The veggie pics were taken on the 29th of November and the fish pic on the 7th of December. (The fish look pretty tiny - they're actually between 10 and 20 cm.) There's another fish tank, with about the same amount of fish - about 45 in all.

We haven't had much rain at all since July and it's a real pleasure to visit the aquaponics garden. This project really shows how water efficient these systems are, compared to the dirt garden, which has just about given up! Veggies include: tomatoes, strawberries, Lebanese cucumbers, climbing beans, basil, chives, lettuce, silverbeet, beetroot, and an experimental rock melon.

Early November 2009

Now it's November and a month away from summer. Already it has been very hot and dry - not much rain at all since June. Here are some pics of the spring planting - and one showing the new, improved insulation on the fish tanks. Once the water warmed up, the fish started growing again and are a mix - somewhere between 10 and 15 cm. At the moment they're being fed on commercial pellets, worms and black soldier fly larvae. The system is now 7 months old and working very well.

Fish tank insulation

It's the middle of winter here, so I've insulated the fish tanks and the sump with some roof insulation covered in black plastic, to keep the water temperature up. It makes a big difference, especially if the pump is turned off at night. When the water's cold, the fish don't eat as much and growth slows down.

Week Eleven

This week the first broccoli and bok choy were harvested, and more bean and peas. The cucumbers are almost ready to eat as well. The broccoli plants take a lot of room, so it looks as though it's better (in a small system anyway) to plant vegetables that keep producing, like bean, peas, tomatoes and cucumbers, rather than big, one-off vegetables. The weather is starting to get quite cool at night (10 degrees celsius) so will turn off the pump at night and insulate the fish tanks and sump to try to conserve heat.

Week Ten

So here we are at week ten and very happy with the experiment. The fish are nearly big enough to wean off the commercial pellets and onto worms (from the worm farm) duck weed (from the pond) and Black Soldier Fly larvae (from the compost bin), and should be ready to eat in 8 months or so. Plus there will always be veggies.

Week Eight

We're eating beans, peas, herbs, Chinese vegetables and lettuce now, and planting new seedlings to replace what's been harvested. Amazing how fast it grows and how good it tastes! There are little broccoli and cucumbers coming on and the tomatoes are flowering. And the fish are growing. How much to feed them is a big question - their feeding rates are affected by the temperature of the water and their size - it's easy to overfeed them.

Week Six

Little beans and snow peas had made an appearance by week six and everything was finally looking quite healthy. We have planted tomatoes, cucumbers, dwarf and climbing bean, snow peas, lettuce, Chinese vegetable, herbs, silverbeet, dwarf broccoli and strawberries. A trellis is installed along the back for the cukes and beans to climb on. There are trellises at the sides for the snow peas.