Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I understand, Ron - at that time you were focussed on making sure that we didn't plant more fruit trees than you did.

If I had the space, I would plant a fricken orchard!
I am trying to figure out what is wrong with some stainless steel hose clamps? Perhaps they are not as common over there... I find all I need at the end of aisle 18, where I work. Any good chandlery should have them.

As far as I understand it, any sort of hose clamp will require the inner hose/pipe to be reasonably rigid so as to cramp rather than crush. Whilst the corrugated pool pipes are firmer than the clear acrylic sleeves, they are still eminently crushable. In the instances of the acrylic sleeves in the role of the male connector inside the (rigid) PVC tee or elbows, a clamp won't work at all.

Yea... I probably would not have set it up like that. Great job on the PVC!

There have been two Silver Perch deaths in the last week or so and we are a bit concerned. All the fish - Silver Perch and Goldfish - seem to be happy enough with their conditions and are eating very well but there may be a pattern forming.

After the first death it was decided to add some salt. After around 6kg was dissolved and added we remembered that the Puddle had already been salted to about 2.5 PPT many months ago. Of course, thousands of litres of top-up water would have been added since then but, since salt doesn't evaporate nor disappear with transpiration, most or perhaps all of it would remain in the system, Well, I think that would be the case.

Anyway, we reckon that the Puddle now sits at about 3 PPT salt so will leave it at that and see what happens with the remaining 98 SP and 16 Goldies.

Growth in the GBs continues to be somewhat sporadic. The largest GB, ie the IBC section, refuses to deliver much in terms of vegetable output and has claimed more plant lives than we care to remember. I have previously excused it because it is in a very hot, full sun position but that shouldn't stop some plant types from performing well. It currently just supports one reasonable looking capsicum plant (which was transplanted as an advanced seedling three weeks ago and hasn't grown since) and some munted tomato seedlings. Bean seeds have also now been planted because they are almost a no-fail proposition. Time will tell.

Some plants definately take up the salt, celery and chard taste much saltier when I salt up...

Stick some shadecloth over it until the plants have a chance to become established, in this weather they just crispy.

Well then, I can reasonably expect that the water in the Puddle is not as salty as it would otherwise have been since both celery and rainbow chard are growing in the system. Useful info - thanks. I think I read a similar comment from Earthbound on another thread just recently.

Sounds easy enough but it would be tricky and inconvenient given the location of the IBC. We will get something growing in there with a view to creating a micro-climate for other species.

The Puddle Princess sent me a video of her fish, which are coming along well. It will likely be a while before any of them graces a dining table, though.




The Puddle Princess was previously advised to not feed her fish in an uncontrolled manner, such as just chucking in an unmeasured amount of feed whenever she was moved to do so. I am chuffed to see that the feed quantity does indeed appear to be measured - note the reflection of a measure of some sort used to dispense the feed.

The Silver Perch seem to be gaining ground on the Goldies and could well be larger than them by summer's end.

The Puddle is plodding along nicely, now. The fish are happy and feeding well (the latter implies the former, I reckon) and finally the vegies are going well. It seems it was a combination of a lack of system maturity and a need for chelated iron that saw the plants staying small and weedy, with interveinal chlorosis.

I reckon the Puddle Princess did a splendid job with the painting of the GBs.





The Puddle Princess was out of feed for a couple of days so fed the Goldies and Silveries bread and lettuce. They seemed to take to it very well (ok, we know Goldfish eat just about anything), to the extent that lettuce is now a staple in the diet of the fish. I noticed them choosing lettuce over their new pellets when I fed them the other day. I suspect the Nova pellets are less tasty than the Trout feed that they have been on for the last few months.

The pH of the Puddle has changed from close to 8 to around 6 over the last few months. I was expecting it to eventually level off as the system aged but that large differential took me by surprise. Additionally, the ammonia reading has been about 4ppm for three weeks or more. All feeding stopped when the high ammonia level was discovered but it has made little difference to the system parameters.

Over a week ago I submerged a large onion bag full of shell grit in the Puddle but the pH has yet to climb back up to anywhere near neutral.

Any ideas why the pH and ammonia have undergone such drastic swings?

I think it helps to have some water running through the shell grit. I do it that way, but this is really just a guess.

The only thing I can think of with the ammonia may be weather shock of the bacteria. How's your weather been?

Odd that the ph has dropped so much for sure, but with 10kL of water I guess you will need a lot of shell grit to make a difference.

the plants look healthy.

I've found my pH dropped to low 6's and ammonia up to 4 tonite also, I was blaming the rain. Have you had much where you are PLJ?