Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey TT, no deaths except for one that jumped out this week and was found by Riley on the floor, I'm too good a fish keeper for that!

I am thinking like you, I think washing out the muck would help, if it's done one bed at a time.

I have plans to ditch the gravel this Winter anyway - I want to go to rotating biodisks in the main tank and add a solids settling arrangement to the sump. Had been thinking on how to have settling in the sump like I want (want to be able to drain manually into a bucket and/or pump it out up to beds in the yard). Yesterday realized if I put a divider down the center of the tank it would make a long raceway that would settle out solids by the time the water reached the pump. Maybe if the floor were sloped I could concentrate the solids in one spot too.

DD

Depends on the drop to your sump but have you considered a vortex filter? Or as is the more common setup put it after the pump.

Hey Sleepe:

The way the pump is it will not pick up solids much if they are allowed to settle out, because it isn't on the bottom and it is small (300GPH). I could make a vortex thingo out of the round laundry tubs we have and set that in the sump. I am thinking ahead though to when I put a sump pump in there to pump upstairs and it would need more volume of water than one of those could hold - it would start running dry if the clarifier volume were small, so I'm looking at using most of the sump volume for settling. The sump pump would be in the area where the solids congregate, and every 15 minutes poof! - they would be gone!

Conclusion: oyster shells (at the least the ones I got) were useless for keeping the pH up.

I added less than a box of baking soda to the 250 gallons and it has been around 7.5 for a week now.

Having oyster shells in there could not keep the pH higher than 6.4; it had been at that value for more than nine months. Adding more shells with dust had no effect. A small bit of baking soda however bumped it right up.

Big plans for tonight:

http://www.nesa.co.uk/Articles/how_to_fillet_fish.html

Yay DD.... enjoy the fish of your labours mate

Ok DD

Was just a thought

Took a long time to catch one, tried flicking the net but the water resistance was too great. What worked was to herd them all in a bunch and just lift up the net - got lucky with one of the larger ones. Put him in ice water, which calmed him down after five minutes. Tried to stab him behind the eye along the backbone line, need to get a proper tool. Learned what is involved, next one should be better going.


Dipped fillets in milk with salt and pepper, flour, fried in butter. No weird flavors whatsoever. Acceptable to wife who hates fishy flavors. I was able to get pretty much all bones out; next time will use some pliers for the lateral bones.

Next time it'll be skin on fillets, should be easier and maximize what we get out of them.

Not a sharp knife in the house, had to sharpen each one as it was tried. Ended up using a paring knife for most of it! Now I know what to ask for for Christmas!

imho, best value from fish is cooked whole, then you diners can be as picky as need be. (cut the head off if DW dislikes it 'looking at her'
Butter frying is one of the best techniques.
I reckon there's a heap of flavour in the skin, so leave it on for a test.
btw: you didn't describe the taste did you? - I want to hear all the juicy tales

hey DD, that looks like a neat first up filleting job, congrats. Did u weigh the fish? I have one about 350 grams, hmmm fish........., hungry.

nice looking catch. LOL, i used a paring knife for my first jade kill too

Job well done DD...beat me by a week....pulling out a few SP this weekend and putting them in the purge tank for the following w'end bbq

Looks like a nice filet job Dave congrats. I'm not looking forward to it myself, poor fishie.

Now you need to get a mincer to make fish food, for your Tilapia over summer, from the remains of the fish. Add some vegetables and grains (cracked) to the fish carcass as you mince it to bulk it up.
Place in ice cube trays and freeze the minced fish food.
My Tilapia go mad over mine.

happy eating

hey DD get one of those cordless fillet knives ~well worth the 12-15$