Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I did have some shade over at the start but it was a pain anytime there was a storm of any decent wind. I have been thinking of try Coptrol, it seems to have worked for others.

Its coming along nicely...

The first set of beds are in and have got some plants in them now. To start with Ive put in celery, chives, spring onion, snow peas, rosemary, thyme, garlic, carrots, lettuce, baby spinach and silverbeet.




We also had our Silver Perch arrive this morning!!

We got 60 perch to start with and also got 20 yabbies and 20 mussels at the same time. Not really planning on eating the mussels, mainly got them to help with filtration.




Next step is to add another 4 GB along the right hand side...

Bit of an update on how my system is coming along...

Have now got an extra 4 GB since last post making 14 in total. All are now planted out with various things. Have had a lot of success with celery, spinach, lettuces, basil, chives and leeks. The celery, lettuces and spinach all went to seed recently so have now removed them and put in some more as well as broccoli, cucumber and a water melon.
Have had some tomato's but they seem to not be not doing so well...

Also have added some more aeration in as well by way of an air pump and stones.

The perch are still kicking and feeding well, though their growth seems to be a little on the slow side or maybe im just impatient. They were put in as 50mm long fingerlings nearly 6 months ago and at best guess now they would be 120mm long or so. Does that seem about right for growth rates??




As you can see have got Azolla growing on top now as well. I will be havesting this to use as chook feed and it also saves having to put up shade over the pool.
The PVC square is where I feed the fish.





Water clarity seems to fluctuate between nearly clear (visibility to about 1.5m just brown in color) to a bit murky with visibility down to about 40cm but still brown in color. All in all though everything seems to be running nicely.

Hey really nice Snail Racer,

love the bush surrounds and now the water plants makes it look a beautiful place to sit for a beer after a hard day working on AP.

Water quality should improve in time it's just you have lots of water to grow beds. The SP's like warm water for max growth, 23-28 is the go but with such a large pool may be cooler than optimal temp. What water temp do you have at the moment?

Anyway great set up so far and God bless,

froggo.

Not sure what the water temp is at the moment as the thermometer broke a while ago and havn't replaced it yet. With the ever reliable hand in water test I would think its over 20 prob more like 24ish. It gets a fare bit of sun and has been hot here of late.

Looking good SR, have you checked the nutrient levels lately?

nice to see they do things big over there as well

The last few water test that I have done have all been the same
PH - 8.2
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0

PH has been consistently high, I have yet to try anything to lower it. Have been just letting it go to see if it will sort itself out over time.

If it hasnt come down a bit by Jan might try and lower it myself. Everything in it seems fine though...

Pretty as a picture