Brushes and top up

How to do a sump

The business end

Silent as can be..

At Pieter's Place

Pieter Odendaal put us up at his guesthouse on the way to the clarens beerfest this weekend. Finally got to see his Koi pond in the flesh. It is STUNNING!

And a really nice collection of big friendly fish!! 

Hmmm. So who pinched the spare??

The Great Big Fish Catch starts today

Well, actually it continues today. We're moving fish yet again but this time to our tunnel which is now almost fully operational  - just awaiting the arrival of the borehole experts to install the bore hole pump. So far it's going as expected - we have lots of space to play with and even more water so we're stoked about our latest project. PondInnABox is up and running - and we'll be adding the aquaponics side of things to it shortly. We're quite pleased with the power draws on the system - matching expectations but we've still got room to improve - we're currently drawing around 850W which is almost at our target of 10W per 1000 litres.

Doitsu sanke male

Kohaku. Female

Goromo. 40cm. Male

Getting there

Almost done

Woodie getting the treatment

More progress

Some pics..

Big Fibreglass pond now in. 

Plenty neatening up to do but the hard work is done... Pumps to go on. Fish to go in. Almost there...

Kohaku

Beni kumonryu

Progress

We are getting there slowly. Poles for shade cloth going up, to make space for ponds... 

Goshiki with tail rot

Mixed selection of koi part one

Selection part 1

Mixed koi part 2

More koi

Phew

Move is finally starting to take shape. We're almost there folks!

Old air pump

Three years old and it looks brand new. Keep your airpumps under cover if you can and clean the filters. It's well worth the effort!

AASA Conf 2012

Is over for me now. Very interesting, all RAS. Told you so. But now actual money is starting to begin to flow so its looking very positive. Inspired now to get our system running as of yesterday!

Aquaculture Conference 2013

As you may or may not know we are involved in the aqua culture space for our sins. It is a fascinating look into the world of fish farming - the AASA conference held every two years is THE gathering of academics, government meddlers (!) and those who farm various things that live in water. I have seen presentations from everything from white stumpnose, sea urchins, marron, carp, tilapia, catfish and even algae through to trout, salmon, kabeljou and even aquaponics. It's tremendously exciting and being my 3rd or is it 4th such conference now one has to come away inspired by the interest in the industry which is becoming explosive. The good news success stories are still very few and far between with more tales of woe than of celebration and there are several common trends in each. Over promise and under delivery seems to be the most prominent with people drastically over capitalising and under researching. I'm sticking to my guns on this one. Fish farming is no different from other farming - it is a full time business and it requires the full time commitment to make it happen. 

Of particular interest to me has been the inclusion of aquaponics into conventional aquaculture. It is early days but using aquaponics as a treatment system as opposed to a commercial venture has gotten me thinking quite a bit about it and I think we will be doing some experiments on it in the near future. For now however I have yet to see anything to come close to our entry level learning systems in terms of price and fit for purpose model. I will blog more on this in the near future and you can see the development of the system for yourself. As always, if something is new to you there is no substitute for learning about how it works and what you need to know to make it work for you. It is this that we will shortly be in a position to offer you.