maxim_nz

Just to counter the latest photos at the end of a goldfishes life, here is a photo at the start of some goldfishes lives.. A photo of the growing goldfish eggs in my deep water culture bed, there are probably more unfertile eggs than viable and growing ones. There are also noticibly richer (gold) coloured eggs than others. You can work out the eyes, and the main backbone. While I was looking at these with a magnifying glass, one of the developing fry inside the egg did a flip.. so cool to see. Now I figure out how to feed them in a few days time..

I lost a one or two a week last season in my aquaponics pond (probably lost 10 or 12 total) as it warmed up and feeding started.. once I completely cleaned my sump (bathtub) right out, no more deaths at all. So this season I cleaned out sump once again at end of winter (added some shrimp to live and clean the sump) and gone to a mostly home made vege diet rather than shop bought diet. I've had one die over the same period as last seasons disaster, and just had 3 days of spawning :-)

Adrienne: sounds interesting, any photo would do if you have one.. Goldfish: This is now the 3nd day of spawning, they are laying eggs all through the mint, and with this many hungry goldfish around I bet most have been eaten, tried to save as many as I could and they can grow out in the deep water culture mussel bouy with tomatoes and lettuces. 20C yesterday in Wellington. I guess that triggered them..

Big goldfish and aquaponics go together well in NZ.. If my big bronze goldfish was a snapper it would almost be a keeper.. and I've seen bigger as well.

So how hard would it be to catch these big orange goldfish??

Couple of quick picture updates at the start of the growing season.. Overview (wide angle) view of goldfish pond Goldfish Pond (Oct 2015) Overview of the 2 x mussel bouys - 1 as a media growbed and other as deep water culture Growbeds Goldfish: (underwater) picture of some of the big ones. Small white one you can see on left is typical shop sized fish for sale. big goldfish All healthy, nice stable system at the moment. Have moved goldfish to a home made diet (cooked carrot, broccoli, rice, spinach) + bugs, snails etc. Doing well. As well as the plants and Goldfish this eco-system comprises of worms, fresh water snails, fresh water shrimp (in the sump) the occasional frog and quite a few bugs, spiders Nice to see a few other kiwis having fun with alternative gardening also :-)

I have looked at this extensively - there in no other practical option in NZ to use anything but Goldfish for aquaponics. You could use common large growing tropical fish that you can legally buy in pet shops, but I'm not sure I would want to eat those. You should not eat Goldfish anyway. Just use them to grow your plants. Tropical fish = heating costs but all year round waste producers Goldfish = no heating costs, minimal waste output over winter months The brown bullhead catfish which is a pest spread throughout the Waikato would be a great option for NZ aquaponics. Apparently they taste nice if fed a decent (clean) diet and not scavenging off unknown river waste. I think DOC are unlikely to allow this to anyone but a serious commercial venture under strict control, so back to the Goldfish option..

Wellington: Visited Korokoro Stream @ night recently (entrance off Cornish Street) and it took only a few minutes with a torch to find them (eyes reflect like little cats eyes do in the dark)

Update December 2014 (this is my continuing small scale aquaponics experiment. Done at altitude in cold, windy Wellington using recycled parts + goldfish, snails and worms) -Changes over winter I removed the small growbed and replaced with half a Coromandel Mussel Buoy (broken one off a farm, bit tricky getting this back to Wellington in sedan car) Nice and deep now for Tomato roots, needed another 100 litres of hydroton to top it up on top of existing media. There is a nice population of worms in the growbed also and freshwater snails in the sump. Both supplement the goldfish food. Overview Mussel Buoy sits on top of sump (bathtub) End on view I also replaced my somewhat fiddly deep water culture trough with 2 x hydroponics gulleys and I'm testing lettuces, chillies, strawberries, Onions, and odds and ends in. I got 7 x gullies = $15 off trademe :-) ONION: doing good, hope to get some seed off it. RED ROCOTO CHILLI I have other seedlings if anyone wants one. They are a fabulous addition to a Lamb curry LETTUCES: Seems to me to be the BEST way at growing lettuces fast compared to soil garden, grow media or deep water culture. I place these guys in netpots with roots wrapped in coconut fibre, they are much better supported this way and don't get blown around in Wellington wind compared to the deep water culture. They just go nuts. We leave them growing and take leaves off as needed for salads. FISH! Doing good now, had a few deaths as I tried to get them back on a good food regime after winter, would be good to know how others do winter feeds and then get them back into condition and producing lots of waste, water clarity is fantastic and never any issue. I love sitting watching and feeding them. Most other aquaponics setup I see on youtube seem to hide them away :-( SNAILS: Nuisance, they seem to love destroying the sunflower seedlings at night :-( OTHER CASUALTIES: This poor guy fell into the (sump) bathtub and was long gone when I found him.. INDOOR WINTER TEST OF TOMATO I took the last growing tomato plant inside in June 2014 and popped it into the tropical tank. In no time it completely outgrew the warm air space under the light, so I let it bush right out and I took 10 or more cuttings of it - cuttings are now back outside and flowering nicely... WHAT TO DO NEXT: Long term it need a solids filter, so will figure something out.. lots of examples on youtube.

