Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I don't know that much about oscars, all the ones I've seen have had lids on the tanks

I`ve never kept oscar`s so i`ve no idea if it`s a trait they have.
My banded leporinus are very capable of leaping a good 10-12 ft from the tank without any problem

Might just be a random..... With a bit of luck.....

well i have a glass top for my tank i guess ill put it on, the local fish store has albino ocars that i wantd to get so i guess ill replace him tomorrow

Oscars are eternally hungry, and are strong fish. (Maybe that can be said about a lot of the cichlids.) They are deceiving because the often move so lazily around the tank. My tilapia will leap out of the water to get a bit of food stuck on the side of the tank above the water line. It's really cute when the fry do it for a fragment of flake, but you can see the nasty potential. I keep the water level on my main grow-out tank down about 6 inches (150mm) from the top edge, plus keep a lid on. I did lose one jumper when I accidentally left the lid off.

Put the lid on, and don't take it personally. Chalk one up to experience.

(My favorite oscars are the ones with really bold markings--they market them here as tiger oscars. If you could get an albino tiger oscar, that would be really cool. They are white with bold orange/red markings.)

so today i planted my onions raddishes eggplant and rosemary, i used an old planter i had laying around and filled it with some leftover aquarium gravel and hydroton, i placed some volcanic rock on the bottom to ensure good drainage and to stop the hydroton and gravel from falling out, as of right now im just gonna hand water it, i was thinking of using a syphon connected to a pipe with some holes in it, but not sure if having the water run 24 hrs a day is good, any one have ideas?

so here is my syphon watering but i dunno if its gonna work

so i have solved my pump problems, after the water slowed to almost a drip i took apart the pump, the usual sludge was there but when i cleaned it and hooked it back up no difference, i took down the main feed hose and it felt prolly 5 lbs heavyer than it should. i hooked it up to a presssure washer and the amout of crap that came out was amazing. it was like strands of long brown stuff prolly bacterial or alge. but now all is well and i actually had to throttle back the pump somthing i havnt had to do in a while. now my question is how do i keep the hose clean without having to disasemble all the time is it possible? it was prolly a few months of crap but it wasn't nice playing with slime

what size pipe was it??

regular garden hose so 1/4 diameter

What sized pump are you using rb (you may have already stated it)

I have 2 systems running:
Sys 1 with 2,000lph (530gph) has 20mm (3/4") pipe - running continuous for 7 months
Sys 2 with 3,000lph (790gph) has 25mm (1") pipe - running continuous for 4 months

I have had no blockage problems with either so maybe the pipe size is a factor - are you easily able to increase the pipe diameter

I agree with Les.... think 1/4" is just too small..... I'm worried about 3/4"...

although I'm now a little heartened by the fact that Les hasn't had any problems for over 7 months....

Suspect that the 3/4" is also the black poly irrigation pipe..... wonder whether the smoothness also might be a factor....

i.e. is thew inside of the garden hose "rougher" ...pitted so that growth can attach and take hold easier than on a smoother inside surface???

Talking about pipe blockages i run 25 mm pipe opened the inspection hole the other day no junk

25mm conduit ROZ, fits the pump outlet as if made for it - also can buy 90 degree elbows that have a nice wide arc so water flow is not as restricted when turning corners

We running 19mm for the delivery pipes, every few weeks the holes get blocked, but we just turn off one set of beds and blast the gunk out.