Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Jay,

After pumping around the tap water for a couple of days to gas off the chlorine, I threw in several buckets of manky water from the Labrador's puppy plunge pool - it gets really soupy and full of decomposing leaves with a doggy teabag a couple of times a day. It used to be my ornamental fish pond, but the dog ate the water lilies, their pot and the pond pump, and the poor goldfish suffered repeated concussions as he joyously did doughnuts in the circular pond. I reckon there was enough building blocks of life and bugs in it to establish life on other planets. I also added some worm wee from the worm farm as that has a good assortment of bugs as well. It looked a bit soupy for a couple of days, then cleared up beautifully and has been clear, but slightly coloured ever since.

I think I would have gone nuts waiting another few weeks

Thanks for the tips Jay.

I would be keen to get some Skreeting - I will be in the City next Wednesday or Thursday at the International Flower & Garden Show, so can pick up some fishfood for us then if you can help me locate it. I can drop some off on the way through if you are in Warragul or thereabouts. Can you PM me and we will sort it out.

This arvo, Noojee quoted me $2.50 each for 30 fingerlings, and their 3mm food was $4/kg and 6mm was $2.50/kg. They prefer a day's notice to get the fingerlings ready.

Now you have added another question - fingerlings or yearlings
Is it cheating getting yearlings?
Will I learn more getting fingerlings and going through the whole process
Supposedly the SLO to the GBs should take care of the gunk - I have put some worms in the GBs and will add more as the plants grow and system matures.

With respect to number of fish - I currently have ~400 litres of wet media between the two GBs, so using Mr Damage rule of thumb of 25L/fish (~600g cleaned), I should only put in 16 fish. However, I will also have 20 x 1 metre grow towers and the Bright Agrotech (zip tower) folks suggest 5' of tower for every 2-5 lb of fish at maturity which is around 1.5kg/metre of tower. So, using that rule of thumb, I should be able to have at least another 20 or 30 fish. My FT is around 900 litres so it could support up to 45 fish using the other rule of thumb 20L/fish in FT if filtration and aeration are sufficient. I also need enough fish to keep the GBs and towers going - I aim to plant a lot of strawberries in the towers (hence my reluctance to salt the system).

BUT, I don't want to run the system too hard too early, and I don't have additional aeration at the moment (should I ). And, just how many trout can I manage to eat in the small window of time in spring when they are big enough and the water temperature gets too high . I don't have a lot of freezer space for storage. I do have mates up in the Strzelecki's who have a large rainwater tank that was burnt to the waterline in the fires several years back - the excess trout could have their summer holidays up there where it is considerably cooler...

Enough of that - what do you reckon about 30 fingerlings or is that pushing it a bit hard?

900 litres atm - should be fine with 30 fish.
Trout are messy - highly recommend a radial flow filter
additional aeration - a must - if you pump dies the trout die - if you have an air pump they go okay for a day or so. Especially consider it towards the hotter months when the TAN chart comes into play with ammonia etc - the fish are much bigger in NOV.

pm'ed

Its good to have the computer back up and running

Today I finally hung the grow towers







Making them pretty has taken a lot of effort, and I am glad I spent the time, but oh my aching shoulders . Growbeds are much quicker and easier, even with washing and hauling gravel! And you don't need a pump that can cope with 2 metres head. But, I didn't have much space, and I had the pergola I could hang the towers on...

The first six towers are filled with bird netting I had laying around and are up and running, but obviously not planted yet. The finger test (ie. poke finger in netting through each of the openings) showed that I have fairly good distribution of water through the netting. I have put out a request on a local hobby farm buy swap sell FB group for more old bird netting or hay netting (or onion/orange bags).

Just to recap on how my system is set up...
Water is pumped from the inground sump tank up to the header pipe for the towers (~2 metres head). Each tower is fed via a 13mm valve/tap thingy that is poked through a top hat grommet in the header pipe. A short piece of 13mm poly extends the tap through a hole in the top endcap to an elbow & poly extension with holes drilled in it to distribute flow across the tower. Excess water from the header pipe exits via a bulkhead fitting (had one spare) through the end cap and drops down to the collection pipe. The tower bases fit into rectangular cutouts in the collection pipe. Another bulkhead fitting in the inspection cap of a 90mm T in the collection pipe directs water into the fish tank. The SLO takes water to the ebb & flood GB with excess water (not much now ) going into the half barrel constant flood GB, which both empty to the sump tank.

My dilemma now is whether I have sufficient flow with my 2000L/hr pump which is now doing ~700L/hr at 2 metre head . It is enough for the grow towers and I have the siphon in the growbed working again after some adjustment - it is now filling in 7 minutes rather than 4 1/2. But my FT is 1000L and ST is another 5-600L, so full circulation would take over 2 hours.

