Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

all gravel washed and in new GB's plumed up but as i was sure was going to happen a new pump is required 3ton an hour is not going to be enough, off to buntings over the weekend i think.

New 6ton submersible pump installed overflow's only just handle the flow rate after 15 mins of running still not sure that my flow rate is high enough to turn the water over as much as should be,

I have never seen pumps rated in tons . Usually they are rated in gph. Then of course you have the fun of figuring out how much head you have to figure out how much flow you will really have.

hahaha, Its actually rated at maximum 6000Lph at a maximum head of 3.5m. seems to be doing the job i added an extra outlet in the top tank to help with turnover.

After letting the system settle for the last week I decided it was time to seal everything up yesterday, whilt removing fittings in the third tank i droped one using a net to retreive I also got a SP so it appears that not just the dead one i found in the sump last week has found its way into the bottom drains, will be interesting to see how many have taken it upon themselves to relocate, also looks like i need to add some mesh as a drain cover. surprisingly the gold fish are all still in the second tank

Must always protect drains from fish. Also, make sure you have some easy way to clean the drain grates.

i left all the drain pipes inside the tank unglued so that they can be easily removed ( not important if the internal pipework leaks ).

Drain pipes all sorted no fish getting through there, next two problems/questions, is twenty Barra in one tank too many? being twenty all up just in one tank not twenty in each tank and what is the best option for a mesh tank cover i had thought about fish netting but it cost an arm and a leg, now looking at shade cloth or bird netting

Many people use shade cloth and that will probably keep more debris out of you tank as well as keeping more sun out. I've used bird netting in a few spots before but it is usually pretty wimpy stuff if it gets snagged and then you wind up having to patch it.

Cheers TCLynx,

I went with shade cloth cut a couple of inches wider than the tank, cable tied chain around the outside and placed the original restraint bars accross the tank to stop the cloth drooping. Looks like its working well.

Have ordered 20 Barra, picking them up Saturday.

picked up my Barra today and have them in tank salted to 5ppt at the moment will move them to the main system tomorrow. How big of a size difference is too big for Barra?

From where did you get your barra?

got them from golden ponds looked rather sad but are looking strong now after 10 hors in my transfer tank.

Lost one of the Barra yestardey morning, he had been looking sick since i moved him out to the main syatem, didnt notice it until about ten minutes after transfer (dont know how i missed it) looked like ICH but i couldnt catch him to move him back inside for a stronger salt bath, all the rest are looking good and where even eating well yesterday arvo.

Having trouble with my SLO's and the tanks nearly overflowing, have modified the bottoms to 8mm drill holes instead of slits from the angle grinder and increased the area that the water can overflow at the top to reduce friction during the high periods.