General Update 1000 litre system

Been a hectic last two weeks. Busy on house, driving new motorbike etc so Aquaponics has not been taking the No 1 spot.  This last two weeks we've lots about 5 fish. The system is not overloaded but I think they were being slowly killed by love. i.e. to much food. So a couple of days off should do the trick.  I've done some water tests nothing major to report. Reading up the general consensus is the system needs 4-6 months to stabilise. So 6 weeks in is not to bad.

We've added in our NFT table which started yesterday. To early to say if it will work. For salads I expect it to be fine but for tomatoes doubt there is a high enough concentration of nutrients to really get it all moving in the right direction.

The first two photos show our new tables NFT and the third the inside of the tunnel with the deep water and polystyrene floats.

Pictures tell a thousand words...

New System Part 7

Just added a couple of 500 gram Tilipia as the bio level based on using my Hyrdoponic trunchon read 8.3 (initial system is reading around 14 and seems OK with the plants looking a little weak.) so I need more nutrients in the system to maintain my plants. Hopefully these two big fish should add something to all this. The fish actually were caught in our pond a few days ago. We left them in our other system until we were ready for a Bar B Q. Guess they got a reprieve....

New System Part 6

Things are going well. Did some water testing and things look good.  We did have some trouble getting the tanks to stop leaking.  I have been unable to locate a shop that sells rubber grummets. Bit of a problem. But for now plasticine seems to work. The leaking makes the ground soft and then the tanks tilt more. Sort of self perpetuating....
But all good. Next job is to add in some NFT pipes to see if I can these going as well. (added a picture of it half done). Only doubt I am having is if the fish are producing enough nutrients to feed so many plants. The system is new so does need some time to get established. I've got a EC meter for measuring the amount of nutriens in the water and will start using it this week. Interest all the stuff I'll saved over the years from my earlier hydroponic farming as it is all coming back into use. Feels good not to have so much waste and also gets rid of a lot of crap in my store!!!

One thing I have not figured out yet is why the polystyrene trays have a series of channels and then a sheet that side on top with holes. Well I know if for irrigation but my question is why 10 run channels in the base polystyrene and 6 rows of holes. Means some of the plants have to struggle a bit to get down to the water flow. I've not [put this to clearly but it is difficult to explain. Anyway all going OK for now.