Al in Mandurah WA

[Alwyn]

Hi,
I'm just about to set up in the back yard.
Have put up a 9m x 4m green house frame that will house a 3m x 2m fish shed, 3m x 2m green house for aguaponics grow beds, NFT, and seedlings frame, 3m x 4m raised sheet beds and 3m x 4m for chooks and eventually quail.
One thing at a time though.
Hope to have the structure finished in the next week or so and then start with re-circ aquaculture quarantine tank in a bath tub. Then add bigger tank with grow beds. Chooks will be easier and sheet beds too so they will probably be up and running sooner.
Has any one got a good place for fingerling purcases in W.A. preferably south of the river?
Any one used Black Bream in aquaculture?
Any ideas or hints for the above system would be great.
Thanks.
Al

[Outbackozzie]

See Bream thread.

Fish for south of the river? What can't travel :D

Golden Ponds in Baldivis may be your best bet for Silver Perch, but they dont have many and they are more expensive than fish farms. Pretty much all fish farms do not have any new fingerling until December.

Jurien Bay fish farm has 75 - 120mm fish, but the minimum order is $500 because they have to be caught from an outside pond at this time of year.

Trout can be had from many places down your way from late March.

Personally I wouldnt bother with the NFT, growbeds do just fine.

The fish tank can be in the plant part of the greenhouse, does not need to be a seperate room. A shadecloth over the top of the fish tank will stop any algae problems.

[Alwyn]

Thanks for that O/B Ozzie.

I saw the Bream at Golden ponds but they looked a bit sick, with some fungus growing from their gills (Just that batch), and are $1.50 each for fish about 30mm. All the rest of their fish look great incl barra and trout!

With grow beds will rust from a cast iron bath do harm in the system?
Apart from the bath being very heavy, I am trying to think of an excuse not to use it, but it was free...

Shade cloth over the fish instead of tin will avoid cost for lighting so will look at that but am thinking it will reduce temperature controll ability?
May incorporate shade cloth windows with tin covers for cold nights...

[Hamish]

Hi Al.

I dont think a small amount of rust will hurt - some people actually put some rusty iron in there system to give the plants some iron. Others use a bit of chelated iron.

[Outbackozzie]

Some people put lots of iron in their growbeds :D

If you design your system with a big enough fish tank you can avoid needing to pump water during the hottest part of the day in summer, and the coldest in winter.

This helps immensly with temperature control.

[Alwyn]

Thank you Hamish and O/B Ozzie,
I think I have settled on a final lay out for the aquaponics section.

Will eventually have:
system 1 - bath tub 240l re/circ system for quarantine/fingerlings fed by 3000l/hr DW pump head of about1.2m with bio filter and spout for airation,
System 2 - bath tub 240l tank with bath tub 240l grow bed for yabbies/marron fed by 300l/hr DW pump head of about1.5m and a
System 3 - 1500l pond with 1/2 blue drum 2x100l grow beds and a bath tub 240l grow bed for fish.

Should I just put this in the new systems thread?
Thanks again.
Al

[GaryD]

Hi,




If you design your system with a big enough fish tank you can avoid needing to pump water during the hottest part of the day in summer, and the coldest in winter.


.....and the more water you have the more stable the temperature anyway.....which makes OBO's suggestion even more feasible.

Gary

[Alwyn]

Thanks OBO and G.D.
What sort of stocking level can I look at for a 1500l tank and how many 1/2 blue drum grow beds would it need?
Looking at trout for winter and hopefully Jades for summer if I can find a supplier.
I like the look of OBO's system...

[GaryD]

Hi Alwyn,

You could stock 60 - 70 Jade perch in 1500 litres.....and depending on how you cut your blue barrels (l like the way OBO has done it) you could run 15 - 16 of them without any problem.

Gary

[gtpratt]

Hi Alwyn,

You could stock 60 - 70 Jade perch in 1500 litres.....and depending on how you cut your blue barrels (l like the way OBO has done it) you could run 15 - 16 of them without any problem.