My options are:
1 - leave it at 700L/hr and see what happens (would definitely add aeration)
2 - upsize to the 3000L/hr pump which should give me 1400L/hr at 2 metres, but is 70W rather than 45W and I may have to deal with the excess flow if too much for my pipework (the 2000 can be a back up)
3 - get the 1000L/hr pump and run it directly to the fish tank with a venturi to enhance aeration, provide a circulation current for the fish and waste, and up the flow through the growbeds - it is only 16W so in tandem with the 2000 should not use as much energy as the 3000, plus provides a safety margin if one or the other fails.

I thought it best to hold off on getting the trout fingerlings until I finish mucking around with the pump...

My water tests for the past week have been steady with pH ~7.2 to 7.4, ammonia and nitrite 0, and nitrate ~20 ppm.



Off to the Melbourne Flower and Garden Expo this week to buy some goodies for the grow towers and dirt garden

Looks fantastic! I hope you are aware that I now make sure my wife isn't looking over my shoulder before I open your thread.

Thanks JimV - its slightly wicked being someone's online secret, even if it is only for my AP system

Picked my first salad from the Fish Farm last Thursday when my cousin from England dropped in for lunch on their way though a 4 State whirlwind tour Down Under. The lettuce is growing so fast now there was enough for another salad last night to go with the homemade gnocchi with a tomato sugo from the dirt garden

Must have a good pump to pump the head height? Do you have a backup plan if there is a leak? You could run a gutter under the whole setup that defaults to the sumps - just in case.

Its a Tornado pump from Sale Water Specialists - they have a really good head height - the 2000 cuts out at 3.5m and the 3000 cuts out at 3.7m. You can see some spec here http://www.waterscapes.com.au/pdf/torna ... _pumps.pdf

Hmmm, the back up plan... Well, the only failure I can see would be a blockage in a tower that meant that water overflowed outside the tower and was lost. If that was the case, the sump may eventually get low and cook the pump, but the fish tank would remain full. The header gutter and collection pipes are 90mm PVC pipes with the end caps and the T glued in so there is little opportunity for a leak. Once the pump dilemma is sorted, I will plumb in the pump outlet pipe into the header gutter rather than it just poking in through one of the access holes . I could put a secondary gutter below the collection pipe for any overflows and direct this back to the sump.

My tech savvy OH is working on a Raspberry Pi with sensors to provide a WiFi alarm to our various portable devices if power fails or the pump stops, or the sump gets below a certain level. He also intends to have real time water level sensor to show if the siphon is working and the actual sump height. He wants to do air & water temperature and maybe CCTV in the fish tank. He is also looking at auto switch on of a battery backup air pump if the water pump fails, but I am not sure if airstones would gum up with biofilm if they were just sitting in the fish tank and not going . I plan to have a spare pump in case of pump failure, but was waiting to figure out what size I need now that Stage 2 has been commissioned.

Just came inside after planting the first tower with Hokowase strawberries - only 152 more plants to go

Exciting stuff - you can get float switches from creativepumps if your worried about sump level and pump frying


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love the look of those towers.

A messaging system for pump failure would be great - I guess the Router will need to be on a UPS to get the message out.

Would like to see updates on how the towers with birdnetting go.

Have you thought about DC pumps for the towers? They generally achieve higher heads for lower flow rates due to the high torque of the DC motor. I use them as a backup system on one of my systems so that I'm still turning over the fish water every other hour - which should be enough in a power failure. I've got the dc pump hooked up to a 12V battery that is trickle charged from an old lap top supply with a DCDC converter on the end of it to drop the voltage from 18V to 13.4V. Also have a battery protector in the circuit so once the battery voltage goes below a certain level it disconnect the load to preserve the battery.

The pump I use is a slighty bigger version of this one:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/DC40E-1250-B ... 4897.l4275

Thanks Mattyoga, I tried to find some more details on performance and reliability for the pump but it looks like it is one of those no-name chinese imports with buggar all info. At the moment I need a 'plug & play' solution as it will take some time for my OH to set up the monitoring and battery backup power supply. I think I might go with a reliable name brand for the main engine for my AP system.

After reading through the pumps thread again and doing some more research, it looks like the Laguna might be the way to go. Aquariumproducts.com.au has it for $259 plus $7.50 delivery, a bit cheaper than the $299 on most sites. It is heaps more expensive than your suggestion but it comes with 3 years warranty. The 2800 L/hr flow at 2.1 metre head is a bit much, so I wont need worry about losses from putting in some elbows and Ts and valves/taps, and splitting off some flow directly to the fish tank to provide a current and extra aeration with a DIY venturi. Its only 65W (20 more than my current 2000L/hr tornado pump) so should be fairly economical. Then I can keep the 2000 as a back up.

