W.A.

so not to sure where to go with it now

well thats 6 out of 6 trout that have died now pulled the last one out today.

Tested the water levels:
PH 6.4
Amm .25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10

Water temp 15c

not sure where to go from here any advice would be good. should i return some goldfish to the tank just so there still is some food for the plants being produced or just let it sit and settle down for a bit. worried about putting tout back in just to see them die after a month again.

Found these little guys everywhere yesterday and thanks to some info i found put a beer trap in last night and with great success i got a heap last night. Now the trick is will the Maron eat them???? could any one pass on any info on this and tell me if they are a viable food source for gold fish or maron.

Seems like a waste just to throw them out now

[IMG]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/11/26/yqu8yvev.jpg[/IMG

Finally some good water readings. Have picked up the Balcony system and moved it to our new house. It kicking along great with plants really taking off. Just wondering if anyone knows how long it should take if I add bore water to top up the system for the PH levels to drop.

I know adding it does seem to spike them up but should they settle back down and if adding SP or Barra will they be affected by the water PH spike???

Off now to move and setup my other system. On the veranda to wonder how much space I will have left to move.


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Hey Sheepy,
Not sure about the PH - but mine takes about 1-2 weeks to drop .5-1 depending on how strong the bacteria is.
My trout at worms and had a snap at snails - not sure about maroon or goldfish.

More growbeds will help you get rid of those red nitrates - not bad but they are high and you could use some more hungry plants

You were missing a ']' at the end of your last image post - I posted your image below

Oh cheers for the photo if still working out this talkatalk stuff.

Right I will try squash some mort plants in there. And might take half the water out and use to get new system up and cycled quicker.

Was just going to use the bore water to top it up but didn't want to kill the marron if the water ph was to hard or any fish I pick up this week.




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So got something eating away at the plants. Only seem to pick on this one. Any idea anyone. Could only find few black spots that look like poo. But no bugs. Thought it may be moths, but do they even eat plants?? Any help or ideas would be great of what to use to get rid of them.


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any one know any thing about SP turning White ???? i have 6 in my system and one of them has gone white. It seems fine but none of the other fish have done this. I do not fully understand salting water and what it achives. Tried to take a pic but very hard to do so.

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