Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've been reading through the site off an on for probably 2 yrs and the other day I decided to build a micro hydroponic system, not AP but it's more of a test run since I dont have any experience. building a system with fish shouldn't be an issue, I've keep aquariums since I was a teenager, started with freshwater (piranha) and moved up to saltwater and then saltwater reef systems.

anyway, I was inspired to build a low budget mini system by a video on you tube. it consists of a plastic coffee can, plastic cup, airstone and pump and hydroton. I used a bush bean seedling as my test subject and added some liquid miracle grow for nutrients.

It's been running for a few days now and seems to be doing really well.




not quite ready to move up to a full on AP system just yet but I have a question about heat.
I live in North Florida, USA (I know most of the users here are in AU). I want to build an outdoor system, probably using a small greenhouse but i'm concerned about the temperatures here. I would think that the high summer temps are about 100 F. even if the system were outdoors wouldnt the heat be an issue?, We had a small 3ft deep x 12ft round pool and the thing would get so warm in summer that it was like jumping into a jacuzzzi.

So how do you handle the heat issues? I would probably raise catfish because AFAIK Tilapia go belly up when the water temp drops below 50F

Hay there, I'm in central Florida as to the heat issue, a bit of shade cloth over the plant beds if they suffer from the heat could help and put the fish tank in the shade. If the fish tank is at least 300 gallons, then I expect it should still be fine. My catfish like warm water normally as long as you have some good aeration and water flow going for them in the hottest weather. My first summer I was running a 600 gallon in ground tank plus another 300 gallons above ground with 1400 gallons of flood and drain gravel. Last summer we changed the system to have a 600-700 gallon above ground main fish tank flowing CHIFT PIST to the grow beds and draining into the 600 gallon in ground sump and I'm not too worried about the heat, just keep lots of plants shading the gravel.

I agree that you should go with the catfish. Tilapia are not as great as everyone tries to talk them up to be. Here in central Florida I can grow catfish out to be quite big in one year but the tilapia, I think the biggest one of them I ever managed in a year and a half was 2 lb and most of them were only about 1 lb. In our opnion, they don't taste as good and are much harder to fillet.

For those that still really want fin fish and are not in a heated greenhouse, go with blue gill since they will probably grow almost as fast as tialpia in non tropical waters.