Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

they do Steve, its just not easy

got some pricing from robot. 32mm piping, same as Les, $36 per 6.5m length. Tees $5sumthing and joins $11sumthing. How can those lengths be 10 bucks dearer down here?
Had some lazy flashing so dumped 3kg salt in. Lettuce doesn't like it but will survive. Caulis handling it fine and no more leaf miner damage.

If ich is stress related i wonder what is stressing my fish? I tend to move over the tank on wknds to start and stop the spa pump manually to clear the water. It seems a bit murky a couple days later so perhaps just need to ease off on the feed for a day or so. With regard to the 20mm scoria i use, i dont think it traps solids as well as say 10mm would bc there is more room for water to flow thru the gaps.
Having removed all the first lot of lettuce fairly quickly over a couple of days perhaps nutes aren't being sucked up quite so quick. Do the tests 2moro morning.

Takes the old blokes to find the bargans then again we have had more time to learn

I shouldnt whinge FF. My GBs were free, had the spa here for a fishtank got some more GBs for buggerall with free fish tubs to come. Just hate paying over the odds.

TT, if you ask, they may cut the pipe to the lengths you want free of charge.

Do a drawing of what you want and check all the figures. (going back for 6.5m length of pipe is totally different from chasing up an extra "Tee")

Thanks Les. 6.5 is a nice length. I get a 4m length for width, a 2m length for height and 500mm to use as anchor per your set up. Alternatively i get a 6m length and 500mm left over as in ground anchor. If i can get them cut to length, so much the better. I think i have all the time in the world for planning atm. Got a kid desperate for braces and a few other big ticket bills heading my way. Every cent is gunna count.

Did my readings this morning. Everything fine except for a bit of a nitrite spike, so didn't feed them. They will be hungry little fishies tonight. Flashing has stopped, water temp bang on 20C, fingers crossed things are ok.

Hi TT,

How did I miss your reply? I'll blame the computer, it's been playing up something terrible. I had Microsoft tell me my system had crashed and I had to start again! However, we've since had a power failure and..... Magic, fixed! I love how the 'experts' give such good advice! I'm sure it helps their sales figures!

Might take you up on the fish pellets, if there small enough for trout fingerlings I'm sure my goldfish family (approx 25) would eat them too! I can't buy bulk food in town. How much for a bag and how many kg's?

Autosiphons sound easy enough, once I got my head around them.

I'm looking into 2nd hand baths, 1000l cubes etc. just got to find them.

I've seen the Ballarat trout hatchery, last year I had a look around and was quite impressed, wish I'd known about AP then!

We go down to Geelong sometimes so we'll see if we can pop in next trip. Don't know when that will be but I want some stuff from B. Hardwear stores here think they can get away with daylight robbery.

Thanks for your advice and enthusiasm,
Savage Goldfish

P.S. May your fish grow big and fat!

Hey savage. Think i paid $50 for a 20 kg bag from Kangaroo Ground Fish Farm. I am sure the people at the trout farm will put you on to a ballarat feed supplier. I think there is one out Creswick Rd. Autosiphons are a little fiddly but idiot proof when u get em right. Jim is in Buninyong, if u pm him, he may be able to show u around and give a few tips.

I caught up with FF yesterday for an hour, what a setup. He very kindly showed me the a-z as well as the whys and wherefors. Thanks FF.

I picked up the 2 500lt former ice bath tubs for free from a mate couple days ago. Got a free bath today too. After seeing FFs system, i won't agonize over a GH just yet. Just need to make sure i have a water overflow tank inline somewhere in the next system. Will use these steel drums and tubs to build a slightly bigger system. Put some pics up tomorrow.

To sum up, for the next system, have 4*200lt steel barrels, 2*200lt black plastic barrels, one 300 lt bathtub and 2*500lt circular tubs with attached 90mm piping. Steel barrels cost me 10 bucks each, everything else has been free so far. It won't look pretty but should be pretty productive and functional. Dasall.

updated pics

more

mistake

Couple things:
Put some airstones in to up DO.
Found the GBs were starting to overflow towards the end of the pump cycle. No doubt due to biofilm build up in pipes. Seeing i added airstones, decided to reduce pumping time by 1/3. Sooner or later i will have to clean them tho. Siphons are pipe within pipe to reduce kinking so they are only about 10mm internal diameter.
Nitrite and nitrate are up a bit, water cloudy so will lay off the food. Hopefully the temp rises a bit more with lid on and fishies will remember to eat again soon.

That barrel plumbing is off the hook!

Gday DD. I prolly went a bit overboard on pipe and tap sizing but at least they wont block i guess. Will use the same for the next setup but will have a bit more of a think about outlet draining. I still have a little trouble understanding the mechanics of the standpipe as per Les etc. I saw FFs setup first hand and that helped. I forgot to ask him how the water gets sucked up and out the internal pipe when it falls below the level of the top of the pipe. I presume it has something to do with the water surface tension and siphon effect but don't really know 4 sure.

H i couple of things NEVER REPETE NEVER cut a drum with the bungs still in 2 friends have been killed over the years[ a mix of the wrong gas and BOOM] as for my system its flood and drain 4mm hole in center tube same as eb/s