Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi everyone

Well...I tried to sell my system as I was moving house but no-one wanted it I took it as a sign that I need to keep it and its now sitting, dismantled, at my place in Kelmscott WA (Roleystone side).

I need some help to set it up again. My ex took the lead on this originally, about 4 years ago, but its just me now and I'm not overly talented with this stuff.

Its a 500litre grow bed, 1000litre tank and has 16 limestone blocks for the stand (iirc). I dumped the original pea gravel at the last house and now have 10x bagged expanded clay. I have all the original pipework, taps, pumps and filters.

I'm wanting to see if there would be two people willing to help me set it up in the next few weeks. I'm home pretty much all of next week then am going back to work on 11 May; from then could really only look at doing it on a Saturday or Sunday morning.

Can pay 2 people $50 each for their time/petrol, I'm thinking it might take an hour or two to set up.

I'm not easily able to access the net at the moment (stoopid hills!) but will check in here when I can. Otherwise I can be reached on jojo brooker @ yahoo. com.au (remove spaces) and pop your number on there so I can call you back (can read emails on my phone but not respond to them.

Thanks very much, Jo

Photos of the system are here: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=24083

Massive thanks to Frank1069 for his help on the weekend.

System is set up, just need to get the water right, get some fingerlings and start some planting

Hi Ash,

I'm not sure if you wrote those goals in any specific order... but just in case you did, I would reverse the order.

(1). If the system is up and running I would plant a.s.a.p. and add 250ml of Seasol to the 1000L. This will feed the seedlings and the Ammonia in the Seasol will help start the cycling process (getting the water right).

(2.) Ensure the system is cycled fully, there are plenty of threads on here discussing cycling. You only need to aim for a maximum Ammonia level of 1.0-2.0ppm during cycling.

(3). Add your fingerlings. At this time of year I would be hunting around to find some advanced Trout fingerlings, about 15cm+... Maybe try Woodvale Fish & Lily, or see if Gav from Ferguson Springs is doing another trip to Perth with Trout.

When determining your systems maximum safe stocking capacity, work on 25L of wet gravel per Trout, don't include the 40-50mm dry layer at the top in your calc's. For a GB with 500L of gravel, realistically you'd probably have just over 400L of wet gravel, so 16 or 17 Trout fingerlings.

Good on you frank helping out a fellow member

Or she can follow the original instructions she'll have with the system and put fingerling in straight away like everyone else that has a BYAP system....

can you be more specific Earthbound?

Cycling a system with fish is a simple process so long as you follow some simple guidelines. With our systems (Ash has one of ours) we have recommended adding fish straight away and following the 'golden rules' which come with the system and people have been doing this successfully for many years..

No Probs i was happy to help out a day well spent and new friends to boot

Thanks Mr Damage. They weren't in order. Need to add some seasol, start planting and testing the water...now really. Not confident with the cycling and testing part so will have a good look through the site again and just have a little play to get myself familiar with it (before there are fish in there to kill!).

Also have a little bacteria to add from Frank (was this part of what you were referring to Joel?) to help with the cycling.

Will be getting silver perch again (Carey(?) in Gidgeeganup if I can). As I don't eat the fish, the longer growth rate suits me and this saves extra equipment (heating etc.). Had previously stocked 40 perch to this system, will double check those calcs'. Thanks for your advice

And thanks again Frank, really appreciate your help. Will have to start a veg/feta/olives/eggs exchange when I pull my finger out and work out how to make all of these things I ordered a zucchini slicer/spaghetti maker thing yesterday too