Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Brian, I will have to watch the video when I get home... the screenshot of the video looks awesome! I'm debating about trying to put a view window in to both of my IBC's because it does stink not being able to see the fish good... I turn my air pump and water pump off and still only get to see a blur of fish from above. Web4deb added nice viewing panes in his fish tanks in his thread, so I could probably do the same (might actually seal better because I think his tanks were round that he had to bend the pane in to, mine would just be flat, but I have the IBC cage I would have to cut part out of to be able to have a nice window). The picture wasn't my feeder, it was just a picture of what they have for their feeders. They use them in all of their tanks when the fish get to a certain size... they manually feed them when they are smaller is how they train them that red means food, they use red ketchup bottles to dispense the food out of, so they learn that when they see red they get food, so the self feeder has a little red tip that they hit when they want food and it just dumps a little bit in to the water. They claim that they hatch over 110,000 trout every month of every year...! They mostly just have rainbow trout, said they had one tank of browns and that they had raised brooks before but decided that rainbow was the best bang for their buck for the speed that they grow so that's pretty much all they do now.

Sam, some fishermen also step on their fish to make the total length reach the legal length... but I wouldn't know anything about that I guess that's why I use total length because I was a fisherman before I knew anything about aquaponics/aquaculture. Standard length would make more sense in the food industry. I had to double check so I got the tape measure out and measured my hand in the approximate pose that it was in, in the picture, and I'm guessing that the trout I took a picture of in my hand was probably closer to 8" total length.

I noticed your ammonia spike just a few posts back. I've noticed that my system has wider swings in cooler weather than in warm weather but it also can handle these swings better because of the form the ammonia takes. Remember that the type of ammonia depends on the temperature and pH of the water. With your system the water temp may not be down that much so you might not benefit from this .

You've probably seen it but here's a link to the ammonia toxicity chart - http://ibcofaquaponics.com/information/tables-and-charts/

thanks scotty, I hadn't seen that or don't recall seeing it if I did... I knew ammonia was less toxic at lower temperatures but don't remember ever seeing values. So my tank is running between 56-60F (13.3-15.5C), I have not tested my pH on the tank, but for comparison if I assume 7.0 pH that would mean ammonia would not be toxic until someplace between 7-9 ppm (roughly)? That seems crazy high (but then again, I'm not used to cold water fish keeping, everything I've done has been tropical freshwater or saltwater that is all much warmer temps, but I guess it does make sense looking at the values where my saltwater fish would be (80F = 26.6C in 8.4 pH = about 0.14, which matches my fear that any level of ammonia being detectable on titration test kits (API drop kits) would be too dangerous (for saltwater fish that I've kept it would be...) so this does make me feel a little better.

I forgot my lunch today so I decided to run home to eat, I stopped at the store on my way and bought some more of the beneficial bacteria bottles and some ammonia safe. I went out and tested my water as soon as I got home and to my surprise it's improving already. I don't have a freshwater test kit, all I have is the reef master test kit, but the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate kits are all the same you just need to use a different color card for freshwater, so I don't have the card to take pretty pictures like everyone else but comparing pictures to a picture of the freshwater master test kit online it looked like I was at 0.50ppm ammonia yesterday and probably about 0.50ppm nitrite too. I dumped two bottles of "Jungle Start Zyme" in yesterday and today it looks like my ammonia is at 0.25ppm and nitrite is at about 2.0ppm in less than 24 hours. I added another bottle of "Tetra Safe Start" today, figuring it might be a slightly different blend of bacteria from the jungle product, so I will test again when I go home tonight and see if it had any impact in that short period of time.

Sounds like it's getting better .

I'm not familiar with those products but I'd eliminate or keep these additions to a minimum especially if your ammonia levels are in the safe range for your pH and water temp. Aside from the question of what chemicals are in them to stabilize the bacteria and are they food safe, you also may not be getting the type of bacteria we are trying to encourage (we want autotrophs in preference to heterotrophs). Heterotrophs will be present in any AP system so it's not a big deal but might actually slow establishment up a bit because they compete for nutrients and grow much faster than autotrophs.

