Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

What is the FT water temps there now PLJ? Do you have more aeration this year? That can make a difference.

Guna, I disconnected my blower once the last(!) of the trout were harvested in early Dec so now aeration is via the FT surface area and the returning water from two sumps.
My trusty thermometer can no longer be relied upon since the tube moves around against the graduations. I've intended to get a replacement but haven't got there yet. The FT water is warm enough for silver perch to thrive and for barra to survive; it's the middle of summer, after all!
What surprises me most is that the trout are first to hit the feed. It's not as if they are moping around in the cooler depths of the tank waiting for food to sink to them, they are smashing it at the surface! I may well have produced my first kilo trout but, as tempted as I am to catch one on a line, I now want to see if I can get them through to the next season.

Here is a capsicum that I picked yesterday. I didn't know it was there and wondered why the plant was on a serious lean over the side of the GB!

This GB is proving particularly productive: pepino, Malabar spinach, leeks, etc.

WOW... I'm glad I stumbled upon this thread! It took me a couple of days to get through the entire thing but so glad I did! Your experience over the past few years has been amazing! I am just getting started and only have 26 rainbow trout in an IBC right now because they are my test experiment to see how well I can get them to grow through my cold winters and how large they will get before the water temps get too warm for them. I am still in the process of building a greenhouse to run my system in to attempt to grow plants through the winter, but I'm already thinking I might need to build a bigger tank to give the trout a little longer in to the summer before they get too stressed, but my plans just went from a 3500L tank to a 75,000L tank... I think I recall someone saying something about the lotto early in this thread... I'm going to have to start playing so I can afford to build a beauty of a tank like what you have. My wife will be sooooo happy that I found this thread! I guess if I win the lotto to be able to afford building that size of a tank she wouldn't have too much to complain about =)

I'm really hoping your stragglers manage to pull through to see how they do after a second season. I saw Boss in here already, he has some second season monsters going, so hopefully you can make it happen too! It would be great to be able to get to a point that you could breed your own trout, but even your 300-400 a year is quite a feat! I would probably quit my job and just sell fresh fish if I had that kind of ability (with room to grow). So your next steps are to build a monster sump dug down in the ground a bit should help offset your temperatures a bit.

Now that's a PEPPER!

Hi PLJ,

how do you clean the crap off the bottom of the tank and how much fish food did you go through?

Pete.

I want to grow peppers like that one. It looks great.

I can't believe more than a month has passed since I visited my system thread!

Thanks for your comments, rininger85. I read through much of your thread and was suitably impressed with your approach to AP. I don't envy you and the extreme winter conditions that you need your system to accommodate. Your green house is shaping up to be a real beauty!

A couple of times we had some consecutive, extremely hot days in my area, after which I found two trout 'floaters' both times. The first pair were putrid when first seen and scooped out but the second pair looked as fresh as if I'd just pulled them out on a line. They were eaten and were delicious!

According to my records there are now just three surviving trout.

My experiment with growing out barramundi has proven to be a failure. Many fish have perished, presumably from health issues related to living in water that is cooler than is ideal for them, and the survivors have scarcely grown. Next year I will concentrate on extending the trout season rather than attempting the challenging cold weather fish/hot weather fish cha-cha!

Boss and markb, I'm glad you like my capsicum! I harvested about 15 others from two plants in the system but that one is still just managing to hold on the the title as the largest!

Pete, I have a network of 40mm/25mm pvc pipes across the bottom of the tank that connect to the original tank outlet. Most of the water that leaves the tank is via this drainage system which draws out a lot of detritus from the tank. Much of this semi-solid waste settles in my radial flow filter and is drawn off once or twice a day with the solids-free water then being distributed to three original large growbeds. I had to install this filter because the growbeds were becoming overloaded with solids in a short period of time when I was feeding more than 450 fish.

Have a look at page 14 of this thread. http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=12883&hilit=PLJ+drain&start=210

The other water that leaves the tank from mid-water level is bio-filtered through a series of three 200L drums, with radial-flow sludge similarly being drawn off daily. This sludge, although very dark and clearly best out of the system rather than in it, is not of the same lumpy nature as the matter drawn from the bottom of the tank. I use it in my garden.

I was feeding my trout a total of about 1kg of feed per day.

I don't recall seeing the layout of drain pipes in your big tank. Holy Cow that tank is huge!!! Okay now I need to do that outdoor tank I had been pipe-dreaming about. Let me check my Honey-Do list... Damn. Ha! I can squeeze in a little backhoe work. You are a great inspiration PLJ. Thank you!

Thanks PLJ,

you must be a busy guy!

Did you ever go down to the base to see how well the pipes were extracting the solids? I'd imagine there'd be areas where the waste collects.
On the photo of you up the ladder (P1) the top foot of the tank looks like it's flared out - what's the reasoning for that, (maybe so you could walk around the edge).

Pete.

Boss, if you take inspiration from my system then I'm not just pleased but am honoured. Thank you.

Pete, I reckon you're right - solids would sit between the drain pipes. A way around this would be to produce a decent swirl, but I think a swirl in my tank would almost equate to a whirlpool which would likely generate sufficient force to shift the main pipe out of the tank outlet.

To some extent the movement of fish around the drain pipes will help move deposits but I'm not overly worried about it - at least not at the stocking levels I've achieved so far.

The tank construction is fairly standard for its type and time, I think, and there is a slight flare at the top. I doubt it was designed this way for foot traffic, rather to accommodate holes drilled every 450mm or so to house the anchor points for the original sheet-iron cover that would have covered it. Having said that, I'm glad the lip of the tank is that bit wider for when I walk around it. :-)

Nice set up