Ponds

[lukeboshier 79]

After failing to breed T.Mozambicus in a specially built aquarium i tossed them into my pond, mostly out of pure frustration. Low and behold i now have abundant fry to harvest when i need and the fish all feed themselves.

i built the 30m x 6m pond just under two years ago and it is maturing into a wonderful eco system, as well as a pool for the kids.It is fed by a natural spring with around 32 000 liters of water a day.

i mostly posted this to make Gary jealous (i understand you really enjoy ponds), and yes that is my home amongst the trees.

[ande 853]

Hi Luke

Nice pond, looks biger than 6x30.

Is it standing lumber logs you have used to line the fare side ?

How deep is it ?

cheers

[lukeboshier 79]

Hi Ande

at its deepest it is 1,5m.

yes i lay on my side so that the pic would end up right side up, distorted it a bit, but am working on my technique

the Tilapia hatch and nursery their fry on the other side of the logs, here is a pic from that side- a lot shallower

regards Luke

oh have a student from Norway here, very decent chap!

[GaryD 1,059]

i mostly posted this to make Gary jealous (i understand you really enjoy ponds), and yes that is my home amongst the trees.

Keep it up, Luke......my finger is poised on the Delete button.

Gary

[Jennifer 0]

Dear Luke I have just acquired a 10 acre land for aquaponics. It has a spring stream running through it. Can I use the stream for th e aquaponic system by pumping into the system and recycling it back into the stream instead of fish tanks? There are fish in the stream but I intend to expand it to a 2acre pond with more fish added. I need your expertise on this Please. Thanks

[bigdaddy 223]

Hi Jennifer and welcome to APN,

Typically the aquaponics we talk about here is using a RAS system. This means we have a fish tank( which can be filled by your water from your steam), with nutrients added by fish, then the water goes from your fish tank to a or some grow beds(bio filter) to feed your plants, then to your additional filters and returns back to your tanks. First of all the fish tank is cycled, at the same time plants are added to (typically media filled) grow bed and once the system is cycled the water is kept in what can be described as a closed loop. After some time the level of the water drops naturally, either by evaporation, transpiration, cleaning or all, then top up water can be added (from your stream). sometimes in a mature system if the testing is too high a partial drop( approx 10 percent) may be needed and a top up added. I like to drop the water 10 per cent occasionally.

Hope this helps,

Cheers.