My "indoor area" aquaponics has been voted an acceptable place by a member of the New Zealand Wildlife Community. This frog has been living in the deep water bed that previously had the winter lettuce growing. It sunbathes on the black plastic edging, and will jump in when you go out to feed the goldfish, hang out the washing, get some tomatoes etc. It's been here last 2 weeks, there are plenty of spiders and flies living around the system, so hope it hangs around a bit longer. No goldfish seem to the missing either.

My goldfish powered tomatoes are now 2.4M high (17 Dec 2013) Here's what they looked like on 14th Sept 2013 The deep water culture tub. Very easy to grow lettuces.. anyone could do this. Bathtub and plants on left / pond on right. Bathtub acts as sump. All water goes back here Experiment: moss scraped off concrete outside grows lush and deep Fish. I did have parsley growing in here also, but I planted it outside in a large tab where it gets more all round sunlight and feed it all the used ground coffee beans. They are now massive. AQUAPONICS: This is purely just done for fun and learning how to grow the most I can in the smallest space with the least amount of water :-) - I just got sick of cleaning filters and stumbled across this on the web. Filtration is achieved by settlement of solids into the bathtub and growbed. Worms and snails break these down. Water clarity is excellent.

FISH PICS :f77: These guys are what makes the plants grow. They always want food. Nice and friendly The kids have nicknamed this big black male "batman" on account of big flowing black fins and the more prominent nostrils like bat ears..

My small (hydroton) grow bed. Bell Siphon, flood and drain. Good view of avocado, parsley and new season tomatoes Closer view of the bell siphon with cap removed. Strawberries: Grown in milk bottles with dripper. Left one if full of hydroton clay media and very well established, the two right ones are new setup using strawberries from the deep water tray and full of coconut fibre. These two are much lighter..

ok. Overall view of setup. New bath and deep water culture is at top, long white pipe beside pond is cleaned water from sump (bath) into pond. Closer view of deep water culture (basically plants on a polystyrene raft with roots directly in water). Adaptation is elevating the polystyrene with a air gap above the water, gives root oxygen without need of water bubblers most commonly done in these setups. Strawberries cultivating on the raft (under view of roots) all the clean white roots are new growth in 1 month

yeah, grown from the stone which was simply placed in the growbed and ignored. When I read about avocado (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avocado) it appears to be tropical, grows to 20M in height and likes well aerated soils. I've hardly given it any special treatment, it's basically outdoors in Wellington at 200M elevation above sea level and gets zero direct sunlight over the winter months.. I would say it must be a Hass avocado as it has survived some very cold storms including that infamous snow where it was down to -7C here. Done plenty of other well planned fish and garden experiments that failed, kinda cool :bggrn: that this one is defying what should not work and is now the largest plant in my aquaponics. Keeping it going just for kicks. Will get some decent pictures of current setup next few days and share..

A quick update after the winter quiet zone: Since last post, obtained free bath from next door neighbours bathroom renovations, and that became a sump which the main pond overflows into, I moved the pump into the sump/bath and placed two plastic pallets (also free) above the bath. 1 pallet has had the feet removed, so it became a pallet tray so to speak. What I have done for those who are unsure is, I've converted the basic setup I've been running into a CHOP2 system (Constant Height One Pump) that is fairly popular in Australian setups. So now I have a deep water culture bed, as well as clay media flood and drain growbed, strawberries in a milk jug on a dripper. I removed the old planter box above the pond and it can now showcase the goldfish nicely. I also added another 20 goldfish to give it more nitrate output :gigl: possibly around 60 in there now. Have tomatoes, strawberries, parsley, lettuce and (mint: on the side away from grow bed) not leaving it late this year, making the most of this mild winter and getting things ready early. Yes my avacado is also living. It's around 1M height and was transplanted into the new growbed along with the all the worms that were also in the growbed. Can post some pics if interest from forum: just don't want to bore folks with gardening photos as plants are main benefit here. I do like my fish and unlike most aquaponic systems I find on youtube I don't hide the fish away in covered tanks.

