Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

18c, your spoiling those trout (The luxury of not having electricity bills.)

Yes, they've had a nice cool week, thanks to all the sun, but today being 36C and mostly overcast has seen the water temp rise to mid 19s, and no doubt it will rise some more overnight. I am really looking forward to some cooler weather for myself though!

A few photos taken yesterday

Eggplants galore!




The banana is huge




Tomatoes, capsicums, and an Egyptian walking onion

That's what she said!

The past couple of weeks have been pretty hot, well above average, so the water (yellow plot) has been quite warm


I've been picking quite a few tomatoes and capsicums, and a few eggplants, beans, strawberries, chard leaves, and chives. Roos or wallabies have been into the ST a few times during the nights, so I've put some polycarbonate sheets over the netting.
I had a good look at the farm dam where I was going to take the Murray Cod, and decided it could stay here, as the water is a murky brown/green., and likely to make the fish taste like the water looks.

The continuing hot weather is keeping the water temps up, although the longer night and shorter day pumping times help a bit.



Lots of tomatoes, eggplant, chives, onions, capsicums and basil, which I've been using to make pesto, using cashew nuts instead of pine nuts, along with garlic harvested some time ago- still waiting for our pine nut trees to produce some nuts.

I doubt I'll be able to transfer any trout from the large system into this one for some time yet, due to the ongoing heat with water temps still rising. There's still no sign of a cold front coming through, in the next week at least.

Yellow plot shows the water temperature in this system is generally coming down, but I'll wait a bit longer before transferring any trout from the larger system, in case the low 30's forecast for early April cause too much temperature rise.



Plenty of eggplants, tomatoes, chives, basil, beans etc, and an occasional strawberry being harvest lately.
It's time to make a big batch of pesto!

Hi Gordon, looking good.

Are you getting the capsicum out of the AP grow beds or wicking beds ?

I have similar small size (from wicking bed) and wondered what it would take to get the fruit a bit larger.
Heaps or flowers and capsicum - but about same size as yours. Tend to have a thinner skin and not as 'sweet' as the shop brought hydroponic/market garden ones.

no wallabies but I get smashed by the bugs and caterpillars. My beetroots have the tops grazed off.
I thought it was mice/rats but found a massive caterpillar on one the other day that was all beet-red guts when it got squashed. It (and maybe snails/slugs) has done a circular chew around the top exposed part of the beetroot.
So now must get the baits and Bacillus out.

..
That banana tree..
Being in the same bed... are you not concerned that the roots will make the bed almost useless for other plants..
I have.two, but in root-pouches
..

Hi Darren, its in a GB (no WBs in this system), but I think the small size is just the variety, as other variety capsicum plants in the same GB produce larger fruit.

Not really Peter, other things in that GB are doing fine. It is in a pot with soil that is sitting in the gravel, although the banana has grown so much it has burst the pot open now. It has had pups, so some tree felling might be in order soon.

There haven't been any trout in this system since 10th Dec last year, just one Murray Cod that doesnt eat much, so it has plenty of nutrient reserves, as everything is still growing and producing, although one tomato plant has died for reasons unknown. I've only added ~500 hundred grams of Seasol and about 150g of B&B in the past few months.

What do you do to protect your seedlings? I use a mini green house over my seedlings.

The pot busting banana is powering on, but still no sign of fruit




Cardamom is growing well, and flowering now




Perennial Basil going gangbusters

Nothing special, just in the GBs in the greenhouse for this system, and in GBs with shade cloth wall around them and fruit fly netting over the top in the outside system

Continuing warm to hot weather (April average max is about 23C), is keeping the water temps up- yellow plot. It's getting close to 22C this arvo, and I've delayed moving some trout into this system from the large FT a bit longer, which currently has over 400 12-20cm trout in it.
I did transfer a few hundred litres of water from the large system this week, replenishing the evaporative and transpiration losses, and to add some nitrates and other nutrients and reduce them in the big system, at least a little bit.

I need to fix up the aeration system too, the old pump seems rather tired, and I only have a couple of 15cm long airstones in the FT for the lone Murray Cod, which doesn't appear to have grown over the summer. I've got a large air disc to install, and it will be supplied by an ACO-004 60lpm air pump, with a 12V Hailea 50lpm backup, running through a bit smaller air disc, all through 25 or 20mm poly pipe.

The water temperature (yellow plot) is slowly declining as the weather gradually cools down, although it's still been well above average.



I'm currently working on the new aeration arrangement, 230V 55W ACO-004 60lpm as the main pump, with a Hailea 12V 25W 50lpm pump as backup, connected to a 12V 150AH deep cycle battery.