[ColcordMama]

Originally Posted by LaRemnant

Hey! Aquaponics was just recently introduced at one of the latest 2009 Bioneers conference in California! COOL

It probably won't get much government funding though because it makes too much sense.

Thanks for my first laugh of the day, Larmey! *high five!!*

How about putting tilapia in the fish tank? They live and thrive in the irrigation canals here in the Phoenix area, plus which they're good tasting. The only drawback is the dorsal fin spines. But I know they're a very hardy and prolific breeder fish, so you might want to think about them.

[mweidner]

Ah, looks like I had a brain fart in an earlier post, when I said which fish people typically use I said koi in the summer and trout in the winter, I actually meant to say tilapia, they are one of the most used fish in Aquaponics.

Also to answer the question asked a few posts up about the difference between Aquaponics and Hydroponics:

Hydroponics - You have to add all of the nutrients to the system yourself, and be very careful to keep the system in balance, this typically means you have to drain all the water off every week or so and put in new water with a new batch of nutrients.

Aquaponics - The water from your fishtank contains all the nutrients your plants need, no real need to keep the system in balance because it tends to self balance. Also since you are keeping fish, you get a couple crops of fish a year along with the fresh fruits & veggies.

[LaRemnant]

Aquaponics is interesting, although you will have to know how to take care of fish too.

If you had a bio-wheel, you could keep all the microorganisms in your freshwater fish tank thriving, and it would be easier/quicker to get the tank in balance after each cleaning.

When you clean your fish tank, sometimes people clean too much by taking most of the water out which shocks the fish in a way as you introduce them to a fresh full tank with all the added chemicals to balance things out concerning the PH/acid balance. You can eliminate the shock by having another fish tank to house them in while you're cleaning and balancing out the water before re-introducing them.

[George]

Mweidner,

Did you attempt to eat koi or goldfish?

Also are there many suppliers for non commercial stock of fish you want to use in your system?

[Slade N. Illinois]

Originally Posted by George

Mweidner,

Did you attempt to eat koi or goldfish?

Also are there many suppliers for non commercial stock of fish you want to use in your system?

I did a little research-
Videos:
YouTube - How to build a basic Aquaponics System
Watch "What is Aquaponics?" Video at Live Earth Video ~ Share Your Videos; Support the Global Water and Climate Crisis
Aquaponics Made Easy DVD | tiscali.video
Aquaponics teaches sustainability at Vancouver Island University on Yahoo! Video
Web How too:
How to make your own Aquaponics System - Affordable and Easy Method
Affnan's Backyard Aquaponics: Aquaponics - How To Start
How to Build a Small Aquaponic Garden | eHow.com

I like it.. You can use any fresh water fish I think. But I like the idea of maybe catfish in one pond, pan fish in one, and maybe even crayfish. Easy to feed and cheep to grow fast. I just wonder what your gonna feed the fish if SHTF because you can't just go out and buy fish food at the store if SHTF. Now... maybe if you build a few tables by a pond and pumped the fish water out of say a huge fishing pond on your land into trays to "filter" with roots... That may work better in a SHTF type setup.

[mweidner]

A few more answers:

LaRemnant:
You don't really change the fish water ever, maybe when you are first getting the system going because there isn't enough bacteria in the grow beds yet, but after the first month you only ever really add water (because of plants taking it and evaporation). Also as far as I can tell you don't really have to clean the fish tanks, my main tank is over a year old now and I haven't had to clean it yet, the grow beds are very efficient at keeping everything clean.

Slade N. Illinois:
It is pretty popular to have Freshwater yabby's in an aquaponic system, from my understanding they are very much like a crayfish.

Also about the feed, most of us are already stocking food up, fish food keeps for a good while I believe, and I have been eating fresh herbs for the last 6 months from about 8 ounces of fish food I have used. A little bit of fish food can provide enough nutrients for an insane amount of produce. Also there are ways to supplement the fish food locally, there are a few things you can grow that the fish love and you can replace up to about 50% of their food with stuff you produce.

George:
I have not eaten my goldfish, nor do I plan to, right now I am running small tanks as this has been a test system while I learn how things work, I am going to be buying a 150 gallon stock tank (like a horse trough) that is going in my office and will feed provide for 8 plastic tub growbeds, that tank will be big enough that I can grow fish to eat.

My plan for getting game fish to eat is to just catch some minnows at my parents farm, quarantine them for a few weeks to make sure they don't bring anything bad into my system and then just raise them up to full size to eat. You can buy game fish of course, but it varies where you can get them (also state laws having to do with it as well).

Also, the BEST information I have seen is in the forum I linked to originally: Backyard Aquaponics • Index page, that place is really active, and they are all people building systems out of junk they find. They also have figured out the cheapest and also the best ways of building these systems from tiny ones like mine, to large commercial systems (which is what I am preparing for, in a few years I am hoping to build a good sized greenhouse using aquaponics and sell to local restaurants in the winter).

[George]

Originally Posted by mweidner

.

Also about the feed, most of us are already stocking food up, fish food keeps for a good while I believe, and I have been eating fresh herbs for the last 6 months from about 8 ounces of fish food I have used. A little bit of fish food can provide enough nutrients for an insane amount of produce. Also there are ways to supplement the fish food locally, there are a few things you can grow that the fish love and you can replace up to about 50% of their food with stuff you produce.

...

Can you grow 100% fish food, so you can survive without fresh supplies indefinitely?

[mweidner]

Technically I would think it would be possible, but there are alot of us trying and you can't seem to very easily.

Fishfood tends to have a couple things in it that makes it hard to replicate

#1 Alot of fishfood is make from seaweed, this is important because in the Aquaponic system you are constantly taking produce out and only adding water and fish food, plants need more than just Nitrate to grow, that is the main one, but other things are needed. Fish food tends to introduce a ton of trace elements needed by both the fish and the plants because of the seaweed the fish food is made from

#2 Not sure why it matters but fish food is also made up out of ground up fish, unless you have a separate pond supplying you with steady feeder fish (And you know what it takes to process them into fish food, I don't offhand).

If you make your system too much of a closed loop you will end up with some mineral deficiencies, for instance, three things that alot of people add manually from time to time: iron, potassium, and calcium. The potassium you can add by just burying a banana in your grow bed, the calcium can be added by putting crushed sea shells in the grow bed, and the iron is a supplement you can buy.

Most of us are focusing first on supplementing the fish food, rather than replacing it. But I know alot of us would love to be able to just grow our own totally.

[mweidner]

Something else I wanted to note, if any of you guys are interested, you should just build a small system. My first system cost me about $50 to build, not a big investment, my current one gives us produce every single week, and it is just the size of a coffee table, it doesn't take up alot of room.

[mscureman]

I'm very interested in this concept. My wife and I love tilapia, and I'm a veg-a-holic. There's a lot to learn, though, so I'll be doing some reading on that forum as well.