Gordon's 2nd, larger, AP system

Petesake

Hi Gordon,
do you think the fish taste any different if they self cull and are freezered once collected from the bottm of the tank?

Gunagulla

It would depend on how long they have been dead. I generally can't see through 1.5m of water to the bottom in the big tank (and 4.5m to the far side) now there is a lot of pellet staining, so only see them when they float.

I only keep them for human consumption if they look, feel and smell fresh. Clear eyes is not a good indicator of that in my experience.

Gunagulla

Lots of hot weather in Feb, and the forecast is for mid 30s until next week...

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Gunagulla

I've finally managed to get hold of a 25kg bag Potassium carbonate, after my usual supplier could no longer obtain it about a year ago. In the meantime I've tipped in 25kg of Potassium hydroxide, which has just run out, so the K2CO3 arrived just in time

I was a bit concerned about the "99.5% Potassium carbonate" label on the bag, but now have obtained a certificate of analysis, and the impurities are all ok.

I've also been adding 300g of dolomite every week or so, and will be needing another bag of that soon.

Gunagulla

Recently planted spuds are growing really well

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A GB full of various varieties of spuds I've just planted, I expect about 20kg of spuds in a few months.

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We recently planted out lots of brassicas in 4GBs and 2 WBs, this lot is cabbage, and there is also brussell sprouts, romanesco, cauliflower

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Broccoli, along with garlic and onion in one of the WBs
They suffered some leaf damage in a hailstorm on Saturday night.

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Gunagulla

Trout with pumpkin and potato chips

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boss

Oh boy that looks great.
On the addition of KOH or K2CO3 what are you using these bases for?

Gunagulla

Thanks Brian, the KOH and K2CO3 are added to counteract the natural acidification due to the action of the nitrifying bacteria converting ammonia to nitrites to nitrates, which releases a lot of H+ ions.
The Potassium is also a nutrient the plants.

Gunagulla

6 trout harvested this evening, total 4.3kg, average 717g, with the biggest being 985g. They were all males.
I noticed some of them had cloudy patches in their eyes, a bit like cataracts, which I suspect happened during the hot weather in January when I lost some.

Gunagulla

I ran the chiller until mid April, now it's stored away until next spring. The readings on the data logger started going berserk on a week ago, perhaps moisture has made its way into the sensor, so I have a new one on order for this logger, plus a spare in case the one on the small system packs it in.

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ChelseaB

So you have some combo of a flood/drain and wicking bed set up? I've been wondering about that...

Gunagulla

Yes, as mentioned earlier in the thread, I drain some water from the swirl filter each day, into a sump, which circulates via a pump to some wicking beds and drains back to the sump.

ChelseaB

Oh yes, I see there's 43 pages of post here :shifty:

Gunagulla

Update on the veg pics I posted mid April:
The spuds are growing really well, poly pipe propping the bag up as the plants are making it very top heavy

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as are the cabbages

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A few luffa are appearing, I hope they get large enough before the weather gets too cold for them

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Last post of these I was thinking they were brocolli, but they are actually brussell sprouts

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Gunagulla

I've now got a new sensor on the temperature logger in this system, so normal temperature logging has resumed

The water has cooled down a lot, although nowhere near as much as the small system, so the trout aren't eating as much. I've found a couple of dead fish over the past couple of months, and on Saturday saw one floating around head down, but still alive. I tried to grab it by hand, but it swam away, but later on I caught it in a net as it floated past the tank opening. It was 1095g, and it made a delicious lunch, with some left over.

I've harvested 14 over the past month, largest was 1295g, average 773g.

The vegetables are all growing well, we picked a large cabbage the other day, and there are plenty more almost ready to pick. Surprisingly I'm still harvesting capsicums, despite the cold weather.

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