Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I like that you, muzza have used some recycle parts also.

Thanks Muzza. I hear you. I just wish I could hear figures from the other side of the ledger. It's these unquantified savings that are the most valuable. Difficult to put a number on them.

Any recommendations for dehydrators, Muz?

Careful with the chestdrawer ones on ebay (labelled different things) I bought one but its uneven compared to the traditional round stack ones. Excalibur being the exception.

Hey Charlie, mine is a 10 tray Sunbeam, and last month was the first time I used it. It's simple to use having only three fan speeds. Not sure what else is out there as the misses bought it last year some time for dehydrating fruit. It came with 5 trays and she bought the extra 5 separately. Just over $100 I think.

I did find the bottom trays dried out quicker than the top ones. So towards the end I swapped them around.

Bought another 3kg of meat and all the sauces this morning as the boys at work put an order in. Plus I want to try making some Trout jerky to take up as well, cryovaked of course

Well I knocked up my new trellis before lunch then did a quick trip to Perth and grabbed 12 190L Olive drums. Will have three groups of three between trellis posts and a few spare drums for Ron. I cut below the shoulder of the drum using the circular saw. Turned the top upside down and it then sits on the shoulder, Will put saw cuts into the neck and fill with blue metal. Want to be able to remove for when the tomato roots go feral for easy cleaning.

So they will be tapped into the AP, Muz?


p.s. I bought the stainless 10 drawer excalibur last night after reading some reviews and a little research. Ive got a good contact for bulk beef so am looking to do a range of jerky and biltong recipes.

They sure will be part of the aquaponics, there for the climbing things that take up lots of room. I need to shut the system down so I can break into the drain and supply lines. I pegged out the locations for the next two growbeds and the wicking bed so I'll put lines in for them while I'm at it.

I actually chewed on the last of the jerky I made last break this morning. I'm sure you'll have heaps of fine jerky in the near future. I've just got to find time to make the next lot as I really want to finish these drums off and get them planted.

I've also decided to fill in the fifth growbed with blue metal, its the one I use for duckweed and rafts. I'm just not using its efficiently enough the way it is. Plus I really want to plant a heap of corn as soon as possible.

It was 43'deg at work last week and today at home its 13'deg and raining, Grrrr... Not much work getting done

I did manage to drain my 5th growbed and the trailer is full of blue metal buts that's as far as that got.

I did manage to cut the tops of the 9 drums but that's as far as that got.



So I grabbed a couple of Trout out and smoked them up and tried out the new cryovac machine. And I love it......



The flesh is a lot pinker after 3 weeks



The end result, all smoked up

Very nice Muzz.
I put in for one of those fancy smokers or a cryovac machine for my birthday but I think I'm getting a Nexus 10 pad (sigh)
I love what you have done with the olive drums. I have a few of them and didn't know what to do with them. They seemed thinner to me so I wasn't sure if they would be strong enough.

yum.

My smoker cost me $70 and came with a metho burner that was useless. I took the plates of my BBQ and it sits perfectly over 3 burners. I crank them on high for 15-20min for butterflied and 30min whole. Works a treat.

The olive drums are thinner than the blue drums but I'm sure they'll support 25kg of bluemetal.

As I filled the the fifth growbed this morning I had a pleasant surprise. BABY MUSSEL'S

I wasn't expecting that so I had to pull up and relocate all the baby's to the fish pond. They are actually stuck to the blue metal with a stringy secretion. Must be doing something right

Hey muz, so I can get an idea of your trout growth rates..

I see you put your trout in around the end of April.. What size/approx weight were they then?

Did you have any yearlings?

What dimensions is you your FT?

Do you find that this size trout is average for you? Or are you having a particularly good season?

And finally.. I see some other forum members are quite surprised by the size of your fish so early.. Do you have any theories as to why?

Cheers

Hey Noddy, got my Trout fingerling's from Troutman same as most others. Going by his website they would have been around 130mm long weighing around 27grams I'm guessing. I certainly don't check there sizes.

This is only the second season I've had Trout, last year I had 120 (advanced fingerling's) and they made it through to mid December before the water temps got to hot for them. But it was a bit cooler than usual so don't expect the same conditions this year. The largest was around 1.3kg, about 450mm. This year I bought 200 and I would think that their growth is on par for last year. There kept in a 2.6m diameter tank which contains 5500L. There should be 172 left, approximately 100kg.

This is my first attempt at aquaponics and I don't think my growths are any different than other members in my general area. From what I've seen most look to be very similar in fact. Sure my system is different to most others. Made so to cope with higher stocking densities I choose to run. I've got extra filtration and the automatic feeders and that's about it. They do get fed 6 times a day, every two hours from 7am to 5pm. In another month I add two more feeds going from 5am to 7pm.