Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

when I wrote this...

Please correct me if I'm wrong, because I really need to know this stuff and would always rather than be seen as stupid rather than wrong the next time I bang on about this stuff.

I meant I'd rather not be wrong. I don't know what all the other words were there for

I think being vegan is a perfectly acceptable choice for anyone who wants to, I just suspect organic vegan is impossible.

I just discovered you can buy 316 stainless cable ties.

I love cable ties.

I love stainless.

I think I'll love stainless cable ties.

Where are you seeing these stainless cable ties, please?

Handy thing those stainless ties. Expensive in some places! Deffinately cheaper from an electrical place than the hardware store

Good for hot places too, like around exhaust pipes

I made halloumi the other night. I don't think my wife will eat cheese again after seeing the curds and whey!

The cable ties are all over ebay for reasonable prices.

I cant vouch for how good they are because I only just ordered mine.

I bought mine from...

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/191733352865?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&var=490753909501&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I've bought stuff from that seller before with no problems.

It's been ages since I made cheese.

Do you make any other types or just halloumi?

It was a first attempt, I used Junket tablets and the microwave and it turned out pretty good!

http://wholesome-cook.com/2012/07/18/homemade-haloumi-cheese-in-an-hour/

Assuming that the ebay ones are as good as the ones I get the stainless ties are stupidly strong. I'm a pretty big bloke and I've never managed to force one to go backwards by yanking on it, or the thing it's securing.

They are a bit tricky to cut off of a blokes wrists without cutting him when his workmates tie him up...

If you want to get fancy there is a special tool you can get for doing them up

Cool.

I was just thinking of using them to secure pipes because I've just had a couple break on me. I think they got too much UV.

But now I'm thinking they might be good for other things. We have electric bikes, each with three 5kg lead acid batteries on them, and they are difficult to keep in place. Nowhere near secure enough to put them on a car bike rack. Perhaps if I put five cable ties on each battery it might be possible.

I found some that were, I think, 840mm x 7.4mm. The ones I bought were 500mm x 10mm.

I they are as strong as you say, I might have to get into some serious construction

Look Mrs Bullwinkle! Now you can walk under the IBC fish tank! No, I'm pretty sure the pergola creaked like that before.

I had some 550 paracord (rope) (or similar - probably not the real deal), and I bought yellow and blue from the same seller on ebay. After a few months (maybe 9... who knows) hanging tomato vines and some other stuff (some chicken wire etc) the outside sheath of the yellow stuff was turning to dust, but the blue was still fine.

I'm pretty sure they both went up at the same time, and both had very similar exposure to the elements.

Now I'm guessing that the reason the blue survived was that it reflected more ultra violet.

Does that sound likely to anyone who knows such stuff?

And if so, should I buy white next time because it's even more reflective, and thus should last longer, or blue because it's reflecting more blue(ness).

The guy in the online chat from the store said I should buy the darker greens or black, but that doesn't sound right to me, because I figure they would absorb even more sunlight.

But then, the blue WAS a lot darker than the yellow.

So, does anyone have any idea what colour rope I should buy for outdoor use?

May sound silly but go for something that is marketed as UV stable?

Or if you truly love stainless... use stainless wire rope!

Do you know how to splice wire ropes? Might be something for your 120/20

I think it was all marketed as UV stable.

I cant splice it yet, but it's funny you should ask, because I made my first string just recently.



from strands of the dry leaves of this...



I've got some lemon grass growing in my system that I'll try as well. It's got very grippy leaves that should make very strong string.

Is there nothing aquaponics cant do?

My more recent attempt is a little more consistent

I am still learning dozens of new "things" but never seem to get around to blogging about them.

It's good to learn new things, today I learnt how to use a plasma cutter.

It's not because I particularly wanted to know how to do it, mostly just because I found one here in a box under a bench and wanted to know if it worked or was broken.

Once I started poking around I found the parts that were worn out on it in the same box, and found a few other bits it needed in another box, and put the lot together, with a quick bit of googling along the way

Turns out it works perfectly and is a very fun toy to play with. Sliced through a piece of half inch thick solid steel like it was butter

The amount of useful stuff that I find hidden away in the most unlikely places in this workshop staggers me.... Not sure if my predecessor was a hoarder, disorganised, useless, or all 3 but he certainly knew how to spend money! This little toy cost $700 in 2012 according to the book keeping girl.

She is certainly organised - a vague description and she had all the records up on the computer. Now the hunt is on for the other one because we apparently bought 2 of them for a project!

Splicing wire ropes isn't hard, just a bit more stabby than splicing fibre ropes.

Plasma cutter - [drool] I too need to be able to slice through such things for no reason

Someone asked me why I knew so much stuff. She saw it as very odd that it turned out that it's because I learn it

I think she thought people either know stuff, or don't.

But I told her the secret, so she should be well on the right track by now.

The secret, of course being to stop watching Big Brother (and to be 35 years older than the person doing the asking, but I left that bit out). Not even stop watching TV.. Just Big Brother

I haven't owned a TV for years (probably because of Big Brother ) and I accidentally learn new things every day just by watching my fill of youtube if I'm not up for actually doing stuff.

Just hanging out on BYAP has enough information to fill a decent sized human head me thinks.

But having said that, I lost a goldfish in an aquarium to a white fungal disease around it's mouth that I probably could have easily saved if I'd never been onto BYAP. It was in a pretty bad way when I found it, and did the salting thing probably too late (it was outside in my original system, but came inside when I found it unwell), but for some reason it didn't occur to me that I could just go to an aquarium shop and dump some chemicals, and a handful of fishy antibiotics into the tank.

Too organic?

Or not.

Who knows.

I hate losing fish.

Well I am only 30, and I do watch a bit of TV but not a lot.... And generally when it's on because the wife is watching it I'm playing with the computer looking at something else that's actually interesting

Big Brother has been off of TV for a few years now so it's certainly been a while since you watched much!

I've seen melafix from the pet shop work wonders on some quite sick/injured fish

The plasma torch is certainly more fun than the oxy-acetylene torch I normally chop random things up with!

The welding function on it also works surprisingly well, almost as nice as the BOC inverter stick welders we normally buy.

I want one for my shed at home now, but there's really no point when I have a big workshop here!

What do you do at your workshop? (your's or where you work?)

If you havnt already, and you are willing to answer questions about stuff you know... about, please drop your skill set into the member skills thread.