Gary


Hi GAry wouldnt the 15 to 16 half barrells mean that a lot of water is out of the tanks at a given time?

half drum is 100 litres, say autosiphon is set to 75 litres thats still over 1000 litres out of the tank at a given point?

Or am I missing something?

Kindest regards.

Gra.

[fishfood]

Dont forget the grow bed media that takes up 60% so thats 40 litres per drum by 10 =400 litres or there about

[Outbackozzie]

or 15 = 600 litres of water.

Gary is correct.

[gtpratt]

Dont forget the grow bed media that takes up 60% so thats 40 litres per drum by 10 =400 litres or there about


He he he,

that is probably the bit I missed.

Sorry I was imagining a TARDIS based soil replacement system :D

Regards.

Gra.

[GaryD]

Hi Alwyn,

For mega bins in Perth, look......here (http://www.plasdene.com.au/pdf/PlasdeneGlass-PakMegaBin.pdf).

There's a Perth number on the brochure.....and, if you have large a horticulture of fruitgrowing industry in your district, there may even be a local distributor.

Gary

[Alwyn]

Thank you all.

I have been informed that no one has jade perch in W.A.
Is that correct?
I am thinking that I will go with alternating Trout and Barra according to the temp's if that is the case.

{RE: You could stock 60 - 70 Jade perch in 1500 litres.....and depending on how you cut your blue barrels (l like the way OBO has done it) you could run 15 - 16 of them without any problem.} (How do I do a quote?)

Thanks Gary, That is a lot of grow beds. I'll need to get on with some more scrounging!

I have 2 bath tubs I can use so maybe I'll just look about for 3 more of them.
5 all together holding 240 litres each ( that's total volume - I'll probably only fill to 300mm though) Going to use blue metal as a growing medium as my hands need some toughening up ;) and I hear it contains some benefifial minnerals that pea gravel does not...

Gary I am stoked with how much effort you and the other admin's and Members put into this forum.
It must be a whole lot of time/work...
Thanks.

For my bath tub fingerling quarantine system (recirc aqua culture) i bought a 1050 lph aquapro pump but the outlet is only 13mm - thinking of using 12mm kink proof hose for pumping up to the biofilter.
I guess I will just have to clean it often?

Also is any one aware of any issues wiht using air-con insulation in a biofilter? I will be growing fish to eat. It is the stuff that is used around ducting hose.
I was going to make it out of a 50 litre food grade container with the bottom half full of shade cloth and the top half full of a/c insulation. Top in - Top out...

Also the silver paper is good for reflecting light so I may put that behind the grow beds to give more light on the vegies.

I put a 1/2 day into the enclosure yesterday and just have to sheet the roof of the fish enclosure and finnish the chicken wire for the chook pen and to keep my son and our two shi-tzu's out.
Then onto the fun part of building my systems and buying stock.

I'll start some seedlings soon and get some chookies asap.

I think I'll ask for a week off soon to get this up and running. Seems to be taking for ever to get this far, especially since I am trying to do it cheep as possible and that means waiting to find suitable materials. I have spent $400 on the enclosure and bought 2 pumps so far. I am happy with that...

Catch ya all soon, thanks for your comments and help.

Al

[GaryD]

Hi Alwyn,



(How do I do a quote?)


You copy the section of text that you want to quote and paste it into your reply box. Select the text and click on the little yellow box immediately to the left of the hash mark on your reply box menu. You'll know that you've got it right because the word QUOTE will appear either side of the selected text.



Gary I am stoked with how much effort you and the other admin's and Members put into this forum. It must be a whole lot of time/work...


Establishing the forum has been a lot of work for Murray and I, but it's happened and now we have Hamish and a core of experienced members who help us make it go the way the way we always wanted it to.

While the forum seems small, Murray and I can access the list of members who visit each day and that's increasingly impressive. We have a lot of members who don't have much to say.....they just drop in each day and take a look at what's happening. We have a much larger group of people who are not members (but who are very welcome nonetheless) who also visit the forum.

It's the well-behaved, supportive environment we always wanted.

