Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi

I'm new here, and interested in aquaponics systems, actually built a mini one a year or so ago without knowing there was even a name for it, it was for growing seedlings and attached to my 6'x20"x20" tank, but after a quick browse i think i may have under planted my system.

I thought i'd make my first post here, as it is fish keeping that got me interested in aquaponics in the first place. I am an avid tropical fish keeper, having started with mostly cichlids, i am now more interested in natives.

Currently i have no real aquaponic sytem running, but am thnking about converting my backyard pond for he purpose, it houses a murray cod atm, along with a couple of empire gudgeons and a rolling population of rainbows (m.c's favourite snack).
But in my tanks i still keep few cichlids along with my pride and joy, 2xArcher fish in the 6foota, with a mix of rainbows, cichilds and plecco's there are a few more tanks but not much of interest to you guys i think?

There sems to be a bit of call for a native anti-mosquito fish, does anyone else keep Australian rainbows? There are species from the murray-darling basin, right though to tropical F.N.Q and i haven't seen any mention of them, really easy to breed and quite pretty too, good if you want to sell them back to pet shops.

I'm intersted in starting a system for growing out sleepy cod, i've never eaten them myself but as they are hard/rare to catch and no-one ever gives one away when they get caught, i'm pretty sure they are REALLY tasty.
Anyone here grow cod/gudgeon in there systems?

Oh, well hi all, can't wait to get goin'

Welcome EKSC. Are rainbows live bearers or egg layers. Have never had them myself, but I do love the look.

Welcome EKSC, have a look what Simmo did with his pea soup. Could give you inspiration for your pond (even though by the sound of it it is far from the pea soup!)

Monya

Egg layers, once they reach maturity they spawn continually, every morning and/or evening, so you end up with a population of very varied sizes. here in Newcastle, thy will spawn throughout spring and summer among string alga or plant roots (also in 'mops' made of a bundle of wool about 20mm thick and 150mm long, hung near the surface of the water) the mop can be easily removed after a few days and put in a spare tank, they make excellent mosquito predators, they are active in ponds and there are too many frogs spawning in my pond for them to be majo tadpole predators.

Thanks Monya, That would be an awesome setup, i don't have a huge backyard, and the tower system looks like it saves a heap of space, how big a matrix can you run from how much water? If i were to hook it up to my pond i might have 5 or 6 hundred litres, i've never actually checked the volume, it's about 1.5mx1mx0.6m, but it's irregularly shaped so thats not perfect.

Is there a place with all that info already here? I only found the page a few minutes ago, stil findin my way a round.

Goodluck with nearly 7000 posts to search through. Look under here
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=183

it's a start.

I reckon towers are a greta way to add medium, while filling in gapsin your space. Wanna have heaps when I get going

welcome! Post some pics of your progress along the way in a new topic under systems

VB, Ausyfish has some great pics of rainbows on his site. The deal extensively with them. (i sound like i'm on the payroll )

Steve

Welcome welcom welcome.... more addicts to help us feed our addiction!

Trying for a discount there are we Steve

The mention of 7000 posts raises a question.

Is it worth thinking about clearing all of the superfluous comment out of the past posts to make navigating them (and getting to the valuable technical information) much quicker?

I think Joel (earthbound) has at least one Murray Cod. It's huge and makes me hungry every time I see it.

The last time i saw mine, he was about 250mm long, but he's only 2 years old and was 50-60mm when i got him.

HI
I'm a big fan of native fish and have come to despise many of the introduced species with irrational vigour!

But my favourite native fish, that is both a beautiful and fascinating tank dweller for tropical tanks and a tasty, TASTY morsel is the Sleepy cod (actually a really big gudgeon).
I plan to experiment with my pond for a little while before setting up an independant a.p system but then i pplan to raise these guys!

Heres a link with a bit of info about them
http://www.nativefish.asn.au/sleepycod.html