My pilot project Francois

[Francois Lemmer]

I started messing around with tilapia 2006-2010

2010 - the end of july i had to take  my system down

i am currently trying to get a piece of property to set up a scaled system.

basickly i dont have a system that is running

but i want to share my last 4 years with aquaponics

with members.......

 

[Francois Lemmer]

Hi David

worked WELL

[Francois Lemmer]

Hi All
So the leak sorted.
Funny I could not see anywhere where the water leaked…the cut was on one of the bends on the corners of my grow tray. 20 mm long cut …I had previously soldered the cut (self made when I made the grow tray) but with all the bashing around the crack split open again.
I have also filled my worm/sump with media…..using all my off cuts of PVC pipes and fittings…I have lots from my pilot project….. I still have meters laying in my yard.
I took some of the Ø30/Ø40/Ø50 pipes and off cuts and cut them into shorter pieces of all sizes.
Took time and still not finished …..I need to cut more
Not what I was planning on using but it is what I had laying around and for now it should do the trick and I can see how it works with the worms…???.
The media I want to eventually use will be HDPE turned cutting's.

HDPE lathe cuting's

[Francois Lemmer]

I went and bought myself 5 Kio for starters...between 60-80 mm long.
3 of them +-80 mm and 2 +-60mm
I released them into my top grow tray for now...I want to check and see how they do.
When I am happy then I will release them into the fish tank

[Francois Lemmer]

a brick = 230 mm

 

this kio grew eating a tilapia diet and it grew much faster than the tilapia

he/she was the only kio in a dam full of tilapia

from +-120mm long to this +- 320mm in 15 months...

[Francois Lemmer]

 I have not checked ammonia yet but the nitrite on Sunday was less 0.1mg/l.
The Ph was 6.8
Temp 15 degrees Celsius late afternoon
Alkalinity 75
Hardness 50
For nitrate I have not tested yet.

The duckweed I have moved from the buckets into the grow tray’s where I want the duck weed growing......???

[Francois Lemmer]

Hi All
The 5 Kio I have moved into the fish tank…..
They are happy and are eating well even with the water temp this afternoon 15 degrees.
I have been feeding the Kio worms and Kio pellets
The Kio love the worms so I will make that a portion of their diet…
I also added worms into the worm sump………
Took coco coir (photos) and added worms and vermicastings ……
Then this lot I slowly dropped into the water in the one corner of the worm sump…..
At first the worms were reluctant to stay below the water but…..
Checking today I see the worms between the coco coir under the water happy…
The worms in this sump I have started feeding fish food….for now

 

after 1 day  in water..swolen

+-3 times the dry size

[TCLynx]

Are those garlic bulbs in the holes in the bricks?

[the mad german]

Nice set up Francois.

[Francois Lemmer]

Hi TcL

yes sir garlic...i want to get some going to plant in my ststem

[Francois Lemmer]

the mad german said:

Nice set up Francois.

Thanks

[TCLynx]

cool

[Francois Lemmer]

Hi All
As far as the water parameters I have been checking.
PH 6.8 stable
Temp’s 10-22 deg Celsius
Ammonia not checked
Nitrite 0 to now 0.4+mg/l
Nitrate not checked
Alkalinity 75
Hardness 50
I added shells to the system
This is a graph of my bio filter. On the graph I have only logged nitrite…but the peak is starting to show