My systems.....

[Shane]

Hi,

OK, time to catch up with my systems (photo's & story so far).....

I'll go back & start with the dead triangular shaped area in my backyard that I had a little over a year ago now.
Much has changed with this, so bear with me & I'll try to bring it up to current date over the next week or two.



This area of the backyard used to have a large shady tree in the corner, but a house extension down towards that corner made its removal necessary. This corner then after just ended up becoming a dumping yard for all sorts of junk that would come & go over the next couple of years.

So this is what we started with (all photo's are clickable thumbs)




http://s652.photobucket.com/albums/u...t=P1020578.jpg

After moving the remaining old bricks from a pathway I'd dug up out the front yard previously, we finally began putting things in place.

[Shane]

With a RHS Growbed in place.....it was time to get the LHS up & going.





Cycling took a long time (Melbourne's winter last year) & growth in the new GB's was slowish during our shortest daylight hours of the year & during a fishless cycle.






But eventually we were able to add Trout











.....more to follow

Cheers,
Shane.

[GaryD]

Hi Shane,

It's good to see your system up and going. I'm looking forward to your updates.

Gary

[kellenw]

Good stuff Shane! Keep us posted.

[Shane]

Once the Trout were in the system, the vegetable growth just took off...


LHS Growbed



RHS Growbed



First of many Cauliflowers



Broc's starting to produce



Beetroot powering along

[Shane]

My youngest children all love feeding the fish (especially my little daughter),
& the Trout kept getting bigger & bigger,








Two of my Son's took charge of planting all the seeds in anticipation of replacing what would soon be harvested from the GB's in the next week or two.

[Shane]

Both GB's kept producing plenty of vegies,

Broc's



Beetroot sized against beer can (375ml)

[Shane]

Before too long we began taking out the larger Trout when they got to around the 375 - 400 gram size. This also helped with keeping the water quality issues down, 51 Trout in an immature system this size was pushing things too much, I had to keep holding off feed every 2nd day.

After pulling quite a few out I was able to up the feed rate back to twice a day & the smaller Trout really began to smack the weight on a lot quicker.







Eventually we harvested 45 out the initial 51 Trout,
I managed to kill the other 6

IIRC I lost 2 or 3 possibly because I failed to realise that my pH had dropped dramatically & whilst my reading was 6 its likely it was well under that, as my kit can't give a reading for below 6.
IIRC the other 3 or 4 were lost due to fish tank temps during Melbourne's Summer. Days over 40+ Degrees C & Trout don't mix.

[MarkEinOz]

Fantastic Shane,

Looks like you really have a handle of the "mood" of your gear. Keep up the pics. Great stuff.

[Shane]

Fantastic Shane,

Looks like you really have a handle of the "mood" of your gear. Keep up the pics. Great stuff.

Hi Mark,
To be honest its been a very steep learning curve for me over the last year,
fortunately I've found that people are willing to help you resolve issues with your system if you ask & are able to specify exactly what the problem/concern is.....pic's with a question usually results in help in a very short time (thanks to the internet).

That said, negligence, insufficient maintainence & sometimes a lack of understanding has seen me unnecessarily lose various fish & plants over the last year & a bit. I'll document both all my stuff up's & successes on here.

It's been great to spend a lot of the time working on the systems with my kids too....they enjoy it almost as much as me sometimes!

Cheers,
Shane.