Balcony Maximus Kit - Castaway's System

[Murray]

Excellent Castaway...I must try your recipe.
It sure is good to be able to catch, cook and eat stright out of your own back yard.
Some people worry about the cost of raising your own, It is cheaper, no doubt in my mind about that, but the extreme satisfaction experienced cannot be measured with money....

[cyberfysh]

Congratulations, Castaway; great plate presentation, too - Jamie Oliver, eat your heart out! ;-)

[Castaway]

Here's a bit of an update. Cooler weather up here on the Sunshine Coast herald's in some great weather now for growing all sorts of vegetables at the moment. (Best time of the year for growing veges)
Lettuce is now doing well as the heat drops down a bit. Jades have slowed down in their eating as the water temps drop as well. I'm not too worried about the Jades over winter as the bigger fish can now tolerate a temperature drop. So no heating in this system.

The Maximus system is going really well - just like it should. A solid stable system aided with some balmy sunny days and it is now producing all sorts of vegetables. Tomatoes are all doing well. The system looks more mature. Plants look heavier and a darker green as you would expect.

I buffer the system now weekly with a few tablespoons of hydrated lime to nudge it back to around 6.2 and the plants just look great. I don't add anything else. I see a few grubs in the leaves now and then as we get a few of those yellow cabbage moths fluttering about. But nothing much to worry about. I have a few seedlings coming along so today so I ripped out some of the older plants like mustard greens and things no one seems interested in eating and put in more lettuce. Chooks were pleased to get the old greens. Time to start eating the fish which we are doing. Larger mass of fish has had no influence on Ammonia at all at the moment. Water quality looks good. I only feed the fish as much as they will eat which is about half of what they would eat over the summer. Average size of these Jades pictured would be around 360 grams.
Very happy with this system. Works like a charm.

[Shane]

Looking awesome Castaway.

[burnt]

I'm amazed how clear your water is castaway, my tank water is a bit cloudy with some suspended solids visible. I am regularly getting ammonia readings up to 1, the water has a bit of a smell, not too bad. I have been filtering with a dirty water pump through a filter sock and this helps, but without this the water from the tank exits via 2 40mm outlets, 1 at surface level, 1 at bottom and feeds 2 growbeds. My other pump is in a sumptank as my system is CHOP.

I'm thinking my fish load may be too high, 50 jade and silver perch in 1250 ltr tank& 1160 ltr worth of growbed. We have started eating some fish but they are really a bit small still, so maybe I'll do a 50% water change.

Any other ideas? By the way, the photos and vegies look great!!

[RupertofOZ]

Stop feeding... until your ammonia is zero... you water clear... and the "smell" gone....

Then add another growbed... or eat some fish... or feed less...

[Murray]

It is important to keep things in "balance"
If your water quality is 'Off" then there are various ways to bring things back into a balanced state.
Here are the most obvious, and in their order of importance. (Some of you experienced operators may like to add to the list or re-arrange it.)
.
Feed less, (maybe even stop feeding until things clear up. Not so easy to do with species like Barramundi)
Add more grow beds,(which really means more filtration and since we like growing veggies this is a good option)
Fewer fish, (eat some of them even if they are only half grown, or give them away)
External filtration. (there are lots of possible options here that can be employed)

Once your system has properly cycled complete or partial water changes should not be necessary and only employed as a last option.

The most common problems in home systems are over stocking, overfeeding, poor aeration and water movement. ( apart from things like the dog chewing through the power cord )

The temptation to over stock and over feed is very strong. The desire to have a tank full of massive fish in the shortest possible time, often prevents the operator from taking the necessary action to reduce feeding and or numbers.

[fishfood]

Easiest i have found if things are a bit off back of the feed and run the pumps overnight

[Shane]

Hi Castaway,

How are your Jades going?
Have you been eating anymore of them?

Cheers,
Shane.

[Castaway]

Hi Shane, I just read your message. I havent eaten any jades over the last few weeks but will do so this weekend. I've actually neglected the system a bit over winter and the fish are a lot more timid than usual. All is going pretty well. No fish deaths. System is just pumping along with minimal supervision. Who was the Joker who said Aquaponics was really Hard?!

The Jades are all a dark black colour over winter. Water quality is good. I havent fed the system any Seasol for about 2 months and it hasn't had any problems whatsoever. I probably test the pH about once a fortnight if I remember or just throw a few teaspoons of lime to bring the pH up a bit.

Its amazing how little work you need to do once the AP system has matured. My feeding of Jades over winter has cut down to half of what I would give them over summer. They will go off their food occasionally and so I just dont feed them until the next day and then all is back to normal.
We've been growing a lot of lettuce. All sorts of varieties and the growbeds are chockablock full of all sorts of things. So lots of salad meals everynight. Tomatoes are still growing strongly. I am going to see how long I can keep the one pictured below as its the best tasting tomato I have every tried. Very nice flavour but I dont know the name of it. It is not a climber and takes a while for the fruit to mature. But a lovely old authentic taste of real tomato. Not like the ones you buy in the shops.

I am looking forward to summer and slipping all my barramundi into this tank as its far easier in my opinion to run fish in Murray's Maximus kit system than stuff around changing water once a week in the indoor aquarium system and all its inherent management issues/difficulties.