Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Gordon, my dolomite is from Manutec. Last time I added some I put it on the gravel at the GB inflows. My understanding is that it is a 'natural' product without any additives - of course that doesn't necessarily mean that it is safe, but I haven't had any issues.

Hi Gnoib, I hope the project goes well. Just watch for leaks from the towers and have them over a GB or ST if possible.

Its been a while...
I harvested another pair of trout a couple of weeks ago and they tasted swampy.

Consensus on another thread was that high nitrates can impact taste viewtopic.php?f=46&t=25545&hilit=fish+swampy#p513858. I stopped feeding and did some water changes, which was probably a good thing because ammonia and nitrites had jumped up after being 0-0.25ppm for so long. I suspect a week of bitterly cold weather (relatively speaking for Oz) may have severely slowed down nitrification. The upside is that the pH is dropping more slowly so I don't have to adjust it back up so often.

Hopefully will harvest another couple of trout this weekend to see how they taste.

My O/H has been working on getting power and internet out to the AP system so that he can hook up the Raspberry Pi to monitor temperature and various things, and put in a back up air pump. Crawling around roof spaces trying to get cables through walls, and digging trenches under fences and over all of the underground utilities (water, gas, electricity, phone) which connect at that corner of the house was an epic task.

While all this was going on and I wasn't needed to be a 'third hand', I did some maintenance on the system. Changed out around 1/3 of the water which should get nitrates down to around 50ppm. I cleaned all the tower inlets as several of them were blocked with biofilm. Then I realised that the tower collection pipe was slowly overflowing around the tower holes
Those roots were surprisingly long and thick! The culprit was the snowpeas in the tower adjacent to the outlet.

The system works much better now that the blockages are taken care of

Celery, bok choy, coriander, rocket, parsley and snowpeas are doing well in the towers. Strawberries, chives, oakleaf lettuce and spinach are not doing so well. I think it is too cold with a few too many crisp frosts lately for the strawberries and chives. The spinach has been a disappointment in the system, although the survivors in the growbed seen to be doing okay now.

Back to work for me last week after 7 wonderful months off on long service leave.
At least we have our new place to plan for and look forward to later this year

Hi Joc

Sorry to hear about your enforced separation from your fish and plants during weekday daylight hours.

Interested in the apparently waterproof box for the electronics in your post above. I've had some problems with water in my backup pump relay switch. Currently using a couple of small plastic waterproof boxes for various electronics but have been looking for something a lot bigger I can fix to the wall.

Any tips on where I can get one like yours?

seven months off, it must be tough to go back.

Man I couldn't count the times I've plugged in like this. Probably the most amazing for me is the remote tower sites; nothing around, no people, just trees and me plugged in.
Those towers are so cool looking and after all this time, aside from the roots, they worked as good as they look?

Just noticed that the waterproof box doesn't look that big compared to the computer. Or maybe it's just the perspective?

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Waterproof steel boxes very similar to that with a lock and removable bottom plate are almost $200 from electrical wholesalers.

Much appreciated Gunagulla

I have a mate who's a sparkie... and has fallen in love with Aquaponics... he might have access to some old ones. Otherwise I'll fall back on my dubious handyman skills.

Hope first couple of weeks back at work are going OK Joc.

Hi Dave, +1 Gunnagulla, it is similar to this one http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/600x400x200- ... 1788907338 - an old one would be great as you will put holes in it for cables and air lines.

Yes its an effort getting back into the groove at work - especially getting my head around the new IT hardware and software since we moved to a new office and IT system while I was away.

Hey Brian, the towers do make a nice screen from the road. They are running okay but need regular checking for blocked inlets, random wicking leaks from the planting holes, and now roots growing into the collection pipe. If they were over a GB or tank, leaks would not be a problem. An airgap at the bottom of the towers would stop the roots. I think the biggest issue will be uncontrolled heat exchange - the temperature monitoring will be interesting as we move into spring and summer.Sounds lovely if the weather is kind and you have a head for heights.

Towers sound a bit on the high maintenance side. Itching to know what you do or how you got such a nice long break from worki-work

Agree about the towers - Food&Fish recently had a fantastic wicking barrel tower for strawberries which looked like a better prospect.