I was 18hrs without power.. My tropical tank was wrapped in a very warm sleeping bag all night, nothing else used and I hoped for the best. Temp was 19C in morning, kept sleeping bag all over it during the day, and in the morning I used a car 12V to 240V inverter via a long extension lead to only run airpump. No loses. I was using BBQ to heat water/cook lunch, so filled a empty wine bottle with high temp water (not hot enough to crack glass) and I immersed it in tank. Did this twice till the power came on and temps did not decrease further. Using a glass bottle stopped the hot water shock that others talk about, and allowed the heat from the hot water to transfer into the tank water gradually. I did have a UPS which would have kept tank going for about 4hours if I disconnected heater and light, however reports online about fixes to power suggested it would ages, so I concluded the power outage time would way exceed my UPS battery life, I had to do other as above. Going to ensure my battery backup solution is heavily reinforced and solar panels (120W) which would be good enough to keep an airpump and filter going via battery are becoming affordable, so might get one or two.. If anyone in Wellington is desperate I have a UPS charged to give you a few hours relief..

gidday :-) originally i used an overflow siphon (simple curved pipe) pump goes all the time to growbed.. now I have retrofitted a proper bell siphon into the growbed (tricky job in a established media with plants) I highly recommend Affnan's various blog articles on bell siphons. I read and re-read this before i set mine up. http://affnan-aquaponics.blogspot.co.nz ... vised.html The mint root has taken over quite a bit, so my grow bed does not flush right out as well as it should. But it's good enough for now. Still got strawberries fruiting at the moment.. Parsley enjoying the cooler weather also. I'm glad people enjoy this thread. Working on a new plan right now. Need more space for aquaponics and more fish, having fresh plants to eat is such a pleasure. Cleared out a 6M x 3M space in the bush at back of section...I have literally been going just like this smilie. When I get something figured out I'll post some pictures. :digH:

I'm guessing there were a few folk in Wellington or other dry area's of the country who faced challenges with lack of water (Wellington had an outside water ban) I was left unable to effectively clean the large capacity spa pool cartridge that did the mechanical filtration for my aquaponics pond. (I had to use a small water blaster to clean it) So the previous post on plant roots gave me an idea.. why not use some of my plants with large root mass as a physical filter? So I got one of these storage boxes, blue one, same as yellow one in photo. The I used the brick in the bottom of storage box and discarded mint cutoff + some excess celery which had taken over with masses of root. Sat the plants on top of the brick and placed back into pond. Pump now pushes water into filter rather than pulling it out via cartridge. Close up of mint root mass (really invasive stuff, keep it away from your growbeds if you want to use flood and drain.) This is how it looked once setup (this whole process took 10mins tops) I leaned the storage box slightly forward so it spills out the front grab handle hole.. APPROX 1 MONTH LATER. Verdict: Water still clear, in fact slightly clearer than before. I have around 50 goldfish in here, and they are very well feed. They make lots of waste. Mint and celery went crazy in this box, and roots have taken over so the pump water has to go through the roots before exiting back into tank. I'm happy and will refine this filtration method further, still work in progress.

Just awesome, love the chillies, mine are almost there too. :cophot: We've all heard of MTS (multiple tank syndrome) some of us now have MGS (multiple growbed syndrome) Love to read about other NZ aquaponics experiments...

