Frequently Asked Questions - Maintenance
CapitalAquaponics buys food and will sell it by the kilo. Otherwise you're best off buying it from the hatchery which may do it in small quantities. Ideally you want to be moving your fish onto larger sized foods as they grow.
The issue with buying fish food direct is that you have to buy it in 20kg bags. The fish will grow fast and you will want to move them onto larger food as they grow, so you will be stuck with something like 15kg of unsuitable fish food. The vitamins tend to break down in them so they are not really suitable to keep for years at a time.
Generally systems are setup so they run off timers, so in terms of operating a system you should probably just do some tests and take a good look at the system to make sure there isn't anything awry before you go away.
In terms of looking after the fish - they're tougher than you think. I've not fed my fish for weeks at a time, and they're fine. They get hungry, but they survive. So heading off down the coast for the weekend is not going to be a problem.
I personally have left my systems in the care of people who know nothing about aquaponics for several months at a time, all they've had to do is feed the fish every couple of days (so that they've grown when I get back!).
The key is to make sure your system is stable and working before you go away (e.g. check to make sure no drains are about to become clogged with roots, that your system has adequate pH buffering, your pumps still work and your water parameters look ok).
And of course the plants don't need daily (or even weekly intervention) so that side of things will be fine. Just be prepared to pull out large weeds if you go away for several months.
Yes. It's important to cover your tank for many reasons, here are some:
- Trout jump, and will jump right out if you don't stop them
- Shading the tank stops algae growth - algae is a plant and hence a competitor to your veg.
- Birds and other predators can't take your fish
- Leaves and debris doesn't fall into your tank
- Evaporation is greatly reduced.
I recommend using shade cloth - just make sure you wash it in hot water first (no soap!) as most shade cloth has an anti-bacteria agent, and bacteria is essential in an aquaponics system!
The vegetables: pretty much anything that grows in your garden, right up to small fruit trees (for example, some people in warmer climates grow paw paw). Anything that's green and leafy gets the biggest advantage due to the abundance of Nitrate. You don't have to grow vegetables - flowers do fantastically as well.
The fish: Canberra's climate is best suited to trout. You can grow a Trout from fingerling to plate size in 9 months, so if you get them in March when the weather starts to cool off you can be eating them by christmas. Other popular species are silver perch, freshwater mussels, yabbies, eel tailed cat fish, goldern perch and murray cod.