Gary

[Murray]

Further to that , The very supportive work of Hamish and Martin our two Moderators, and those others who post often providing valuable insights.
Can't list everyone but there are a few I would like to thank, OBO, JD, DaveO and FF come to mind as very good contributors. (sorry if I have missed anyone)

[Outbackozzie]

No jade perch yet, but another option apart from silvers, trout and barra is Murray cod. I have not looked into them too much, but they are aparently a good eating fish.

You'll find that it is very hard to get barra fingerlings before late december / january - and this does not leave enough time to grow them out. You'll only have until end of March at the latest. Some people in perth have tried to keep their water temps up enough over winter with solar heating etc, but were unsuccessful.

The 12mm hose for your filter will be ok, the biofilm should not totally block it. Back when I was using 13mm poly :rolleyes: , the poly itself never got blocked up, it was always the t-pieces etc in low flowing areas. High flow seems to be ok. Maybe put the water into the bottom of the filter (shadecloth side) and have it come out of the top (ac insulation side) - whats the insulation made of? If its the white, coarse dacron stuff thats ok.

Unless you have the enclosure in a dark spot the reflective paper should not be required in mandurah - your more likely to need shade.

Good luck, keep the questions coming.

[Alwyn]

Thanks OBO,
Murray Cod sound very interesting, from what I read on here.
I'll definatly have a look at them over time.

Golden Ponds have lots of Barra at the moment.
Dunno what they cost in bulk orders though.

I agree on the reflective stuff.
We had 2 - 30 plus days just now and I forgot what it was like.
Yeah its that course white insulation.

I built 2 small Biofilters last night to use on the bath tub tank. tried two different designs and will run em for a while to trial each design.
Will put pix up soon (I hope)

I agree the forum is on a good wavelength with snipes and egos at a minimum.
Well done.

Gotta run

[Outbackozzie]

I agree the forum is on a good wavelength with snipes and egos at a minimum.

They come out later :D

Unless you can get barra at a reasonable size, for around $2 or less, I would not bother with them - especially for a new system. Just make do for summer, get Trout for winter, then organise for some barra for next year if you want.

Ideally you want to get at least 100mm barra, which would be hard for a brand new system to cope with.

[Alwyn]

Oh Ok...
Bummer.

Maybe i will put some goldies in and a couple of bream then.

Is it just the growth rates of Barra will outstrip the capability of a new system? What about if I ad a hefty bio filter to it?

[Outbackozzie]

If you stock a reasonable amount of barra the biofiltration should keep up - however you will not get a full 6 month growing season, more like a bit over 4 months. Any water temps below 24 deg c and the barra will start to die, below 20 deg c and they all die.

Thats why you'd need to get decent sized fish to start.

Trying to highly feed fish to get them to grow, with a brand new system is just asking for trouble though. Just take it easy for the first season, then push it next year.

[Finn]

I Going to use blue metal as a growing medium as my hands need some toughening up ;) and I hear it contains some benefifial minnerals that pea gravel does not...

Al

Hello,

I looked online and the only pertinent reference I could find to "blue metal" was on a web page for "Australian Native Landscape" (http://www.anlscape.com.au/page/blue_metal.html)
and they sell blue metal as a gravel for drainage behind retaining walls. Is blue metal a specific granite from a certain area? Does it contain trace elements not found in normal gravel? Is it the Australian term for drain rock ?:confused:
It sounds exotic.

Finn

[Murray]

I believe that its particular composition would vary from place to place. Here in SEQ it is the least expensive to purchase and readily available at any sand & gravel merchant or landscape garden supplies.

[Alwyn]

That is probably the common Aussie term for it (Blue Metal). It is a blue rock that is hard like quartz but not as brittle or sharp. Used as road base, drainage and in concrete. Cheep to buy here.

Thanks OBO, I had that thought flash through my consciousness.
(Just feed em up) Probably asking for excess Ammonia though - Right?

I think I'll go with Goldies, Baby Koi and A few Bream at this stage.

They will first go into the bath tub recirculating aquaculture system while I get the main aquaponics system set up and operating. Then probably leave 1/2 there and transfer 1/2 and leave them as permanent residents in each system.

I am thinking that will be ok and provide some equalibrium to the system as I add and take fish from it?

Does that make sense? More importantly - will it work positivley?