Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Do you know it's exactly a year to the day between your last two posts?

Nope didn't even realise Martin..
Lol time goes quick when your having fun hey.
How's your system going

Hi Hezzy,

I am system-less.

We moved from South Africa to New Zealand last year and living on the world's tightest budget at the moment. I am hoping to set something up when spring hits here which is in about a month or two. Last year the first really hot day was on Boxing day a full six weeks after the usual arrival of spring so I am not sure how to time it this year. But basically I will try for 2IBCs and some blue barrels.

One of the big issues here are fish species. I am not keen on keeping ornamental fish I want to grow out fish for eating but the choice of species over here is very limited. You buggers in Australia are spoiled for choice.

The NZ list is here:
http://www.fish.govt.nz/NR/rdonlyres/F7A58E1C-F5A5-4653-B2AC-141598501511/0/Aquaculture_FishSpeciesNotice2012.pdf
It looks long but if you eliminate all the impractical species you're only left with a very few which aren't really that inviting. The only species I see which could be good for growing out is Bass but I am not sure if they do well in AP. I am also considering grass carp, I know where to source them here but I am not sure how good they are for eating.

So there's my long sad story.

Martin.

Hi Martin
I would go with bass, I Beleive they grow fast to.
I'm sorry to hear you don't have a system at the moment .
I'm working away so I'm home every four weeks which makes maintnace an bugs a problem but I'm getting there now.

I have 3 growbeds with 40 mm drain pipe it runs 12 meters along the ground then raises half a meter back up to fish tank, it is all gravity fed and I had problems with not enough drainage so I added another 40 mm pipe running alongside the existing one an teed into the drain. This works quite well but I'm wondering if I put a bigger drain pipe in will it help me to increase flow rate or is flow rate limited by my stand pipe ect anyway so it won't matter.

Also if I put a bigger drain in will it require more pressure to push it back up half a meter to tank

Thanks Hezzy, yeah hopefully I can get a system up and running sometime soon. A lot depends on my better half getting work so I can't say anything as I don't want to create pressure but there is a promising possibility opening up which could be exciting but early days yet.

I think you're right on the bass - I must do more research to find out where I could find some.

It must be tough working from home for that long each time, not even taking into account looking after an AP system.

Martin.

Yer Martin
It's a hard life but the money is worth it,
Aquaponics sort of runs itself most of the time. It's just hard to keep the bugs out.
I find slaters an slugs the hardest at the moment

Yeah I've heard of slaters. Nasty buggers by all reports. Have you tried beer traps for slugs, I've seen other people mention them here when dealing with slugs.

Hi Martin, yer I'm in the process of doing beer traps, I've also read to flood the grow bed but the slaters just climb up my plants untill the flood is over.
I've also put grease around my stand legs to stop ants an bugs climbing up. Which works Exelent .

I saw a video on youtube of people using copper tape around the grow bed legs to stop slugs and snails from climbing up which was very interesting.

If you figure out how to deal with slaters though please post it, I am sure lots of people would be interested.

Hi Hezzy, when I get my system running I plan to use a sprinkle of snail pellets on the ground around my tanks. My place has bucket loads of slugs, and more Big Brown Ba$tard snails than you could poke a stick at. During my woeful attempts at dirt gardening, I've also found the slaters to be quite partial to the odd snail pellet as a between meal snack.
I probably should mention the snail pellets I'm using are an iron chelate EDTA based thing. Supposed to be a little bit better if the woofer eats some, but I wouldn't recommend getting them in the grow bed!

Hi trav
I was going to do the as thing but my snails and slaters get around my tank to and I don't won't them to eat an fall in as my fish love snails slaters worms slugs an anything else they can get there hands on...
I have put pellets out the front of my house and other areas that isn't close to my tank ect, so I hope that brings the population down a bit
B

The EDTA snail pellets are safe in the grow bed, in fact, people often add chelated iron to their system anyway.

Really.. So the iron chelate pellets are fine on the media. Fish safe even if they get wet an sink in to media ect, or do you remove them

Here's a safety data sheet on Multicrop EDTA snail pellets

http://www.multicrop.com.au/pdfs/LQ1YX- ... KILLER.pdf