Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

How are everyone's SP and or Trout going? Anyone got any SP they want to sell. In a month or two?


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Sorry I have given up on SP but have the next batch of Rainbow Trout cumming at the end of next month.

why is that?

ive given up on trout, they just dont seem to like me much. i do have 350 silvers in my small tank and whats left of some trout (around 100'ish) in the main tank.

The Silvers survive fine here but the wait for plate size was killing me. In the same time frame I can get 300 - 400 Trout to size and have them eaten.

It just took too long plus I am hooked on the taste of Rainbow Trout. I can now keep them over summer so I get a 16 - 17 month growing season.

@Johny5 How did you manage to keep your water under 25c over summer?

Yes how did you keep them over summer?


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I cheated actually.

Firstly I harvested the crop purchased in August 2013 last January just before it got really hot. I then only had the crop purchased in August 2014 in one of the tanks. They where small enough to withstand the higher water temps.

This tear I have added a white shade cloth cover about 2.5 meters above the system and grow beds so it should help the temps.

I will again harvest the 2014 crop once the temps start to get too high and keep the crop I am about to purchase next month over summer. This year I am doubling my crop by going for two hundred and will split them into the two tanks once last years crop is gone.

I also ran a regen air blower nonstop over summer last year but feel that it did not add much air. This year I will keep it on stand by and only run it if really needed.

The above may not be scientific but I will see if my assumptions are correct this year.

i kept my trout over last summer by putting a heap of up turned sprinklers over my tank to basically spray/mist water over. i went through a hell of a lot of water and did get some deaths but managed to keep most of them alive. my tank gets a lot of morning sun which didnt help much.

the only time i almost came unstuck was the couple of humid days we had just after it was scorching hot. evap cooling wont work when its humid

part of my reasoning behind going silvers this year (and so many of them) was to keep water temps higher in the hope plants grow better earlier and later in the season. more just a theory than any solid evidence based

There is plenty of room in aquaponics for more than one way of doing things. I gave the misting some thought but was concerned about the water usage. We run most of the year on rain water so over summer when we are on mains I find that I watch the water use closely. For about 75% of the year we have plenty of water but it is the wrong time of year.

haha yea, damn weather not giving you rain when you need it most to cool your trout... someone needs to write a sternly worded letter to the BOM to make it rain more when its hot so we can keep our trout happier here in SA

i think i went about $20 over my water allocation in the hottest 3 months. i mean it really wasnt so bad specially considering im way out north and it was damn hot, and i get plenty of direct sunlight on my tank.

Did you get the trout from the couple in Mount Compass?

I have before. I currently get them from The South Australian Fly Fishers` Association as they sell off their excess stock.

Nice work keeping the rt's over summer peeps, seems like you all get tough trout over there too. Just one question though.

Where are the photos? or it didn't happen.

Ok Ok next summer plenty of photos then.

I've just sent an email to SA Fly Fishers to find out more details about their fish. Its probably too late for me this year as I don't have cooling set up, but it's good to know the info ready for next year.

My silvers are doing well but yeah, they're slow growing.