# Aquaponics



## BLG (Jan 5, 2014)

Has anyone tried aquaponics? I like the idea but from what I've read it requires a lot of outside resources. I'm curious if anyone has been able to achieve a closed loop system with this?


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

No I haven't although this has been a thought on my mind due to the very small space I have to deal with locally. As such I am currently thinking about this little system with a few mods to see if its really all that feasible for me to step up to a larger system next year. At 60 bucks its a little steep for an experiment that small but I guess that's better than all the work and expense I would have to put in on a much larger system only to find out it might not be all that and a bag of chips. Instead of using a Betta, as they intended, I will use some small 2 inch blue gill from one of my traps instead for the "bio-load". Since I am a advanced aquarist and have a lot of water testing equipment I will be keeping some serious records on what the water parameters are in a effort to establish some sort of base line for fish load vs plant growth and production.

Back to the Roots AquaFarm 3 Gallon Fish Tank at PETCO

If all goes well next summer I might invest in a 300 gallon polytank for the fish, and some other tanks to use for plant beds. I will likely be using Bluegill or Blue Catfish for my fish load as Talapia wont be a feasible option for me.


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## BLG (Jan 5, 2014)

I was also thinking about trying blue gill fish. I'd prefer tilapia but evidently that requires a heater during the winter which I think isn't practical if using solar panels as I intend to do. I think I'll also start out small with a test run. I'd be interested to hear about your results since we're in the same area.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

I've been doing a lot of reading on the internet, reading books, bought a plan designed by some folks in Hawaii who are doing it on a commercial level, even built a veggie bed and bought an IBC for the fish. Now, I have come to the realization that it won't produce the amount of fish I wanted; they'd mainly be fertilizer for the plants. Not that this is a bad thing as we are so much into veggies that Wifey and I are just about vegetarians.

If and when I do start it, I plan on using catfish. They are more tolerant to temp changes, and I love to eat catfish. It would be nice to have the occasional catfish when I knew it was clean - fed organic food.


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## Titan6 (May 19, 2013)

Awesome thread very interested in this setup might try it out will keep a close eye on this one ...thanks for information...


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## BLG (Jan 5, 2014)

Denton said:


> Now, I have come to the realization that it won't produce the amount of fish I wanted; they'd mainly be fertilizer for the plants. Not that this is a bad thing as we are so much into veggies that Wifey and I are just about vegetarians.


I noticed that almost everything I read placed so much emphasis on the vegetables that were being produced. My land will produce more than enough vegetables - It's the fish that I want! Unfortunately, my land doesn't seem to have a good place to place a pond because it's so flat. Based on your research about how much fish would be produced?


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

I am dealing with winters in the teens and summers near or slightly over 100F. The only way to do this in my location is to bury the fish tanks in the soil so they will stay below 70F and use a triple glazed green house for the plants. they will need some shade and a lot of ventilation in the summer but all the available heat in the winter. I am working on a practical solution for the challenges of my location.


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## Ripon (Dec 22, 2012)

I studied it but did not try it - I just have too much space available to need it. I studied it becausing growing produce in the desert can be difficult but water is plentiful so I have turned my back on the subject; but for yourself and the original inquiry its quite easy to start small. Search ebay there are complete set ups that can go into a window shelf, some that can use proper indoor bulbs if you have affordable electricity and cost very little (like under a $100/$200). No you can't sustain life off that but you can contribute to your vegetable and fish supply a little bit and every little bit helps.



PaulS said:


> I am dealing with winters in the teens and summers near or slightly over 100F. The only way to do this in my location is to bury the fish tanks in the soil so they will stay below 70F and use a triple glazed green house for the plants. they will need some shade and a lot of ventilation in the summer but all the available heat in the winter. I am working on a practical solution for the challenges of my location.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

BLG said:


> I noticed that almost everything I read placed so much emphasis on the vegetables that were being produced. My land will produce more than enough vegetables - It's the fish that I want! Unfortunately, my land doesn't seem to have a good place to place a pond because it's so flat. Based on your research about how much fish would be produced?


Not enough to feed a family in any sort of consistent manner from anything I could figure at the average consumer level. It is really geared toward veggie production.
If you have the room for a more commercial size production, you would be happy.
I'll provide a good link when I get home to the computer.


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

I am thinking a minimum size of 400 square feet for the garden. The pond will have to be almost the same size so maybe a couple of those would be enough.


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## BLG (Jan 5, 2014)

I'm not so much concerned with size because I have the land to support it. My main concern is sustainable feed for the fish. I've read over at the permies forums of people providing natural feed such as worms etc. Have any of you researched or experimented with the practicality of growing feed for the fish?


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

BLG said:


> I was also thinking about trying blue gill fish. I'd prefer tilapia but evidently that requires a heater during the winter which I think isn't practical if using solar panels as I intend to do. I think I'll also start out small with a test run. I'd be interested to hear about your results since we're in the same area.


Your following my train of thought as well. My other reason for choosing Bluegill or Catfish is that I am right on the shore line of the lake and Talapia are considered invasive. Add that to the fact that most varieties available are also sterile which means I would have to buy fish every time as they wouldn't reproduce. Bluegill on the other hand or even small keeper size catfish are a dime a dozen here. I can catch a bucket full on a rod and reel in just a half an hour or so from the lake giving me a sustainable supply of small fish to grow out in my system if I set one up. If need be a separate 300 gallon tank could house a breeding pair to supply me with fry if need be.

