Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks for the encouragement Guys
It's very frustrating this algal bloom not being able to see the fish, never had problems with it before but then I've never made such major changes to the system before either. Ill keep monitoring the water quality over the next few days (just in case)
Plenty of room in the GB so no need to crowd the plants. The rest of the space will fill with lettuce & other seeds spread in there.

Managed to get out with a mate in his dinghy today, so Crayfish is on the menu tonight !
GTK

One week later & salad greens seedlings are starting to appear.


Change 25% of the water in the system today, pumped out ~1000L watering the whole of my back lawn/dirt garden. It should be a good folia feed for the grass & plants.
I still can't see the fish when I feed them !
Water readings : Temp 24*c
PH 8.3
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 60
Ill pump out another 25% later in the week if the look of water hasn't changed significantly by then.
GTK

maybe just wait for the algae to run its course? as long as you don't have big green globs floating on the surface it will clear eventually.

Cheers Slowboat
I maybe a little impatient you think ?
Maybe Ill give it another week & hopefully it'll start to clear up.
All good

Your lobster look just like ours in Fl. I bet they taste as good too. A little drawn butter and a cold beer...heaven on earth.

HI coachchris
Yes the crays are very tasty, they were quickly eaten up @ xmas dinner. We have a split season here "the whites" is the first part of the season & the crays start in the shallows which makes them easy to catch, after they malt then they migrate into deep water off the continental self. The second part of the season is the "Reds" where they change colour, become residential, there's less of them & are harder to catch.

Happy New Year
Update on the system , a couple of weeks have passed & the algae has slowly started to clear up in the main system. I can make out the shapes of the pvc pipes on the bottom of the sump used for Yabby hides.

I had a bit of a problem in a separate IBC, after transferring water from the main system [ this was a big mistake ] a few days later I found two Murray cod & a Silver Perch dead in the IBC. The tank is fully enclosed & is hard to see in to it. They had redness on there fins & blotchy skin. It was obvious that they had some kind of skin infection. Any suggestion what the infection is or what caused it ?

After adding 2Kgs of salt, the next day there was 3 dead , I added another 3Kgs of salt & the next day there was one SP gasping on the surface, unfortunately that one didn't survive but I haven't had any more deaths, there's only 4 SP's left in that IBC.
The Barra are growing fast & are very active/hungry. The water temps are now between 25*-28*c
There was some warmer days last week & a lot of the lettuce seedling in the main GB got burnt off. The rest of the plants are doing well especially the tomatoes & capsicum's.

I've been researching Tandanus bostocki to put in the sump tank, hope to take the Kids camping during the school holidays to try & catch some. Has anyone else had any experience with keeping these ?
GTK .

Tandanus bostocki - as in WA Estuarine/Freshwater Cobbler

I think BYAP in Jandakot had a couple of catfish in one of their Patio Planters when I visited last year and I chatted to Sue about them. Cannot recall but I suspect they may have been cobbler.

Maureen or Sue might be able to answer that one.
You could give them a buzz at the shop if they don't respond here.
www.cheidysaquaponics.com.au
( viewtopic.php?f=51&t=21637 )


there is also an old thread covering Tandanus bostocki ...
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=947&start=30

Thanks Darren
There's a heap of info on Tandanus Tandanus the East coast Eel tailed catfish, initially I thought about buying some of these until I saw the price to import them to WA
I've read all the posts RE: Tandanus bostocki on this forum, that's what got me interested catching a few for myself & its a great way to get the Kids out of the house to go camping during the holidays. I haven't found if anyone has successfully grown out Tandanus bostocki in AP before.
Ill give Cheidys Ap a call when I get back to town, as I'm currently at the Abrolhos working on a pearl farm & the phone reception is not to good out here.
GTK

no problems....

was mainly the comments by troutman I was referring to (page 3 of that thread).
"The Tandanus (Bostocki) in WA is a different fish than that from the east. It dosent grow quite as long but has a thicker body. From my experience they are not easy to keep as they dont seem to take artificial foods readily. If you have a supply of small yabbies or worms to feed them you should do ok with them. As for the size, a 45cm catfish doent exactly give you a huge fillet as their head comprises around 1/3 of their overall body length. On the positive side they are good eating though."
[maybe troutman is still around ? you could try PM'ing him]

But the ones at BYAP were definitely catfish and pretty sure cobbler.
Really just what actual was and source.
They seemed OK, though only 2 in small 500L patio - your setup would be lot better.

Never hear much these days about cobbler - all Barra, snapper and Bream.
When I was a kid cobbler and flathead were considered a pretty good outcome from a days fishing and you could get it at quite few fish-and-chip places. I think that was when there was still commercial fishing in the Swan River..

p.s. Fremantle TAFE has a pretty big aquaculture setup and often do fingerlings etc.

They are a good source of aquaculture info for W.A. and particularly locally relevant species and breeding programs.

http://www.challenger.wa.edu.au/campuse ... KlFqnu2r2Q

google pointed to a Fremantle TAFE person who posted here on BYAP forum couple years ago viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5012

Woah GTK! That's an awesome setup there. I'm also interested in knowing about some of the other local native species for aquaponics and it's on my list to get out and about this year and get outdoors some more too. There's so much to see up here and we've been slack about getting to know our local area. I'm on a mission to change it.

Do you plan to keep the newcomers in with the barra or the SP? I was trying to figure out how many tanks you have.

Gday
I got back from sea yesterday to find 3 dead Bara, we had warm weather while I was away, including a 43*c day & I know there was power outages that day also this probably contributed to there deaths. But the other Barra in the tank have scales missing & some kind of skin infection its the same problem I had with Silver Perch which I salted to 6kg-750L of Fish tank which fixed the problem with them. I salted the Barra 6kg - 750L Fish tank at the same time but it is still effecting the Barra. Im thinking that that they maybe need to be isolated & hospitalised with a very high dose of salt ? any suggestions what dose may be enough to kill this disease ?

Ill try to catch and post photographs of the worst of them tomorrow.

Velvet - there's sword tails and yabbies in the Erwin River. The Chapman & Greenough Rivers both have Black Bream these can all be used in AP. I have not yet located the catfish but they will go in the sump tank which only has Yabbies, Guppies & some Sword Tails in it @ moment. They will become food for the cat fish if I catch some.
I have 3 IBCs, a 3000L FT & a 1500L sump tank. the system has been slowly been expanding over the last two years.
GTK

This is the wost of them, have pulled it out isolated it.

The other Barra ma have been attacking it, but Im not sure ?

So I pumped water out of the Barra IBC down to 400L & salted ~3kg, this along with the salt water already in it should bring the solution to 12 ppt. Weighting out the salt into a paint filter bag & hanging the bag into the IBC seems to be the easiest way to add the salt.
The Barra still seem to be very active & are still feeding, so Ill give them 48 hours in that salt before toping up the IBC. The plants won't like the high salt levels but there a lot cheaper to replace than the Barra.