Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

not having much luck with mine either. They seem to be running out of petrol when everything else is firing up. They are fussy bloody things i reckon.

I had a thought about mine and the only thing I can think off is too much direct sun, I'm going to pt some shadecloth over the grow beds to see if things will do better.

either way it can't hurt, we're expecting temps around 40C today and tomorrow.

H.

Hmmm perhaps I should get some shadecloth.. we're expecting well in excess of 40 on NYE

Let us know how it turns out...

After some trial and error (mostly error) I have a working Chift Pist system.

I've conected one of the "Green Buckets" to two of the grow beds, with a 32mm tube as a syphon/drain there is enough flow to kick in the autosyphons.

Now all I need is for those Golden Perch that KE has organised to arrive.

I will probably set up another one of these next week, this will go to the other two grow beds. Probably put silvers in that one.

There is also a picture of my site supervisor
H.

Do I need more air?

I was just wondering, with the imminent arrival of 50 Golden Perch, Do I need more air.

They will be housed in the "big green bucket" which has the water pumped into it from the sump. The autosyphons do a really good job of aerating the water when they kick in. I haven't timed them, but it seems that they kick in every 5 minutes or so.

Is pumping this water up to the FT enough?



H.

Should be enough Himz, stocking density and your water hourly turnover rate need to be taken into account

Thanks Les,

I do have to do some timing and calculations as to how often the water turns over... I was just a bit paranoid about the water loosing DO between the sump and the FT.. maybe tomorrow when the Honey beer isn't clouding the brain..

(Tasmanian leatherwood honey if anybody is interested)

H.

To reassure yourself on whether the fish have enough air, monitor at dawn. That's when DO will be lowest. If the fish are gulping at the surface, you need more air.

Thanks Janet,

I'm an early riser so this shouldn't be a problem.

H.

Hizmol,
great system, developing well. Also like the concept of smaller FTs (500L) to spread the fish types & growth stages. In fact, 2 systems here are following in your footsteps, so your detailed experiences have been invaluable. (Yeah, got the auto siphons working). Many thanks. One with 2 x GreenFTs and 2 x 500L GBs and the other 2 x GFTs with 6 x 165L black boxes for GBs.

Sorry for the long winded intro, but I thought you could help with some enlightenment regarding the FT:GB ratio and the system cycle etc.

My simple approach is to turn the water through the GBs 2-3 times per hour. That is 3-7 mins flood/drain each GB about 80L, approx 1480Lph continuously. These numbers scare me, so I must be wrong, so please chime in (1).

The GBs total 1000L (6x165L). Using scoria it would mean 500L about 1/2 of the total FT volume (1000L), not counting the sump. Could you show how you have the GBs setup and are cycled? Perhaps the system could be split3 GBs each to get achieveable operation(2). I'm going in circles.

I haven't done anything about alternating each GB using 6xpumps in a header tank with a timer for each pump ($20-30 pump types, if they can hold up to the on/off). This might be cheaper and more reliable compared to solenoids etc (3).

franc

Hi Frank,

In my system I have one FT feeding into two growbeds that are 160L each. (at the moment). I need to expand on the number of growbeds to 4 per FT.

Idealy I would like 4 growbeds per FT..i.e. 8 Grow beds are needed for the setup I have now. This would give me a ratio closer to the 2:1 that seems to work for most setups.

As for pump cycles - my pumps are both pond pumps and should be and are run contiously, I don't have any timers, solonoids or such. - trying to keep it simple

Hope this helps.



That's pretty much what I'm doing.

H

Himzol
Sorry for the dislexia.
Much appreciate the info. if I hijacked apologies, however I felt go to the fountain of knowledge. Will continue saga in own topic, so feel free to chip in.
Again many thanks
franc

Apology not required..

Took delivery of 30 Golden Perch and 20 Tan Tans this morning, they were suposed to arrive last night but got held up by flights due to the storms in the east.

the GPs are now housed in the "big green bucket", and the tan tans went into the sump pond with the 12 original Silvers. The GPs were about 35 to 40mm and the tan tans were 60 to 100mm, and with the size of the mouths on the tan tans I wasn't willing to risk it.

I still have the little GPs and Silvers that King Erik organised for us in an aquarium inside, no deaths in the GP ranks for almost two weeks now and the only deaths in the ranks of the Silvers have been the few that were looking like they copped a bit of a rough ride in transport.

I have two weeks off from work and will be setting up a second "green bucket" with associated grow beds during this time.

The only concern I have at the moment is that maybe my pumps don't have enougth "oomph". The reason is that the pumping up from the sump into the FTs I would like the incoming water in the FTs to create a vortex which pushes all the uneaten food and fish waste into the centre to the pickup tube for water to go to the Grow beds. I am currently getting a slight vortex but it doesn't seem to be pushing all the "crap" to the pick up. I might see how it goes for a few days with fish in the tank, and if required I may talk to Monya about a new pump.

Some issues with plants but mainly heat related and are being addressed, other wise all is "tickety boo".

H.

Really interesting to see how fast they grow. Keep up the good work Himzo