Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Looking good Dr Fish,

just to reiterate Greg (Skeggley) as you have opted to cycle with fish be careful what advice you read.
Make sure advice you choose to follow applies to cycling with fish and not cycling without fish....
As Greg notes thge main thing is the fish provide the ammonia - * do not * provide ammonia sources.
Else the ammonia and nitrite spikes will kill your fish.
Just use Seasol White for the plants in low amounts - my personal preference is to water it directly onto plants and grow beds. Follow a seasol water with a watering can of just water to wash it in.

When cycling with fish it is mostly a case of doing nothing for 4 weeks or so.
Feed the fish but don't over feed. Only having 3 fish is excellent - the cycling will happen in the background.
You probably wont see the big ammonia and nitrite values in your test kit - that is normal
(in fact you don't want them as they are not good for your fish).
Test your water and be prepared to stop feeding for a few days - the fish will be fine.
Rest is just to make sure your circulation and aertation (DO) is good).

Not sure what the bed situation is but your plants may need shade over Jan-Mar periods.

[edit] Seasol White = the original Seasol in the white bottles.
Not the powerfeed in green / red bottles (you don't want too much Nitrogen/Phosphorous at this time - Seasol Orig has small amounts and is just right for what you are doing)

Love the inlet taps.
Remember to check for snails under those edging pipes

Hi Darren,

Many thanks for the tips. Yes, slowly slowly, I'm trying not to rush into it. I wouldn't have got the fish so soon personally, but the local shop owner said just a few would be ok. I'm measuring everything to keep track.

Just feeding the fish about a teaspoon of pellets in the morning.

It's a little strange having worked on the build for over a year to suddenly be thinking about plants and fish. A new ball game.

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Oh and regarding shade, yes I'm thinking about this. I also need to stop all the flower material falling into the beds from the bottle brushes behind.

I think hooping some black Polly pipe through the holes in each corner to support netting/shade cloth will be the way to go. The steel pipe frame beds are pretty good for this.

Yes, have to watch the snails!!

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nothing wrong with cycling with fish. i do it for all my systems and systems i have helped set up. cant be bothered waiting for cycle period and neither can kids etc. run it up for a week and then add a few small fish - never had any dramas. it is the ones who put 20 30 or worse in new systems that have issues.

the only drag is that it can be harder to see the chemistry stages when only small amounts of ammonia are being produced. so your water testing wont be that dramatic.

hoops will be fine. 15mm pvc or orange electrical pvc works as well.
though does go off - powdery- over time.

will be interesting to see how you go out front.
will be a test case for your neighbourhood.....
that is the sad thing for many community and verge vegie gardens.

i grow limes out front - i figure most people only see unripe citrus

Yes, will be interesting to see if it gets plundered. We have a pretty quiet street and most people know each other. I'm ok if people pinch a bit.

I was wondering about citrus in aquaponics. I've read that people do it. I've kind of promised myself to never buy a citrus again after the issues I've had in the past. Leaf miner just seems to ruin the leaves. I'm assuming the same happens in aquaponics.

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Did I mention I hate painting?

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I can see your neighbours becoming very friendly with you... grow chillies for them esp the hot ones for the little bast**d one his way home from school.

Hehe, we have awesome neighbors. No young kids next door but plenty in the neighborhood. I've got one chilli in already.

Any recommendations for good staple food plants for my system would be appreciated.

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[quote="DoctorFish"]Yes, will be interesting to see if it gets plundered. We have a pretty quiet street and most people know each other. I'm ok if people pinch a bit.

You're lucky if they only pnich a bit of produce, around here they'd take the whole system

All looking good Doc

my brain plays strange tricks at times and looking at this pic you posted and redoing a car upholstery at present...would it be cheaper going to car wrecking yard and getting the edging that goes around door frames with rubber on it... just a thought .

Hey Tonzz,

Maybe worth investigating. It's not exactly cheap to buy new. The stuff I bought has metal teeth that pinch on somehow, but it does come off easy enough. Mine was also a rubber like material, where as the stuff in cars is more a hard plastic. It's also moulded to fit the car which might make it hard to adapt to your tank. I would say that if you just had one tank, buying new would avoid a lot of hastle.

A tip the guy a bought it from. Squeeze some silicone sealant into the cut ends to stop any water getting in and rusting the metal pins inside.

It self seals on to the rim pretty tightly, but you never know, with some condensation etc maybe the whole thing will rust off in years to come. Time will tell.

Cheers

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Hey all,

My system is running nicely. I now have 20 fingerling silver perch in the FTs. So far all my nitrate/nitrite levels are good so I think I'm cycled.

Quick question. Mosquitos in my RFF, biofilter and sump. Not sure why. The flow rate through the RFF and bio are about 4000L per hour. Sump even higher. None that I can see in the FT, guess the fish eat the larvae. I can't see any larvae in the system at all, just the discarded husks of those that have hatched washed up on the edge near the water line. What the opinion on putting a couple of fish in the rest of the system, or is there another option. I have placed some flyscreen over all the tanks, but might need mosquito netting. Ok, not so quick a question in the end. Thanks all.

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Doc I think you'll find that they are Gnats not Mosquitoes, Mosquitoes don't go near running water.

I had them here a couple of years ago for a month or so and I haven't had any since, they were only in the filters, none in the sump and they appeared to be living off the fish solids in the filters.

joblow with that in mind, is an air stone in a tote enough motion to keep mosquitos out or does the entire surface have to be moving? I'm debating this for my water storage. I want to add rain water collection to top off my AP system that would sit outside of the greenhouse and two 55 gallon drums in the hoop house to use for watering my dirt beds that I'm worried about making mosquito breeding grounds in.