I work in local government, so the leave I accrued in my previous job with a statutory authority could be transfered to my new employer 5 years ago. I work in the natural resource management, environment and sustainablility sector.

Here in Oz, in fulltime employment we get 4 weeks annual leave per year, and get 3 months long service leave after 10 years of service. At my work, we can negotiate an additional 4 weeks leave per year by taking a 4 week pay cut spread out over the year. This has been incredibly helpful to me as a single parent to be there for my son through his schooling and school holidays. We can also negotiate to take our long service leave at half pay which I did, plus a few weeks of my annual leave to get 7 months off.

Aussies mostly save their long service leave for a big overseas trip, or buy a caravan or RV to travel around Oz, often just before they retire. I needed a break to see what I wanted to be when I grow up (apparently I don't have to now that I am 50 ). I chose science as a career, but growing and creating things has always been my passion. It was a time for reflection and some decisions about how I want to live out the next phase of my life.

In the States, I think you only get 2 weeks leave per year? But Germany gets 6 weeks per year!

Wow, that is wonderful. I'm a sub-contractor for a WISP, haven't had a vacation in the 8 years I've worked there American corporations have successfully weeded out the Middle Class. They do everything they can to make life for workers here unmanageably difficult. We recently lost our Medicaid (free health care) Because we make a few hundred dollars too much per year. After a lifetime of being raped by insurance companies we finally qualified for Medicaid when my wife couldn't work due to her disability. That bliss lasted seven months. Once she got her check for disability which isn't enough for a homeless person to live on, the government disqualified us for assistance. Sorry for the rant, I woke up with gout pain, no insurance, no meds, damn grumpy about America, again

Well the trout have been on very short rations, maybe 1/2 a normal feed only twice a week for 3 weeks now. I have also done a few major water changes. pH holding steady at 6.6, ammonia and nitrites 0, and nitrates were ~80-100 this morning (yes its high, but a big improvement on the ridiculous levels previously), so did another big water change. Had 2 trout for dinner tonight and they were delicious. No sign of the swampy flavour or unpleasant texture of the last batch.

They had also grown a bit despite the short rations (tails hanging out more from the BBQ grill) and still had a bit of fat in the body cavities. Both were females. One had much pinker/orangier flesh than the other. I can now net a couple with minimal disturbance and have them killed and cleaned quickly with little mess to clean up. As they say, 'practice makes perfect'.

Sorry to hear that Brian, they are trying to do that more and more here too. If you are on casual rates you get no annual leave, long service leave or sick leave, and no job security at all. But the employers still expect you to turn up when they want you, never mind if you have something important to attend to - casual is supposed to work both ways, if they want you to be there for regular hours they should employ you in a permanent or temporary part-time role which has leave entitlements and protections. A lot of people are also pushed into being contractors, which again means that the employer does not have to provide entitlements. However, if you contract to one company for more than 80% of your time, the tax office deems that you are technically an employee so disallow claiming costs associated with your business. There needs to be fairness and balance between those in business who put themselves on the line, and those who work for them to make their business profitable.

Thanks goodness our Medicare is universal and separate to our employment so that people are not bankrupted if they or their child is ill or injured.

Unfortunately, I'm loaded up on pain-killers, and can't think of anything in the way of conversation. My wife is working frantically to get some form of insurance instated. None of my pain should have needed to be treated with pain killers. I'd be literally back on my feet in a matter of hours with the proper meds. I was able to read and comprehend what you are saying here. It is food for thought

So its been over 30 C the past 3 days and heading for 35 tomorrow. The ten 6-700g rainbow trout left were OK this evening, as the night temps have cooled off. But tonight its still 26 C at 10pm. Very worried about tomorrow. May get several bags of ice to float in the ST and FT before work tomorrow. Not much else I can do except preemptively harvest some in the morning. The two we cooked yesterday weighed 1kg together gilled and gutted, the larger one was 35cm. We have been eating trout every weekend, but have been caught out with this unseasonal hot weather.

wow, that's huge, I can't wait for some of the same.