Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Fantastic, you must be really pleased it looks great!

Nice bathhouse TT!

thanks for your kind thoughts one and all. Now just need to get the growth happening.

celery root pics

Nice work TT, very sexy...

cheers EB.
Couldn't help myself, have banged in a punnet or 8 this morning, of seedlings, so we will take a weekly pic to record growth.
Dad has just popped around, he is pretty chuffed now it is all done and is looking fwd to his share of the fish/food. I have really enjoyed working with him on this.

How was the trip to nightingales what did you buy

finished with squat but asked a lot of questions. When i def know what i need, it is the place to go for sure.

Had a massive win at a farm clearing sale today. Got 7 by 3m lengths of capped 150 ml stormie for 10 bucks in total. These pipes were used as milk feeders for calves. 21 holes already drilled in each pipe where the rubber teats were. Just need to add netpots and away we go. Never thought i would get anything cheaper than $10 bathtubs but there you go! Can't wait to set them up, bit of framework where i was gunna plumb the extra bathtubs, and it will save me some space too.

Also scored a sensational 1600lt stainless milk vat, sloping bottom, the whole 9 yards. $450, a ridiculously low price. It is in mint condition. The same sale sold 4 crap ibcs in cages on pallets for 180 bucks each.

I was contemplating transferring my silvers to the milk vat for 6 months and using the gal tank as a water tank. SWMBO is not concerned at all by my indulgent spend, so I guess I will just buy more fish! I may run the milk vat/nft as a separate system or just link it all in to the one. Any suggestions?

good score

OK, seedlings have been in for 8 days. Will post pics shortly, but growth has been impressive. Zuch, bush pumpkin(loves the heat) at the 6 leaf stage. Cos doing well, gross lisse tommies solid, eggplant good, salad lettuce has needed a little supplementary water to get the roots down but is fine now. Washed some chelated iron thru the beds 2day as a preventative iron deficit measure.
Fish are up to 4 handfuls a day of food plus a little dust when i think of it, for the runts. Water temp is a solid 19-20C. Lost 8C over 2 days when we had a temp drop last wknd, 23 at the high, got down to 15. Interestingly, the fish were still on the chow!
Dad has seen the 150 stormie steal from last wknds farm auction. He is like, ok we do it this wknd. I have party Friday, birthday Satdy, hangover Sundy, so will see how we go.
I feed the fish as much as they will eat, so given I have no nitrites or nitrates, we are in balance atm. With water temps good and the fish on the chow, current plant growth and adding in those nft pipes, should equal out with my fish growth next couple months. See how we go.
Dasall.

10 days seedling growth and new nft pipes for the next setup

grosse lisse seedlings at 10 days after transplanting. (Oops, these are the cucumbers.)

here's the tommies

i watered these in with a couple watering cans of dissolved iron chelate. I wasn't particular where the water went and think I may have burnt some of the seedlings a little.
It gets pretty hot in there, and I have watered the lettuce most days with tank water, just to get the roots down. After 10 days they are just about right.

Been thinking about how to use those 150mm stormie pipes i got, (10 bucks for the lot, each 3mts in length.) I may use the current pump in the big tank, put it in the milk vat, pump to an elevated bathtub to remove solids, drain to the hydropipes and back thru sump. Or, i could hook up the spa pump in line and it would be big enough to do both systems, dunno.I would like to keep the water height in the milk vat constant, might put a few bathtubs in the shed as fingerling tanks in the same system. Need to do some grading, thinking about broodfish from KG to go in the big tank. Also thinking about some Murray Cod fingerlings. I need more room!
I have slightly opened the pump return tap in the shed. This causes the siphon to break completely when the pump cycle stops. That way i don't get nitrate off gassing thru the base of the bathtubs bc of the siphon effect. I want all those nitrates for plant growth atm. As the fish grow, I may not need all the nutes, so off gassing won't be an issue, but for now need the plant growth. Think that's about it.