Instead of the thin walled IBC containers I was thinking the 300 gallon Rubbermaide Poly Tanks that farmers use. They are more UV resistent, the thicker material would make heating it a lot cheaper as it would hold the heat much better. I have heated one of these before to 60 degrees in the winter with temps below 32 degrees using just one 400 watt aquarium heater!


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

Denton said:


> I've been doing a lot of reading on the internet, reading books, bought a plan designed by some folks in Hawaii who are doing it on a commercial level, even built a veggie bed and bought an IBC for the fish. Now, I have come to the realization that it won't produce the amount of fish I wanted; they'd mainly be fertilizer for the plants. Not that this is a bad thing as we are so much into veggies that Wifey and I are just about vegetarians.
> 
> If and when I do start it, I plan on using catfish. They are more tolerant to temp changes, and I love to eat catfish. It would be nice to have the occasional catfish when I knew it was clean - fed organic food.


That's kind of the conclusion I have come to as well Denton. I don't see these small systems being able to grow out enough fish from Fry to be sustainable. I do like the fact that I could house small fish and grow them out or hold previously caught fish (on days where I was able to catch a stringer full in short order vs being skunked that day) and fatten them up a bit until needed for consumption keeping them "fresh". Now if I were to use a medium sized back yard swimming pool or a intensely managed stock pond as my source of water and to hold my bio-load, then that might be a realistic possibility for being sustainable. But I am looking at these systems more as a temp holding point to fatten up fish and hold them until needed for the dinner table more than a sustainable growing system.


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

BLG said:


> I'm not so much concerned with size because I have the land to support it. My main concern is sustainable feed for the fish. I've read over at the permies forums of people providing natural feed such as worms etc. Have any of you researched or experimented with the practicality of growing feed for the fish?


I have Rabbit hutches now and get a gazillion worms to toss in. Both species as well will readily eat dog food as well during no so lean times when its readily available. For example I can but a 50 lbs bag of high protein (26%) for about 20 bucks a bag which would save me an hour or so of daily digging through the rabbit manure. Additionally both species I mentioned will also readily eat shelled and boiled corn kernals too.

Depending on how the smaller system I will be getting to play with works out this season that I will be growing fresh herbs only in, I may try to up the any next season and start with a 300 gallon tank and see how that pans out.

I see a sustainable source of power to run the water pump and possibly to heat the system a couple of months through winter as being the biggest detriment to the system from my perspective. To minimize heat in the summer a frame with a tarp thrown over it could reduce the heat to bearable levels for Catfish and Bluegill.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

Of all the systems, this was my favorite:

Friendly Aquaponics, Inc. | Build backyard and commercial Aquaponics systems yourself


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## Ripon (Dec 22, 2012)

One of the first outfits I saw was this one. I found them horribly overpriced. This was 18 months ago they could have changed as competition is increasing. The market leans to the DIY crowd for few others would bother. I found auqaponicsauthority.com a better vendor of info for the DIY.



Denton said:


> Of all the systems, this was my favorite:
> 
> Friendly Aquaponics, Inc. | Build backyard and commercial Aquaponics systems yourself


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

Ripon said:


> One of the first outfits I saw was this one. I found them horribly overpriced. This was 18 months ago they could have changed as competition is increasing. The market leans to the DIY crowd for few others would bother. I found auqaponicsauthority.com a better vendor of info for the DIY.


I saw that one, too.

I found the tons of information that was in the informational product to be fantastic, with Friendly Aquaponics. I didn't expect to get so much information. Were it not for the tips and training, I would have to agree with you.


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

Wow! Looking at the prices of their systems I think I could do much better assembling my own using poly cattle troughs made by Rubber Maid.

I used these for setting up some salt water coral frag grow out tanks and found them very economical, very easy to plumb (since I was already familiar with Reef Ready SW tanks and sumps and refugiums) and many of the sizes they have avaialable lend themselves to such an project. In fact at one point I had over 2300 gallons of frag tanks in my apartment spare bedroom and was supplying 3 SW specialty stores with their corals! I am looking at using their 300 gallon tank as the "bio-load" tank and then plumbing the pump to pump water through 4 to 6 of the 55 gallon containers which I would use for the grow beds. That would give me roughly speaking 80 to 120 feet of grow beds for about a grand of investment which would be about 11 bucks a sqft vs 64 bucks a sqft for their 160 sqft micro system.

Its kind of odd, who would have thought my experience with salt water reef tanks would be transferable over to and applicable to, a survival aquaponics system?


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## BamaBoy101 (Dec 9, 2013)

BLG said:


> Has anyone tried aquaponics? I like the idea but from what I've read it requires a lot of outside resources. I'm curious if anyone has been able to achieve a closed loop system with this?


We have achieved a very nice system here. I have two tanks set up with one running a chill system and we are giving salmon a go at the moment. This climate is so warm a chill system is a must and we have only 50 running at the time with hopes of hitting 6 lbs for harvest. We are also producing a lot of catfish and good solid produce year after year. Will try to get some pics and show it off.


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