Brian, this just crossed my mind again as I was reading through an article on aquaculturing trout.

http://www.fao.org/3/a-i2125e/i2125e01.pdf


I might be a little over stocked by the time they reach 500g+ if I don't lose any before then, but I should be about 2 cubic meters of tank space before then, so 20-32 at 500g. I don't know how big they will get before it gets too warm for them (I'm already considering what I can do if they aren't big enough for what I want to harvest before water temp gets too high in the greenhouse... maybe a larger tank that I could sink in the ground to get some cooling from the ground on the north side of my greenhouse and build a lean-to over it to keep it out of the sun...I can't mention this to my wife though that I'm already considering how I'm going to expand since I haven't even finished the greenhouse yet). What was the largest trout you've harvested so far?

I'll see how these turn out and adjust my plan accordingly. If we do like you were and plan on harvesting 1 a week then 25ish will be plenty since we are going to alternate with tilapia in the summer.

Speaking of tilapia... I got the email that my blue tilapia have shipped today. I'm a bit shocked that they aren't overnighting them, but I guess they probably ship enough that they know how long they will survive in shipping since they include an arrive alive guarantee. They are scheduled to be delivered on Thursday as of right now. I finished filling my indoor tank up over the weekend (it had been sitting with about 3-4" of water for a few months, it is filled with RO water since I have the equipment readily accessible in the house, so it took a few days to fill it up at 90 gallons per day if I run the RO 24 hours... which I don't...). I tossed my temp/pH/ORP probes in the tank so I could start tracking and seeing if I am going to need to heat it for the tilapia or not and so far it looks like it should be OK for blue tilapia without heating it.

This is a screenshot of the control screen of my APEX Fusion controller for those not familiar with Neptune APEX systems. I will hopefully have something similar available to be able to control everything in my greenhouse too once I finish building the arduino controller.


Thanks scotty. As long as the AP system is looking better over the next day or two I won't add anything else to it.

Our Brook trout were around 14" & 400 grams each. After making through the Summer most are now 16" to 18" and upwards of 600 grams. I believe my tank water is warmed in the Summer by the media beds being in full sun. With the FT being nearly 3 meters deep not a lot of sun hits it anyway, plus there is the boardwalk over hanging 15% over the tank.

I think I'm in the clear! I tested last night and had no ammonia or nitrites. I'll keep testing for a few more days as I start feeding them again. I did lose one trout that jumped out of the tank, so now I have netting over the open areas of the tank so hopefully that won't happen again. I think the trout ate all of the goldfish except one that I could see (unless they were all hiding in the chunks of PVC in the tank but I watched for a while and only saw one goldfish and two or three minnows, they had to have ate the rest.) They didn't seem very excited about food last night after not feeding them a couple days so I'm assuming their bellies are full from the Goldie's and hopefully they won't have trouble going back to pellets after having such yummy snacks.

I am now the proud owner of 13 little blue tilapia! I'm not sure they are technically "fingerlings", they are only about an inch so still possibly considered "fry". So far they all seem to be doing well but they just got delivered a couple hours ago so I ran home when my wife texted me that they were delivered and got them acclimated and put them in a 20 gallon tank for now so I can keep an eye on them until they start growing. Eventually I will grade them out and separate the fastest growers from the slowest and make the fast ones my breed stock. I am considering ordering 10 more from a different source to be able to compare side by side (the place I bought the first ones from doesn't make any promises about them being pure strain blue tilapia, the other place I found now does promise they are pure strain... also the place I got these from doesn't say anything about grading them... the new place I found claims that if you are buying them and they do not give you an option for what grade you are buying then they either have not been graded or you are buying someones rejects which will be slow growers... so debating about ordering some more from the second source to be able to compare them side by side and see if I notice a difference.)

Congratulations!

I think you'll find the fastest growers are the males. The difference can be startling:



I doubt I'd be able to find Wami Tilapia, but for that reason I'd like to try crossing Wami Tilapia (Oreochromis urolpeis hornorum) and Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis nilotica). Their offspring (same as Wami x Mossambica) are predominantly Male Tilapia. It is all based upon their respective chromosomes for determining gender. No need to induce male gender with hormones or crushing pressure or temperature on recently fertilized eggs.

