First Try

[inzane]

Hi all, been lurking a while and set up my first system about 3 months ago, which has ended in failure...but not total failure, so I must be winning!

I built a wooden frame pond and lined it with a tarp and concrete underlay (first mistake I think). The growing bed is a length of sewage pipe with holes cut in the top, this feeds into a settling tank, (wrong way round, Doh!) which overflows into a trickle filter and back to the pond. I have a 7000 liter an hour pump (hozelok) which is way too powerful and the pond is ~750L. It has various central american cichlids in it, and is in aquaponics terms lightly stocked.

I planted lettuce, tomatoes, broadbeans and basil. Initially the grow tube was filled with gravel, but this clogged and flooded the house...nice. It was then empty and the plants grew well except the lettuce, and for a time the bean plant had yellow leaves, feeding heavily seems to have cured the beans. However the other day we came home to a wet house...wooohoo! The roots from the tomatoe plants had grown and clogged the outlet! So I bypassed the beds over night and this morning found collapsed tomatoe plants...I was just getting my fist flowers too!!! Ah well, it kinda worked, back to the drawing board. I'm worried about the PVC underlay too, as it may leach nasties into the water....

[inzane]

Anyone any suggestions on how to improve the design of the window ledge growspace?The sill is about 56" long and 12" deep!

[GaryD]

Hi Inzane,

Have you considered having several tiers of your pipe system in the window.....each one above the other?

GaryD

[Hamish]

Only bit of advice from me is DONT GIVE UP :) once you get it right it will be fantastic. Keep experimenting.

[inzane]

I was amazed how fast the beans came up! I'm not going to give up, but if I flood the house again my wife might make me!

The original plan was to have multiple tubes, I have a second ready to slot in, but really need to stop it flooding first! I think part of the trouble was that my pump was too powerful, so any clogging led to water pouring out the grow holes and hence down into the kitchen! I have put a much weaker pump on there now. I just hope this works. I'll increase the diameter of the drain as well.

I notice most of you have flood and drain systems. The reason i went with a flowing system was I didnt know how to get a reliable flood, drain effect. Can you get timers that switch on and off over say a 30 sec interval? Seeing all your systems is an inspiration, just wish we werent quite so far north, lol! Up here inside is the way to go, unless you can afford a heated greenhouse.

[Murray]

Where is Lanark ?

[GaryD]

Lanark, Scotland or Lanark, Illinois?

[inzane]

Lanark Scotland...its a short growing season up here. Last frosts are usually the end of may, but who can tell these days!

Just read the article on the soldier fly on the site gary linked. I googled for UK pages and there are a few 'soldier flies' but they are very different. The one that might be the same here is Hermetia illucens. Do you know the latin name of the fly you lot breed?

Do you make your own timers?

[GaryD]

Hi Inzane,

Hermetia illucens is the Black Soldier Fly.....and the one to which I refer in the threads on the subject.

The timers that I use are usually cheap electric units that allow me to switch on or off at 15 minute increments. They are not very accurate.....varying from 14 to 18 minutes each time they switch.

GaryD

[inzane]

Thanks Gary,

I have a friend who works pest control for the chicken farms round here and he was telling me about how hard it is to kill lavae in the pooh. I'm hoping this is the soldier fly, just want to make sure I get the right one and not the flesh eating one, that'll bore into my brain. Can you breed them? Here it'll be too cold for them most of the year outside the compost bin! If I left a decent airgap above the compost layer and put in a fake bush do you think they'll get down to the loving?

I just got a million questions guys! Does anyone breed their own fish, or does everyone buy fingerlings?

[Hamish]

In my research before buying my BioPod I did not find any information on people breeding BSF indoors - but it should work ok if you keep temps up.

Everyone I have spoken to buy their fish as fingerlings.

[Murray]

Hi Inzane,
Australian native species are pretty hard to breed unless you have special knowledge so we buy them from specialist hatcheries. 1$ each is pretty much the going rate.
Species such as Tilapia are strictly forboden here in Aussie, but they are an excellent fish for tank culture. Not bad to eat evidently.