Laguna Max-Flo Power Jet 1350 - 5000lph
5000lph
65 watts
3.3m Head Height
Thermal shut off
Outlet - click fit easy couplings
Outlet hose tails provided 20, 25 & 32mm
Dimensions ( 21cm x 13cm )
Ceramic shaft
Suitable for fresh & salt water
handles solids upto 6mm
rated for 24/7 use
10m power cord
Extremely quiet and reliable
Made In Italy
3 Year Warranty ( including impeller )

I will do an update on the towers soon. I have planted out the first 5 towers with Hokowase strawberries, chives, alpine strawberries, oak leave lettuce, and 'temptation' strawberries. I have just sowed some sugar snap peas, snow peas and coriander in jiffy pots, and am rooting some more strawberry runners from a pink flowering strawberry I got at the MIF&GS yesterday. I also got some Delft Blue Hyacinth bulbs to plant in one tower seems it is all the go to plant them in a special hyacinth vase with their roots dangling in water. The blustery NW then SW winds have not blown the plants out of the towers or the towers off their hangers yet. So far so good...

'The Fish Farm' now has fish

Today I picked up 25 yearling rainbow trout (only 50 cents more each than fingerlings) and 5kg of large Skrettings Spectra (sinking pellets) to get me started. There was a 'mistake' with the price of fish food quoted over the phone, so I was charged $4/kg rather than the $2.50 quoted. The yearlings will give me a head start on size, and they can go straight onto the large pellets which are less expensive than the 3mm pellets.

The trout didn't seem to mind the 1 1/2 hour trip back home via the scenic route through the mountain ash and treefern forest - do fish get travel sick? They seemed happy enough when I got them home and put them in the FT. There was a bit of headbanging on the IBC walls, then they settled enough to scoff 4-5 pellets each (4 tight fist fulls). No idea how much they weigh and no idea how much that many pellets weigh, so will be difficult gauging feeds of ~2% body weight per day. I think I will stick to giving them as much as they will immediately take at a time and see how we go...




The fish that shall not be named is no more - having joined the plate sized rainbow that we caught at the trout farm in the fridge for a side-by-side smoke cooking experiment tomorrow.

Here's a photo of the 5 grow towers I have planted out to date - all the plants doing fine despite the strong winds. Still waiting on more bird netting or hay netting to fill the remaining towers.



The E&F constant flow GB has already provided a few salads and is looking more lush everyday.



Tested the water before adding the trout - results have been steady for the past week with pH 7.4, zero ammonia & nitrite, and nitrate at 20ppm. Will keep an eye on it daily in case of spikes.



I have ordered the Laguna Maxflo 5000 l/hr pump so that I can split the flow and create more current and aeration with a venturi in the fish tank. It will mean a bit of extra plumbing to manage the higher flow, but will turn over my FT & ST volume in less than an hour which is desirable. My Tornado 2000 will be retired as my back up pump - it only manages around 700 l/hr at 2 metres head.

On the way to pick up the trout, we stopped by Jay's Yarragon AP system which opened this evening for the Earth Hour celebration - looks fantastic . The whole community garden is great and the food at the cafe was delicious. viewtopic.php?f=18&t=24444

A very exciting day!

All the fish are happy and hungry this morning. If they would only stay still so I can count them! This morning's water test shows a slight rise in ammonia and nitrite to 0.25 ppm, and a slight fall in pH to 7.2. I think I will go easy on the food for a bit and keep an eye on the levels until I am sure the system is coping with the load.

make sure you have a net over the edges of your tank - they do like to jump.
Also do you have salt in your system?
Congrats!

Hi Jay, yes I have mesh over the FT - I am a little concerned that the slight gap between the mesh and the lower middle part of the IBC is big enough for a trout to dive through...

I have now salted my system to around 0.6ppt (added 1kg to around 1600L FT & ST combined volume). I only gave them 2 feeds yesterday and didn't feed this morning and did a water test...
pH falling to 7.0-7.2
ammonia rising to 0.5 ppm
nitrite rising to 2 ppm
nitrate rising to 40 ppm

Very concerned about the nitrite, so replaced about 500L with water from the rainwater tank (colourbond roof, not zinc), and decided to salt after consulting the forum threads and balancing the welfare of my trout and strawberries. The nitrite came down to closer to 1 ppm after the water replacement. The trout seem happy, but probably hungry - better hungry than asphyxiated...

Should I add another 500g salt to take it to around 1ppt or stick with the compromise at ~0.6ppt? - you get a 10% impact on strawberries at around 900 uS/cm (= 0.5ppt)

Your cousin (who happens to be my son's maths teacher and lives 2 blocks away - small world!) just dropped round for some AP water (swirled with the biofilm on the orangebags in the ST) to seed his system. He has some old bird netting, so I can fill some more towers and get them on line ASAP.

BTW - smoked cooked carp tastes just as good as smoked cooked rainbow trout, and I actually prefer the texture . Will post some pictures later of yesterday's little side by side experiment