Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

well, it looks like a proper HSM has finally caught up with me. Get home tonight, eating dinner, and I hear my pump kick in. thats a problem, because my system is constant flow. Check the system, seems OK. 15mins later, I hear my pump turn off.

I cant work out whats wrong with it, no shops until 9am tomorrow. pump is only 3 months old, so i'm pretty pissed. and its not a cheap pump either, its a laguna 16k.

Might just have a whiskey, and hope all my fish aren't dead tomorrow morning when I can actually see in to the tank. I dont have the energy to try and fish them out in the dark.

Shouldnt be a problem unless its off long enough to cause anaerobic areas in your GB. I wonder if it is dropping out due to over temp?

was off for about 16hrs. my fish are very mature (25-30 750gm Jades). I run the water level low when there's no rain to keep it topped up, as my pond leaks a little when its fullish. and we are having nice little hot spell at the moment. pretty much anything that could be wrong was wrong.


the fish were gasping a little when I woke at 6am, so I added about 1000l of fresh water this morning, and raced out to browns plains for 9am. Luckily the guys at age of aquariums had another one of my pump in stock and swapped mine for it, no questions asked. its been running again all day, and I seem to have made it through at this stage. Could still do with some cooler days and some rain to settle everything down.

as soon as the water clears, ill harvest some fish, and add some juvies to the system.

Sounds like its time for a backup system to be put in place. At lest a battery would keep a airpump or 12v pump running and no worries till the next morning when shops are open

I am surprised that a Laguna gave up that soon knowing how all of mine have gone over the last two years. But its good that they swapped it out for you with no questions
Had a few HSM's here lately two. Must be the moon or something. One was a constant flood bed that I didnt have a cap over the standpipe guard and a snail had dropped into the standpipe and blocked it. Bed overflows all day and sump empty. Laguna survived this somehow

I ran my old 11k dry twice, and managed to block it with leaves as well, and it took 2 1/2 years to die. thats after sitting in my back shed for 3 years whilst it was between projects. The lagunas are apparently completely unservicable except for the impellor, so if it stops, you have to buy a new one, or they'll replace it under warranty.

ccbear, probably should have a backup, just haven't gotten around to it. like all things, its a slow process to get everything in place.

Manits, there must be something with the moon at the moment. in addition to my pond problems, I also managed to trip over yesterday on my way out of work, and lost a good 1/2 pint of the old claret from my knee. still stings like a bitch

yep the moon is def in the wrong place (or right).. I flooded my FT yesterday for god knows how long. The ol' left the hose on trick whilst surfing the forum.. dirrr

Charlie, I think everyone has done that trick. thats why most people have hose timers now

Float valves are cheap enough

Pulled a Jade yesterday. 814g neat, 600g cleaned and gilled. Not the biggest in the pond, but the only one stupid enough to swim over my drop net.

Smoked it upside down with a couple of slits along the top fin to let the fat out.

was pretty nice actually, the texture of the flesh was excellent, though a lot gets stuck to the big rib bones.

Im on the list to get some catfish in a few weeks (hopefully), so I'll be pulling a lot more Jades over the next month

thought i'd test out my new gopro hero 3 this morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v1xg5Tj ... e=youtu.be

Nice video mate. Those fish look ready to BBQ ?

GoPros are great cameras eh.
What are the smaller fish in there?

the smaller fish are all rainbow fish. I had about half a dozen in when i started my system and the jades were quite small. they seem to breed happily, and are now quite a large population. you can see some of the adults quite late in the video swim past the camera. stunning fish. makes me want to do an aussie creek biotope aquarium.

and the fish are def big enough to bbq. i'm waiting for ausyfish to tell me whether I can have any Tandanus this year before I harvest too many though

Great job, I Just started my small system in Brisbane as well