Back in the fifties and early sixties dairy farms had to find a way to cool milk until the truck arrived and picked it up and so they used a system that used a cooling tower to cool water and then in turn that water cooled the milk in an inside out radiator contraption , so when they came up with refrigerated vats cooling tower became obsolete, the farm next to me still had a tower standing and when the fires destroyed the dairy I asked if I could have the tower to put it up on my farm to explain to people that this is how we cooled things in the past.
After several years of sitting in the bottom tank cooling off in the summer it was discovered that the legionella bacteria was present in the water so no more sitting in it.
Well no all the same in fact they are all different in some way , what am I talking about, fish tanks of course.
I have eight healthy fish two in each tank and all seem happy and in good shape so lets go through the tanks and their differences .
Tank 1/ or what we call the sump:
The sump is simply a large farm trough buried in the ground and is out in the open it drains into the pond 1-2-3 depending on which tap is turned on, because it is in the ground it stays a little warmer it also allows insects such as crickets , grasshoppers and even worms to enter the tank.
The next set up is an aquaponics setup that I got from neighbors when they were leaving the area ( hi to Kerry and Lyla) this setup could be used in remote location and run of solar power, the plants you see are Nardoo which I use to plant in my floating habitats in the summer, its seems to be working well , its gets a bit hot in the greenhouse so I have to keep adding cool water.
Tank no 3/. tank no 3/ is located outside above ground , and the fish do well in , I have a filter on on it to keep water fresh the fish have settled in nicely , this would be the preferred option for a small hatchery should it work and the fish breed.
The black plastic is there to add some heat during the winter months, not much but every bit helps , the fish like it because its nice and dark, fresh water from a tank over flow also runs into this tank.
Tank no 5/ this tank sits out under trees and faces the southern winds so I wrapped it with insulation paper to help keep it a bit warmer , it gets rain water when it rains otherwise I have to keep topping it up to make sure the water stays healthy , this tank is isolated from the others and noise is kept to a minimum around breeding time.
The gates were burnt in the fires and I thought they would make good bird protection , all the takes are aerated and I find food each day for them , in the winter time they barely eat their metabolism slows down and if they eat to much it will turn septic in their guts and make them sick.
I prefer these tanks over the poly tanks with sloping bottoms , the sloping tanks tend to push fish together and around breeding time that’s no a good idea, they can fight and cause injury to other fish, the flat bottoms allow fish to be away from each
So all in all I have four chances for fish to breed if I am not successful this year I will move the fish around and try again next year.
Many hours of hard work went into this dam and its surrounds, and its good to see it full or almost , just a few inches to go .
The photo top left shows the frame for a bridge it will only be for foot traffic and the ride on mower , the photo bottom right is a landing for kayaks , the two photos on the top right are from inside my fishing shack.
I intend to fill this dam with blackfish soon , and then I will have a full time scaring the birds off.
This is what I have been doing since the pandemic started , I have helped keep the local hardware shop going , I built the shed over a rock that was pulled out of the dam when it was first dug and I thought it would make a good table.
Depending on what the genetics say some fish will go into this dam to act as brood stock for the farm I may even allow folks to come fish for some one day, catch and release of course.
I have Tarmo Raadik coming to my farm soon to test the fish that I offered to fisheries five years ago. if the test go well they may be allowed to be put back into the Gellibrand river , so in order to get ready Tarmo wants me to have twenty fish for him to get a good sample , so not having enough tanks with aeration I will have to adapt a few smaller ones , I have a tank given to me by George Paras a member of the group (Blackfish Action Members) and apart from keeping a few Yabbies for food I have yet to find a purpose for it , not any more .
We have known that we have Swamp Rats living around the pond so we don’t mew the grass but when I lifted up the tank from George this what I found. They make these burrows all over the place looking for food , we thought that the fire in 2017 had done for them who knew.
Depending on what the genetics say some fish will go into this dam to act as brood stock for the farm I may even allow folks to come fish for some one day, catch and release of course.
They make these burrows all over the place looking for food , we thought that the fire in 2017 had done for them who knew.