Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've seen those greenhouses on ebay in kit form - ... you get one of them?

Is that rockwool? It isn't inert if you're told otherwise it was for a sale. Keep a close eye on pH that stuff can sour on you.

The digestor, I want a wee little one, how'd you make it?

Plans anywhere I can find em?

Yes it is rockwool. I am experimenting with a few different growth mediums. Rockwool, perlite, gravel and sand. A couple of days ago I had a problem with my drain tubes clogging up, and the grow beds flooded. The perlite got washed over everything and there was a general mess and disaster. You could still see the mess when that photograph was taken.

Yes, that is one of the eBay greenhouse kits. They are cheap. You need to do stuff to them to make them usable, but they are still a good option.

The digester is essntially a tube. Another tube leads in to feed it. I have a gas bag attached - but it does not produce much gas. It is very slow.

The perch continue to refuse commercial fish foods. They are eating algae, duckweed and snails.... but they are out of snails and I am worried that they may need some animal protein. So yesterday while I was digging new ponds, I gathered some worms.

This morning I threw in two types of commercial fish food. They ignored both types. So I threw in some worms. RIP worms. Gone in under 2 minutes.

So now I need to add a worm farm to my list of projects.....

dont feed them a day and a half, then feed them commercial pellets........

they'll eat.

Mind me asking how much the greenhouses cost aeldric?

[highlight=red]Steve:[/highlight] I didn't feed them for a total of 8 days (ie they lived only on what was in the pond). The problem is, there is a lot of food in the pond. I guess if they really needed the food, they would eat the commercial stuff. Once they run out of algae and duck weed I will try again

[highlight=red]Earthbound:[/highlight] The greenhouse sold for $70 (Australian) on eBay. However freight cost me another $45.
The greenhouse is low quality. But it works. You may need to:
- Set the feet in concrete so that it doesn't blow away (total weight is 10 kg - in a stiff breeze it is not a greenhouse, it is a box kite)
- reinfrorce some of the joints
- reinfrorce the seams

Let us know how you go.

PS, i' watching one of those green houses

Still laughing about that (I used to build box kites as a hobby, maybe that explains the finding it funny - or its the wine talking )

EB would it be possible for you to post a pic of your 2 kg perch?

A quick (and sad) update:

It looks as though one or more cats got into the greenhouse last night. I found 2 dead fish on the ground, and a number are missing.

I have seen at least 3 survivors, there are probably more. I had to leave for work, but this evening I will try to count survivors.

Damn it, thats disappointing aeldric..

Not so easy Monya.... I have tried in the past to get a decent photo of them but they are in a large tank and I've had troubles taking pics from above the water surface. We had a topic about it before posting pics

I got a double halogen spotlight from 'B' and tried to take pics at night using my polarized sunnies to stop glare but without much success...

The camera was just not working well for it, though I seem to remember getting some film on the video camera that came out a little better at the time, I'll see if I can find it as I'm going to play with some video bits over the next couple of days.

[glow=red]Steve[/glow]: I remember you mentioning that you will be getting some tandanus tandanus (eel tailed catfish)? Keep me posted. It looks like I will be in the market for new fish

Ok EB, just thought a pic tells a thousand words, and I haven't got a thousand words for the sceptics (ie ma & pa) - I was just going to say- Look, here is the pictures, put that in your pipe and smoke it!