Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Cowl = http://www.buildingekart.com/media/cata ... 7c3b2a.jpg

wheelie bin = square trash can

Hey joblow . Amazing setup and awesome ideas . Im about to set up my first system and was leaning towards your first setup . All your info is great and i recon i should nail it . Keep up the good work mate

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Thanks Jayendra

Thanks and welcome to the forum Kyeboi21, I had to look up Yanchep, I'd never heard of it before, and gee it's a nice looking area and it looks like you would have some great weather for aquaponics.

In setting up your system, plan for the expansion because it will happen, the whole thing gets very addictive.

Thanks Boss,

Jayendra answered your cowl question, I started out using that exact same cowl in the MBBF and found that the K1 bio media rested in the grooves and slowed down the flow so I changed to holes and that fixed the problem. I still use that cowl as an outlet in the RFF where there's no K1 to block it.

I haven't measured the flow through the filtration, I wouldn't know how to measure it, as long as it all flows I'm happy.

The wheelie bin is a trash bin as Jay says, and the wheels are because we are all a bit wimpy here in OZ and we don't carry the trash out, that's too hard, we wheel it out.

Most of the wheelie bins we use for our rubbish are 240 litre or larger depending on your council, so the 100 litre bin is a nice little solid squat bin and would be ideal for use in aquaponics. Also the wheel arch inside the bin would help direct solids a little as long as they don't sit on top, if they did a long air stone or a PVC air manifold sitting on the top might fix that if it's a problem.

When I pick up my 2 x bins I will then work out how and if I use the wheel well, currently I thinking of bringing the air & plumbing in through the wheel arch, I think that would be the best place to enter the bin and it's also out of site coming in from the back.

Yes Boss, wheelie bins are HDPE plastic trash cans with wheels at the base to cart to/from the kerb for emptying. Usually 120 or 240 litre (30 or 60 gallons). They are thick walled, tough and long lasting and people often find other uses for them like carting stock water or building RFFs. (I unsuccessfully tried to load a jpeg of one but a google search will have to do).

Things are ticking over pretty well here at the moment.

The pH keeps dropping down to 6.0 and I bring it back up to 6.4 to make sure that's not actully going below 6.0, I like to have it where I can see a true reading. I'm looking out for a nice piece of limestone to drop in the sump and remove it when it climbs up above 6.4.

The plants are all going OK, not gang busters but alright for the weather we've had.

A few more plants

On the downside, I lost a fish yesterday, the day before there was an almighty bang under the top of the fish tank while I was feeding them and I think that is what happened to this little guy. I can't see any other reason, the water quality is fine and there are no signs of any stress.

I've also got a bug problem on a few plants and I'll need to give them a spray with wood vinegar and see if that helps. They've killed off a Thai Chilli in the wicking pots, the others were OK, they just hit the one plant really hard.

Thanks for that explanation on the bins. What has the weather been like over there? It's warming up here but mostly windy with no precipitation. Nothing like the challenge of gardening in a changing climate. We used to get beautiful Spring storms which laid down serious snow.

Love that ruler too. USA needs one that says "antiquated Imperial measurement system."
Brian

Hi Boss,

Our weather has been quite good for this time of year, nice sunny days, but still cool enough to ramp up my arthritic knees. It doesn't take a lot of cold weather for osteoarthritis to slow you down and determine how much gets done for the day.

We don't get any snow here in Melbourne, our weather usually comes from the north and brings warmer weather down from central Australia. You have to drive a few hours from here to see snow, and I'm the same as you, I don't think you would drive a few hours just to see snow, well I'm the same. I worked in the snow for a few weeks years ago and have never wanted to go near the stuff again.

I don't know how all you guys can in the stuff, I can feel cold even looking at your photos.


Boss those measuring tapes are made for you guys across the pond, they have both millimetres & inches so you don't have to convert anything. We don't use the inches here, I used imperial measurements during my apprenticeship and early trade years. When I left the trade for 32 years and then went back for a short time, I had to convert to metric, and that was pretty easy, but going back to imperial measurements after using metric is near on impossible for me, it's very confusing for me now.

I've made it to 64 and oh yeah you are correct I've lost the thrill of being in the snow. My fingers can no longer tolerate getting cold. The worst was working outside doing wireless Internet installations in the snow. Icicles dripping freezing cold drops down my neck while working under the eaves of a house, brrrr. This Spring we all wish we had some icicles dripping, oh well what are you going to do?

Shoot I hadn't even noticed that tape measure had Imperial and metric. That would be confusing. Before getting into electronics I was a VW mechanic so I was familiar with metric and conversions at a young age. You are absolutely correct it is way easier to go to metric from Imperial the back the other way, because and I don't have to tell you, metric actually works and makes sense.

Brian

Having both Imperial and Metric is not confusing at all, you just focus on what you use and you don't even notice the other measurement is even there.

Brian the fact that you didn't notice that the tape had imperial measurements on it will show that you only notice the one measurement.

I was given a brand new tape a few weeks ago and it had both measments on it also, they must still produce them that way, that tape in the photo is over 15 years old.

They are very handy if you do need to convert from one measurement to the other, it's right there, you don't even have to think about. And as you say, when you're younger the conversions were easy, I have problems with the decimal point, once I need to work with decimal points I'm pretty much lost, it's pretty much what you are use to, I never worked that fine and never used decimal points.

These little guys are coming on nicely, all feeding well and growing quite quickly.

They have grown 30mm in a month and are now feeding on 3mm pellets, they were 120mm long when they went into the tank on the 17/03/2018 and are now measuring 150mm with the odd few just over 150mm.

There's been quite a few changes and updates to my system over the last few weeks so it time to post a few of the changes.

Ian from Ideal Fish Feed has stopped selling fish feed for now, I've been buying all my fish feed from Ian for a few years and he's been great to deal with, so thank you Ian for all your help and good service in the past.

With Ian not stocking fish feed any more I needed to find another supplier and that was no easy task, I spent quite a bit of time on the phone and in the end it was easier deal directly with the manufacturer down in Tasmania.

I needed both 3mm & 5mm floating pellets, which came in 18kg & 20kg bags, far more than I needed, the feed it's self was cheap but the shipping costs were a bit high. The cost of shipping was the same for shipping 1 x bag or 5 x bags, I definitely couldn't use or store 5 bags, so I settled for 2, that was 38kgs of pellets that I had to vacuum seal and refrigerate. A bit of a task but it's done, I didn't realise that the pellets came in different water temperatures for different stages of growth if you can believe the manufacturer's spin.

Spectra FF/SS HT is used after temperatures reach 15°C to maintain trout growth performance during summer conditions.

Spectra HO is a further fortified version of Spectra HT. It is to be used for the hottest part of the summer in regions where severe temperature stress and associated reduction in feed intake are occurring.

If I didn't know the difference in fish feed, I don't think the fish would either

They certainly don't mind eating the stuff.