Here's a pretty good explanation of how this works with Tilapia Genetics: Tilapia genetics.

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Sam

Thanks Sam... I think I've read almost every page of information they have at Lakeway tilapia now (some of it multiple times to try and get it to stick as I read one page then I go back to the previous page and read it again as I make connections about all the different pieces they mention so I make sure I understand how they fit together)... their website is very helpful for building confidence in moving in to this. I ordered my tilapia from Tampa Aquaculture, but after reading on Lakeway Tilapia they had me second guessing myself, they are the second source that I'm considering buying some from since they guarantee they are pure blue tilapia that they sell and they are the ones who talk about if you aren't offered different grades of tilapia you are likely getting the rejects from other places... I paid about $22 with shipping for the ones I got, I can get another 10 food grade guaranteed to be pure bred blue tilapia for $30 with shipping from Lakeway Tilapia... so it might be worth it... we'll see how these ones go first I guess.

I think I might have one dead tilapia before I get home tonight... I went down to check on them this morning and one was stuck to the side of the filter inlet. I pulled it off thinking it was dead but it swam off just weak... I will add some foam to the inlet of the filter to slow it down a bit tonight and hopefully keep anyone else from getting sucked in to the filter (I only put a 100gph filter on a 20 gallon tank so I thought it would be OK but might be because the little one was weak from spending 3 days in shipping).

HSM... Went out to the greenhouse to check on the trout a noticed a box of insulation nails on the ground was soaked... Looked and realized the pump I was using to transfer water from my 330 gallon IBC to fill my barrels got left plugged in last night and I forgot to go back to check on it and switch barrels... So I captured 55 gallons of water then pumped about 200 gallons of water out on the ground... Made it a muddy mess in there. Luckily I don't have fish in that ibc yet and it's not tied in to the ap system yet

Yikes! Welcome to the club.

I was pretty excited yesterday when I went out to the greenhouse to get something and decided to toss the trout some food. Up until yesterday when I feed them they always stay in the back of the tank away from me and wait for a few pieces of food to start to sink then rush forward and grab it and rush back to the back again. They would never come to the surface to get food and were always in a hurry to get away from me. Well yesterday that changed... I tossed some food in and they came to the front of the tank and were swimming circles at the front and coming to the surface to grab food. I did a little happy dance, then a few hours later I was out in the greenhouse for another tool and tossed them some more food and they came to the surface at the front to grab it again... I think they are finally comfortable in their new surroundings!

My tilapia are still just sitting at the back of the tank staring at me when I go look at them... they aren't super active yet, but hopefully they start growing and getting more comfortable with me too. I had one of the tilapia I thought I was going to lose on Friday. When I went down to check on them before going to work it was stuck to the inlet of the filter, I pulled it off thinking it was dead but it wasn't so I figured it would die during the day so I took it out and tossed it in another tank... well when I got home it was still alive and was swimming around a bit more so I put it back in the tank with the other tilapia and still Friday night and Saturday when I looked at it, it was still kind of lame and laying around the bottom so I was pretty sure it was going to die still... well yesterday I went to check on them and I can't tell it apart from the other ones now... so must be it was just sad about moving across the country (from Florida to Michigan just before winter... can't blame the poor fishy for being sad) but now it seems to be OK and moving around the tank with the rest of them.

I spent a few hours working on my controller yesterday. I got the cutouts in the box for the power outlets, arduino power cord, ethernet cord and USB cord, got the arduino, relay bank, and breadboard all mounted inside the box and started wiring the relays to the power outlets before I had to leave for a couple hours then by the time I got home we had other things to do but I will hopefully finish assembling the controller in the next couple of days so I can get it in to the greenhouse to start logging data. It's not the prettiest thing in the world because it is my first attempt at doing cutouts using a dremel and I didn't buy an additional cutting bit because I thought it had a good selection that came with it, but not great selection for cutting plastic. It more or less just melts the plastic then I have to go back and clean up the cuts with a sanding bit.

OK I don't know how to embed video so heres a link to the video of the trout in my greenhouse as of today.

https://youtu.be/8X-wmS4TYuM

The fish look like they are settling in nicely. This goes in the youtube tags 8X-wmS4TYuM