Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Why?

Seems to make sense - Your ammonia is being converted to nitrite and then to nitrate. The nitrite is a bit transient since this is a fast step (that's why you're not seeing any) so what you're seeing is only the increase in nitrate.

As far as the pH. If you've adjusted it, the pH has fallen again. Nitrification will continue to drive the pH down. Have you tried to adjust the pH down or adjust the carbonate hardness aka alkalinity in order to buffer the water to a higher pH?

Cheers

A week later and after gradually adding about two cups of builders lime my pH is in the mid 6 range. Most of the ammonia has been converted, nitrites are high and plenty of nitrates. I think I might be ready to purchase fish this weekend. Only problem is the high 30s weather forecast - less than ideal conditions for introducing the little guys?

I'd wait till after the heat wave has passed sammo looks like it's going to hit 40s next few days
what temperature is ya FT sitting?
Good chance to see just how hot it will get

Good advice Sargent, we had a 5 hour power outage on Saturday evening. My backup air pump is due for delivery today and I'm hoping to sort that out before I buy the fish. I've had my warning!

Looks like I'm finally ready for fish! Spoke to John at Glenwaters yesterday and they have a new batch of silver perch fingerlings around 3-4cm. I'm thinking 120 fish for five grow beds and a couple of tandanus to clean the bottom of the FT. Does that sound about right?

Hiya sammo thanks for the updates, glad to see the system ready for the fish, well done.
I had a look back through your thread to check your bio filtration and from what I see you have 5 half ibcs media filled. So this will of course govern your stocking densities. So quick maths says approximately 350 litres wet media per bed so 1750 litres at 1 fish at 25 litres equals 70 fish.
Small or not they still grow.
My advice is to add fish yearly and start conservatively giving you more room for error.
Thoughts?

Thanks Skeggley. With the pricing at Glenwaters it's actually cheaper to buy 100 than 70. They're $2 ea up to 99 fish or $1 if you buy 100 or more. I'm building a few more GBs in the next 6 months so we should be OK with 100.

We have fish - finally!

Yesterday I drove up to Glenwaters Native Fish farm to collect my silver perch. It's a lovely drive through the Yarra Valley just beyond the turn-off to Kinglake. A big thanks to John who was busy with a very large order, but managed to squeeze me in (and answer more than a few questions).



I ended up with 150 fingerlings and 3 catfish for my system (6000L FT and 5 GBs). I plan on doubling the GBs later in the year so there should be sufficient filtering by the time these little guys put on some decent weight.

I think they were a bit startled by the light when I opened the esky.




And yours truly having a proud moment - about to release the little guys after equalising with tank water. Excuse the grimace, that bag was pretty heavy!

I've noticed these tiny bugs on a few of my eggplant leaves. They don't appear to be doing any harm (yet). Are they from the dark side?

Its all up and go from here whats the price of silvers at the moment

$1 ea for 100+. They're about 3cm long.

Last night they were very actively coming up to the surface as soon as I dropped the sinking pellets (1.2mm skretting). Good feeders!

Those are aphids and you should get rid of them. Sometimes they are farmed by ants so you might want to keep an eye out for those as well.

Thanks Scotty. I'll grab some Eco-Neem along with the pool salt that I'm picking up tonight.

Good to see those fish go in. A milestone moment.

A few small improvements over the last week - a small 4W aerator in a waterproof box and also rigged up some 2mm stainless wire around the top of the greenhouse to string up tomatoes.

I still can't believe the amount of growth using only Seasol. My silvers are coming up to the surface before the feed can sink, so I'm expecting growth to really kick off soon!