[inzane]

Yeah, I hear australia has some pretty tight laws on fish imports. I chat to a few aussies on the fishkeeping websites. For us here its a mixed blessing cause we can get a wide range of imported fish from the ornamental trade (costly unless you can breed them), but getting figerlings is pretty much restricted to trout, which I hear are a bit tough before you have some experience! I'm tempted to see if I can find any Jade Perch over here. Murray cod sound tasty too! Dont very often see aussie fish here though.

Ornamentally speaking they advise keeping murray cod as a single fish in 200odd gallons. Do they do okay crowded in in aquaculture tanks?

[Murray]

Murray Cod are the premier Australian Native fish (my opinion)
Must be kept a little crowded or they become territorial . Must grade them when they are little as they like to eat each other.
Mate of mine has 2 x Murrays plus 2 x Sleepy cod in a med sized home aquarium. One Murray dominates the tank and has killed one of the Sleepys and the other Sleepy is constantly harassed by the dominant Murray.
The other Murray hides in an ornamental sunken ship and only gets food if it happens to fall in the right place.
The dominant Murray is twice the size now of the other Murray , they were both the same size to start with about 6 weeks ago.
There aint no love in the fish world :)

[GaryD]

Hi inzane,


Dont very often see aussie fish here though

All Australian species would require supplementary heat for most of the year in Scotland.

Gary

[inzane]

So crowding the murray cod works? I have a few species of central american cichlids that are farmed over there and they get very territorial, and very violent....they would be good as they breed readily. I tried overcrowding them and it ended in mucho death. I'm guessing they farm them in HUGE ponds.

The another fish I thought to try were pirhana. They are suppose to taste pretty good and feeding people with pirhana soup would be pretty cool. Had not thought that one through fully. I'd have to raise twice as much other fish to feed the pirhanas...not too economical lol. Thought I'd be fine cause I have convicts that breed like CRAZY and I need something to thin them out...problem is they are too hard for my pirhana and beat them up, even when tiny!

Then I had a flash of genius, or so I deluded myself for a few weeks. Vegetarian pirhana...PACU! They taste great by all accounts grow MASSIVE, eat anything, they farm them in southamerica...perfect! Well its not turned out too perfect. They grow massive and are very active so need MASSIVE holding tanks. I've been told that too breed them I'll need something in the order of a pool 28ft diameter by 4ft deep!!!! Hmmm, not going to be able to do that in the immediate future!!!

So now I'm pinning my hopes on my Uaru. I have a group of nine, and just need to get them breeding. They are suppose to be a favourite with the indians and are very peaceful and social, and are mostly vegetarian. They really like being in groups so they should be happy in an acuaculture set up. I also have a 720gallon tub lying about outside that I may try some less common natives in like carp or rudd... I'll need to heat it but just enough to stop it freezing.... I dont now if I'll find anyplants that will grow through the cold months here even under cover!

[inzane]

Hi inzane,
All Australian species would require supplementary heat for most of the year in Scotland.
Gary

Hi gary, my setups in the spare bedroom. Isnt my wife ACE!

[inzane]

Hi inzane,
All Australian species would require supplementary heat for most of the year in Scotland.
Gary

Hi gary, my setups in the spare bedroom. Isnt my wife ACE! She says I'm not having the flies in there though, but hey no ones perfect, lol!

[GaryD]

Hi inzane,

I've wanted to run a complete indoors system for some time but other project priorities keep getting in the way......perhaps next winter.

Gary

[Murray]

inzane, very keen to hear updates on the very interesting fish species you have listed.

[inzane]

Okay, I haven't been able to understand why the output from my pumps has been high initially (too high) then slowly tailing off to not enough over the course of a few days...well my missus figured it out, the weight of the pipe to my grow bed was slowly buckling it strangling output...told you she was ace!

Now thats a simple fix, just moved the pump shortening the pipe. Now the new slow pump is a bit too much for comfort, a small blockage will cause another flood...

To help I've put in the timer as suggested. Set on/off cycle every 15minutes... It seems to be sticking. Its worked a couple of cycles now but I dont trust it. Going to have to get an electonic one. Ah well, I'm off to bed, hope I dont wake up wet lol!

Heres a pic of the Uaru. They get to about a foot. I also have a Tiger Shovel nose catfish which are exellent food fish, but again breeding them may prove a problem in such confined spaces... I am confident that I can get my Uaru to breed.

[Hamish]

Very interesting looking fish you have there! Where are they native to?

[inzane]

they are south american.