Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

all I see is that 99% of people/communities have no form of bunker or refuge or any progress towards anything because thanks to excessive bureacracy and the typically over-specified design requirements based upon 99.9999% confidence levels (that are impractical for many to attain) it has got to the point where it is simply justified to not even start.... (and most will never get a permit anyway)

60 years ago they would have dug a hole and lay in it with a wet woollen blanket and survived....

Your right, a few years ago we were in Knox shopping center when a major fire swept across the northern outer burbs of Melbourne taking with it the under prepared and stupid. It went on for days and was made worse by spot fires fanned by strong norwesterly winds.
I remember a frantic lady saying "don't go into Healesville it's all a light" as she fled. We drove back into a very smokey and wind blown atmosphere to find nothing of the sort.
For about 48 hrs Healesville was surrounded by smaller fires with the main fire front coming down the northern ranges towards the town. It was a very scary time and many including my wife and kids evacuated to the GP's in melb metro.
Their decision was made to leave reasonably early even though a south westerly cool change was coming.

These events encouraged me to improve our independence and fire readiness. Pond, generators, pumps, roof & ground sprinklers and hoses are on stand by most of the time waiting for such a event. Although we have a bunker type room under our veranda a better one would be away from the building.

Pete.

well you cant cope in a decent earth covered hole in the ground according to those that know but it is quite ok to train fire ground personnel to survive a burnover in a vehicle with just PPE and a 2m x 2m burnover blanket... some discrepency in the theory there. One the govt has to fund the other it just regulates through local govt permits....and a lot of vested interests...

back to more important things....what are your fish plans for this system ?

Amazing setup Petsake. I too love the rails they're elegantly constructed. I've don't know why, but I have never seen a built-in trampoline before. That setup is awesome as well. I can't wait to see where this goes.
I'm guessing from the comments about fire refuges you all are heading into another hotter than Hell Summer?
Good luck with that, but with the thinking ahead you are doing, likely you won't as much luck.

Thanks for the drain details! I never considered going that large through the GB. I use 3/4" (20mm?) pipe through a Uniseal into the GB, then the bottom has a 90 and dumps into 1-1/2" (40mm?) drains. Right now I have to use siphons because I don't have a sump, so I need the water to return while I fill the next zone.

A while ago when authorities were looking for ways to protect firies from certain crisp when the winds changed and their trucks are caught, a Canadian system of basically installing thermos flasks that people can fit into was deemed to be too expensive....

Pete.

Thanks Guys,

considering I will be starting to cycle on Power Feed in a week or so and the heat is rising, I'll run it that way till about the middle of March or when temps begin to drop before getting more trout. I'll try for 30 again as this time I will have more mature systems and have the ability to cross direct the flows.

The trampoline has 600 mm cubed concrete foundation blocks poured into each corner to take the load and the tramp sits on metal brackets dyna bolted to the blocks with rubber insulating pads between and around the sides to minimise noise and locate the frame. The frame just lifts out and can be disassembled.
I have been considering how to make use of the whole structure for bunker/cool room purposes. It is far enough away from a building and large trees, can be supplied with power, water & fish!!

One of the reasons I like the F&D on timer st john is that it doesn't rely on the pump being on ALL the time, it also breaks up the time in the FT as the fish seem to enjoy swimming in the current when it's on and scooting all over the place when its off.

Pete.

Thanks. I used timed F&D for a while but then I added more GBs. I don't have a sump so I now have to rotate between zones. It's essentially timed FD for the GBs but not for the fish. They seem to like hanging out in the current under an overhang. I even installed a couple of 6 watt power heads to keep a nice circulation and help aeration. They are almost always in the current during the day. I shut down at night and they definitely roam.

BTW I just posted my fish quarantine and transfer methods here. Maybe it will be helpful to you. I think trout tolerate salt well but I do no know for sure...yet.

Thanks st john, for the QT tips.
Trout can tolerate high levels of salt according to the hatchery as they deliver them to farms in brackish water.

Pete.

I've completed the cleaning, carrying and loading of 3 m3 of scoria (got a better deal this time for less $). Working on the plumbing and doing long cycles.

I installed the float upside down cause there's no tank yet.

Pete.

For the record I did this chem test on the new Sy2 water that's been cycling for 24 Hrs with no additives.

Pete.

That pH is going to take some work to get down!

I transferred the tomato and water melon I had in seedling punnets across to Sy2 B1 & 2 this evening. Mixed 50 ml PF into 9 lt water and sprinkled over GBs 1,2 & 3.
Waiting for a new pump to arrive so GBs 5 & 6 can fully cycle. I'm going to change the FT water delivery pipes so the PVC finishes in the middle instead of the end.

The high Ph must have something to do with the scoria.

Pete.

I have one system with scoria and one with Hydroton. The scoria system was high for the first year, but the past year has dropped to 6.0 and less. I never paid much attention to the KH until recently, but it was 0. I've been adding potassium bicarbonate to bring up the pH slowly and raise the KH to keep it more stable.

My Hydroton system is about a year old and still has high pH (7.6 - 8.0) with a KH of 5-6. I've been adding phosphoric acid to get the pH down and bring the KH down with it. It's now at pH 7.2 last I checked. I'll need to check the pH and KH again soon.

I think I'll target KH of 4-5 and that should help the pH stabilize at 6.5-7.0 range for both systems.