Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

aaaahhbut I have ingredient X.

OEWahhh..... didn't know you could still get it TT....

Want to reveal your source

The powerpuff girls in Townsville Rupe. Can't say too much!

ingredient x eh, can't beat good ol w

I dunno, I always thought ZZ was great. (As in zzzzzz....)

ahhhh, finally!!! success!!!

plants are growing, water is clear, yabbies are breeding and fish are happy and healthy. about to eat another yummy AP salad

gradually bringing more tubs into action as nitrates build up. up to 12 with 4 to go.

waters around 20c, how long till they would be ready to harvest do you guys think?

heres some pics

Looks very nice, you could supply the neighbourhood soon.

Worms, give us the run down on your yabbies mate.... I'd like to try some but haven't a clue what the best way to go is....

i.e

What sort of flow/drain setup are you using?

What are you feeding them?

Any special techniques to keep them happy, content and breeding...

Oh, and have you got yabbies ... as in dam type yabbies around NSW... or are they marron ala WA style marron?

Great stuff worms. Hang on to dem fishies. If you pump the food in and water parameters are ok, expect 2grams growth per day between now and say end of Feb, ie 120 days = 240 grams.

Let's get technical:
go to the chemist and get a vial of clove oil for 7 bucks.
get a pack of sugical gloves from the supermarket.
get 2 20 lt buckets of fish tank water and put a bubbler in one. (This is your recovery bucket.)
in the other put 6 drops of clove oil. Stir vigourously.
net 10 fish into the bucket with clove oil.
wait several minutes for the clove oil to knock em out.
with tank watered gloves, remove them one at a time and weigh them on the wife's kitchen scales.
place them gently in the recovery tank and the bubbler will magically awaken them in a few minutes. Support them if u wish but don't squeeze! Then place them, recovery water and all, back in their tank.

If ur fish weigh 100 grams now, they will be 340 grams at the end of Feb and just about ready for the bbq.

dasall, easy isn't it!

Rup,

the yabbies are kept in bathtubs under the grow tubs. when the system cycles, every couple of hours, i have 13mm poly feeding water into the yabby tubs. This is controlled by nylex taps and they only get a minor flow, the tubs simply overflow back to the main tank via indivdual 40mm drain which goes down and then back up to tank edge.

enventually i'll have 6 in line bringing total tubs to 22....ow many you got tt? Haven't pushed densities past 15 per tub but will soon as the babies drop off mums. plenty of pipe off cuts scattered around.

Mums have there own seperate areas until they lose the kids then they go back.

food is pellets, worms, lettuce, carrot, wormpoo, peas and sometimes yabby

i've run air lines to each tub and so far cycling frequency and do are all good. ive got 23 big goldies in one and they're luv'n life.

Thanks mate, confirms somethings and adds to other areas of thought...

How have you seperated the mums from the rest... with a divider of somesort or do you just remove them to a seperate tub when they're berried?

Do you cover the tubs?

No problems with the goldies trying to eat the yabbies?? Do yabbies "moult" like marron?

i belive they do rupe

Rupert

My sons introduced yabbies into my pond about 12 years ago (without my knowledge) The ate every plant, including some expensive waterlillies, roots and all. As I don't like to put poision in the pond I have been unable to get rid of them. They will eat just about anything, including each other.
They do moult and seem to bury themselves in the sludge in the top pond over winter and occasionally go walkabout in summer. I don't feed them deliberately or provide shelter and they are still there (every time I pull the pump up for maintenance there are small ones in the casing mouldings).

They inhabit the pond with 9 feral goldfish (although the population has not gone up, I suspect because of lack of plants) and a number of frogs.

Just give them somewhere to hide and you will never get rid of the little buggers.

tt, thanks for that little trick but i think i'll just try and guess weights.

Rupe, i've got the mums in seperate tubs for now. the goldies are in seperate tubs also. I haven't covered them as they are well shaded from the grow tubs directly above.

kept the goldies and little silvers seperate as i was more worried about the yabbies sniping the fish in half

Steve, heres that tub from the tip i was talkn about...measures 550h 600w 1200l. . how many trout do you think i could get in it?

threw in some pic of my other recent tip scores. Have two of the stainless troughs , the other one is bit more than twice the lenght of the one shown. will be the grow beds for the outdoor kitchen/herb garden out on the back deck....going to do a built in display tank in the adjacent louge room......haven't told the boss all this yet though