9 replies to this topic

[Pchmb]

October 2016
The Aquaponics is still to come... but I have got myself a few bags of those clay balls. I'm still testing ideas and water flow on top shelf.
I have changed these tanks a bit this year. It has been pretty fun getting it all organised. I told myself I had to have this setup for the July school holidays, so that all the fish I keep in the science lab, have tanks to go in. I used automatic fish feeders on the last holidays in September but can't do this over the Chrissy holidays, as I will not be going in to do weekly water changes.
This is the guppy pool that I've just moved the black snake skin guppies in to, now that the temperature is warming up in Perth.

The daphnia tubs. Stoked to get a bag from the last auction. Which has allowed me to feed live daphnia to all my cichlids every morning.

The Frontosa tank 6x2x2, wild caught and still no fry, after all the times of holding. Maybe I should strip?

The double stack 6x2x2 keeping a few tangs and a colony of petricola.

Just put these two colonies together

Fry grow out tanks

Yellow labs

Tropheus and Calvis tank

and a few non Africans....

I'm going into the first summer using this "sun room" that was once (1950s) a patio as my fish room. The last couple of years there was times my house got really hot. I drilled a few holes in the asbestos walls and had a couple of air conditioners installed into the whole house. Maybe I need to cover the windows with reflective insulation, and maybe I will need to part ways with the Tropheus. But right now, I'm stoked with the setup of sponge filters and sump and can't wait to turn all the heaters off.
I'll try keep this journal updated.

[Stormfyre]

Rock that fruity piney hoppy Little Dove.. yeah boi!

[Pchmb]

Rock that fruity piney hoppy Little Dove.. yeah boi!

What an incredible beer of hoppy goodness! It has taken the place of Hop Hog in the fridge lately.

[Buccal]

Frontosa minimum of 22 days at running at 27'C.

I'm sure you already know, have researched the plants your growing ?, as to the TDS and PH requirements for the plants and wether fish can live at those levels.
So not having these requirements at least, will see deficiencies in plant growth.
If it's not set for plants needed requirements, then you'll unlikely be happy with it.

Way I'd do it, is have run to waiste hydro set up with coco peat growing media,, this media has no fertiliser in it at all.
Remember it run to waiste, so no water that leaves tank should re-enter, it goes straight through grow media then discarded, as the coco media retains water excellent.
A universal float valve will instantly top up tanks again after each run to waiste expulsion.
You simply measure the TDS and PH in the aquariums as a average, and incorporate a doser to add nutrients after every run to waiste expulsion.
Or you can run this manually also.

[Peckoltia]

Good assortment of fish. It is always fun getting new projects off the ground and trouble shooting small problems that come up. 

 

I also hope you wore the correct personal protective equipment when drilling into the asbestos walls. Can never be too safe when dealing with friable ACM.

[Poncho]

Nice work with the daphnia mate.

Can you explain a little more what you're doing to maintain the population of them?

[Pchmb]

...run to waiste hydro set up with coco peat growing media,, this media has no fertiliser in it at all.
Remember it run to waiste, so no water that leaves tank should re-enter, it goes straight through grow media then discarded, as the coco media retains water excellent.

Thanks for the advice Buccal. I have not thought about plants, but understand a little about the different minerals required for say lettuce compared to tomatoes. I am just trailing poison ivy, and over a good year it has grown easy a few metres and is what I would say healthy. I am positive i could have the cichlids water with pH 8.2, gH 200ppm, kH 160ppm flowing through the clay balls. My Frontosa tank will not be in this cycle so gH is not excessive. I still have yet to visit an aquaponics shop and have a chat to hear their thoughts.
Buccal I do like your suggestion, but then the use of the plants to reduce nitrates will not be affecting the water cycling back through (okay except the aquatic plants) the system. Currently the waste water from water changes flows onto my fruit trees. This I'd continue to do. So I could have it bypass through the system you've suggested and then onto fruit trees without any dramas.

I just thought I'd insert a few pictures of the shelf. Currently I have a polystyrene box there, but want to have a long 8 foot by 2 foot shallow depth planter pot. If this exists and does not cost me the earth, that'd be great... but most likely I'll hook up a heap of the polystyrene boxes, cut them half way and plumb them together. Water will flow through and back to the sump below.
This may be a whacked out, crazy idea. But I'd like to have my fish room covered in plants, and have the feeling of a tropic oasis.
Shit may change real quickly though if our Perth summer causes this room to get too hot, and I need to abandon the fish room!

I also hope you wore the correct personal protective equipment when drilling into the asbestos walls. Can never be too safe when dealing with friable ACM.

Yes wore all the correct PPE, and covered drill bit with water. That asbestos is tough stuff, I went through two diamond but hole saws in the process.

[Buccal]

That's why the typical farmed fish such as Barra and trout are good for Aquaponics, as they do well in the lower ph range which is required to grow many types of edible veges.

I personally found that growing most veges, and using the common basic nutrient part A and part B (found on most hydro shelves) and bringing the TDS up to 800 for application,,,, adjust ph up or down to 6-7 depending.
As plant gets third or fourth sets of leaves or there abouts,,,, then in the plant nutrient sump that's a seperate unit (where you added part A and part you add the fertilisers for fast developing growth first as per instruction, you then add the part A and B after to bring to a TDS of 1000 or a touch higher for more established plants.
Two feeds, morning and afternoon for 1 minute each with three drippers per pot.
The coco peat retains excellent moisture,,, and a outstanding advantage of extra air delivery to the roots for explosive crazy growth.

[Pchmb]

Nice work with the daphnia mate. Can you explain a little more what you're doing to maintain the population of them?

I already had those containers outside and these contained the algae and muck from when I emptied the kiddies pool (6473L) in June. For some reason I kept refilling them and was keeping a population of all sorts of invertebrates and algae. No daphnia though.

So when I got the daphnia at the last auction, which came in a sandwich bag, I placed into just one of the tubs. After a month there was a huge population, so I kept scooping and moving daphnia into each of the other tubs. Now each of the tubs have big populations. I run water from the kiddies pool into the tubs to refill.

I also drop sera flora flakes every few days, occasionally algae wafers. Not sure if this feeds them. I'm guessing micro phytoplankton and algae growing in the tubs are feeding them, but flakes can only help the daphnia's growth.

At the moment the tubs are in direct sunlight. I'm thinking these may get too hot over summer, so will move into a little shade come the heat.

[extend]

Daphnia wont will dissapear during the summer unless you can keep the water cool enough. I worked at a koi farm a few years ago and winter to early spring was daphnia boom time. We would have plant ponds red with fat daphnia, my cichlids also grew madly during said time.