In reply to Aquadude: Aquaponics is not new, you can waste hours doing youtube research.. Aquaponics does not seem to be that widespread in NZ, perhaps due to our good growing climate (apart from recent drought summer) and lack of (legal) and decent fish species to suit our milder climate. The Aussies are masters at it unfortunately. That should not put off those who like fish and like growing own food. I've had lots of salads this year, cucumbers & gerkins still going great, chives, chillies, spring onions, celery, strawberries and a few tomatoes. The recent water shortage has not stopped growth as only a tiny bit of water is lost to evaporation, otherwise all water is continually recycled :-) My neighbours greenhouse tomatoes are wilting, mine are still flowering and fruiting. Amazingly my avocado stone is now a 80cm high plant! Pump: A good question: I used what was available. You can bleed off excess flow into the grow bed into strawberry towers, NFT growing gullies, or simply as a return water feature to oxygenate. I think mine does 800l/hr but it would not do half that with filter and pipes slowing it down. As long as it triggers the siphon that works for me. I think you should find answers out there if you look around a few forums. There are folks out there who are doing a variation on aquaponics and hydroponics called dutch buckets. I think this has promise and my strawberries which are growing in a slow drip 2L milk plastic container seem to verify this theory. This is a much more simple setup and looks more normal then a huge grow bed setup. This is a 18min youtube clip if you want to go over it: Tips to share................ It's addictive and never a finished project Siphons are fiddly, be patient. It will go eventually, try and try again. Getting air and oxygen to the roots is crucial for growth. NEVER plant mint with anything else. Keep in own separate container. Roots will block everything. Otherwise it tastes great. Don't plant strawberries and tomatoes in same root space. Grow in separate containers. Basil will attract snails like you would not believe. (old beer attracts them also, use as a snail trap) Whiz up in food-processor a huge pile of mint, spring onions and chives. Super delicious salad topping without the onion sting. A rusty nail in the water will provide iron supplement for plants instead of expensive additives Hydrotron as a grow media is worth it in my view, around 30cm deep growbed is optimum for root development. No weeds (top of grow bed stays dry) Worms love the growbed also and breakdown solid waste. Legitimate excuse to have more fish

Update 21/1/2013 Well with lots of goldfish, and feeding them daily, it results in lots of muck.. got totally sick of cleaning the gutless little sponge filter every 3 days in the 3000l/hr pond pump, so did what I did years back with a well stocked 6' tank. I bought a spa pool filter cartridge and connected it up. Now have crystal clear water once again. I used to have a 50 sq/ft cartridge in the old filter, this one is somewhat smaller, but I would think should run around a month before flow really drops off. I left the filter out for the photo. Will hide it away later under some plants. I let it run for two weeks before I had to clean it out of curiosity and flow from pump had not dropped at all. I got the cartridge from these guys in lower hutt http://www.poolsandspas.co.nz/Pages/aboutus.html Very helpful staff, and helped with the coupling to the pump as well. I like having the fish in view (most aquaponics seem to hide away the fish in black tank) so why not make the most of the goldfish colours and give them crystal clean water to show off.. Overview of central area: pump and filter lower right Pump and filter only provide mechanical filtration, growbed provides biological filtration. Good combination Feeding time - getting really tame now. After years of tropicals only, I really enjoy these goldfish Cats enjoy drinking out of the pond as well. (not fallen in yet, totally ignore the fish) Got cucumbers and gherkins growing.. Also the aquaponics favourite and my final experiment which was the grab the cut off spring onions stumps from the Christmas potato salad and shove them in the grow bed.. REBORN! Love to see other photos from others doing the same in NZ.. If anyone in Wellington area has goldfish that are too big for you tank I can give them a very nice home. PM if interested.

No, using a little mini greenhouse over the top of a 65 litre tub with usual tank heater and it seems to keep it insulated overnight. They have been outside since Sunday and everyone is thriving. Maybe I should share the story of my mate who moved to Thailand 10 years ago, of course he fell in love with a nice Thai girl, and they married and live north of Bangkok.. anyway, during the floods last year he sent me a hilarious email saying they had abandoned the downstairs due to flooding and snake heads, catfish and gourami's had taken up residence in his living room.. this is getting off topic. Sorry. Has anyone else tried any form of aquaponics? I'm keen to see others pictures. I can't be alone doing this... Update: On Saturday I planted some Cucumbers, more Cherry tomatoes, Gherkins, Chillies, and all the seeded tomatoes I grew recently (and enjoyed a fresh strawberry)

Nope, inside in a standard 3 foot tropical tank (it was growing out the top and I used to prune it with scissors) tank is drained at moment as I had so much debris being trapped by the plant it was causing issues. (there is a 2nd bogwood log as well with java fern) Aquaponics pond is keeping the larger Java Fern/Bogwood alive outside till I can rebuild inside tank over the holidays (pond is around 18~20C at the moment) Does anyone in the Wellington area have some good recommendations of natural/local gravel? Fine and preferably light colour..

ok, here you go. (tape measure extended out to 80cm for scale) It's about 80~90cm long all up including log, approx 30cm thick.. (was squashed into tank literally) View "inside" bogwood log - aka Clown Loach motel