Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yeah, but that'd be cool. You can imagine the sheep -continuing- to eat grass with only the annual interruption to be shorn and humiliated. (How funny-looking are freshly-shorn sheep!) Much better than the package of mutton in the freezer labeled 'Daisy'.

that'd NEVER happen...

Daisy is a cow's name

Poor Greenhouse Fish, her first system thread and it's way off-topic

oops sorry GF you'll get used to us whacko's doing that to you... and we never seem to learn.

Hey its nice and sunny here Kuda Hows it going there?

Spa idea well that would be really neat to have the jets be bubbler's in some crazy way for aeration!

Here is a photo of where the setup will be:

Bazz, I think that that is just marketing BS.
Graziers do not name their sheep.
I have a small herd (12) and only the Ram has a name - RamBo. The wethers are meat, walking, for now.

Tony I disagree. My old Man's milkers all had names. All 150 of them. He and Mum knew each by name too. It was a technique for remembering their heritage, so as to reduce inbreeding, and increase herd characteristics.
Imagine, milk bottles with the cow's name on it! Huh!
I imagine that sheep may be given such hereditary names also to improve wool quality in the herd.

in small flocks it might work but if you had over a 1000 it might be a bit hard to remember all the names, my wife and i have enough troube choosign names for our kids and we only we have 1.5

now days sheep and cattle are just given numbers like us

on sheep how do new zealenders find there sheep in the long grass[delightfull] boom boom

Why do NZ horses run so fast?

They have seen what happens to the lost sheep!! Boom Tish!

OK, here is some pics from the set-up dad and I finished on the weekend.
First, we had to get them out of the milk vat. So, I put the net over this cap, dad took the cap off and water went everywhere! All of the garage it trickled. But all the fish went into the net. Genius! Once all the small eight silver perch were in the net, we took a quick picture of them.

good stuff GHF keep up the good work.

After that we put them in the "spa" AKA tank. There is at least a 1000 wrigglers in there, so we can't feed them for a week. "The hardest part about it is not to feed the fish for a week." Said dad.
"Why?"
"Because it's only natural that you wanna feed them".
We then got one of dad's old barrels and loaded it with the spare gravel he had from the greenhouse. We also added water and I had to wash the gravel. Man, it kills your fingers like hell! Once we loaded the gravel in the barrel, we got the draining pipe put in the the little rope that spurts the water back in the tank. We didn't have a pump yet, so dad just put water in the draining pipe to see if it worked. Dad grabbed his best air-stone and popped it into the water.

The next day, (Sunday) we went out to Bunnings and dad bought me a 50 buck pump! WHOO HOO!
"Dad, you said that you were going to find the cheapest, smallest pump! 50 Bucks!"
"Yes, the smallest one that WILL do the job."
"Pffft! Your funeral."
He then put the pump in and it was set to go. We are going to run the pump 24/7. (Until we eat the fish...lol )
"Why don't we just set it on a timer dad?"
"If we set it on a timer then the pressure of it stopping and starting will wear it out. Always thinking!"
We then planted the seedlings. I wanted to grow cauliflower, but instead, we put in broccoli, basil, lettuce and cauliflower. I don't know if that's all of them exactly or not.
We then had to figure out a way to keep the birds off them. Dad came up with an in-genius idea.
"Always thinking!" Dad said....again.
He tied a rope going across the balcony above the drum. But when we put the shad cloth on, it let no light in. So, we got the spare greenhouse stuff and did the same thing, but it wasn't big enough. After a while I said:
"Dad, why don't we just put it over the food? Hook it up from there to there." I said pointing.
"Ahhh, yes, but it will smother the food."
But, we still did what I had suggested and he put a big pole so it would stand the shade cloth up and not smother the seedlings.
And there you have it! Although the water isn't that clear, dad said it will clear out as it gets pumped more. He also put this break, so the draining pipe burps, it would then stop for 10 seconds and start again. We have the taps sorted out, because there his old ones, they have 3 taps, so maybe in the future, I can have more drums and grow more food.

Here are the pictures:

Sorry, here is some more pictures that it wouldn't allow me to post. So, some may be backwards.