Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Aquaponic Q&A session With Paul Van from Earthan Group..


Last Saturday we were lucky enough to have Mr Paul Van Der Werf from the Earthan Group hold an aquaponic webinar/Q&A session from our backyard..


It involved people from as far away as Saudi Arabia & Canada asking question on all things related to backyard aquaponics & aquaculture.. After the webinar was over it was time for us locals to pick Paul's grey bits & chat about all things fish/plant related.. Was a great day, met some nice folks & picked up a few useful tips that will definitely help me out with our systems..




Paul's "go-to guy", Sockaponic ;)




Would like to thank Paul once more for taking time out to hold this session for us local enthusiasts & for all the assistance he has given myself.. Thanks too for not cringing at the silly questions I have tossed your way ;)
Would like to wish him & his family all the best on their move to the United Arab Emirates where Paul is in the process of building a 4400m2 integrated aquaculture pilot farm in the desert..
You can find Paul posting articles on his Earthan Group website where he also offers up loads of useful information/DIY ideas for us backyard enthusiasts.. He also posts regular updates on the progress of the large commercial aquaponics pilot farm on the Earthan Group Face Book page..

Cheers folks,
Rob..

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Aquaponic update, Think we have a change of plans.16th April 2013..

Picked up a commercial aquaponic system last week & now need to work out how to fit it into the yard :/ Am fairly sure that our existing system will be off to my parents & then we can get into setting up the new system here..

Am really looking forward to planing & building this system.. Am hoping to still include some Dutch buckets & DWC beds too :)

Decided to harvest the sweet potato from the aquaponics this week.. Also had a bit of a surprise when I was following the vine
that had grown over the side of the system :)


Cheers all & have a great one..
Rob :)

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Catching up with the chooks..


Has been quite a while since a post was made on our poor neglected blog. So though I would pop up a bit of an update on a few changes to the chicken's yard & water feeder..
To start with, the chickens water feeder has been modified to take another dripper station with both of them being connected to a float valve fed water barrel.. I think our daughters were more excited about this development than the chooks as it is one less job they have to do every day ;) 
The clip below is from a few months ago when the system was set up & will give you some idea on how it was made..



I have found that the barrel has started to grow a bit of algae after I neglected to add the apple cider vinegar.. You can see in the most recent update from the chook pen below..
Had a bit of rain over the past few days so thought I would show how we use dolomite lime to keep the odours down when the chicken pen gets a drenching.. It also doubles as a lice & mite treatment as well which is a bit of a bonus.. A new fence has been built down one side of the day yard as well which will help give them a bit of privacy from the neighbours dog..



Also thought I would include a look at how we are making up their nesting box filler using shredded paper.. Our shredded bills/scrap paper has been going into the worm farms for a while now & we have expanded our use of it due to Bianca collecting discarded "newspapers" on her daily train commute..  We are now using it  in the girl's nesting box thanks to our increased supply..  



Would also like to use shredded paper & cardboard as bedding in the night pen as well but will need to stock pile a few more papers before we can manage that methinks ;)

That's it for a quick little look at how the girls are going at the moment.. Hope to have a few more updates on the aquaculture systems as well as a run down on the soil patch posted in the next week or so, time permitting..

Cheers all & have a great one,
Rob :)