Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello from Northern California so I think I have a general Idea of Aquaponics but let me run it buy you.

So I start with a tank and pump water to my grow beds which drains to a reservoir tank that pumps back to the main fish tank ? is this how the system works ?

Let me run this pass you if the above is True

We have a 10,000 gallon swimming pool that we no longer use this was going to be my tank on a 2:1 ration that means I could have 20,000 gallons worth of grow beds ? and is the ratio for 1 inch of fish per 1 gallon of water ?


so if all the above is true what size pump for the fish tank and my reservoir would I need ?

I also believe I'm limited on what kind of fish I can grow we're I'm located at I think I might be limited to the following fish without having to have a private stocking permit.

White catfish, Channel catfish, Blue catfish, Largemouth bass, Bluegill, Sacramento perch, Rainbow trout and Redear sunfish.

out of the above which would be the most forgiving for a newbee ?

as of right now that is all I can think of but I know ill have a tons more questions.

Hi and welcome!
As a fellow newbie I would like to give my opinion so that the experts can commenton all of this at once!
Your basic idea is right except that you do not need a sump. You could pump water from the pool (FT) to your growbeds (GB) and then let the grow beds drain back into the pool directly. The big negative to this is that the FT level will drop radically if you have a flood and drain system, meaning that you would have to stock under the optimum amount of fish.
I would say you could place loads of the big white containers (I think they call them IBC's here) with their ends slightly over the FT and they drain straight back into the pool.
Does the pool stil have its pump....you could plumb that to distribute the water to you GB's and bang your are on!
Cheers,
KarelM

Slugmar,
Hi and Welcome!

There are so many ways to do a system and there is lots of reading to do here.

It is possible to support 20,000 gallons worth of flood and drain grow bed from 10,000 gallons worth of fish tank but to do it, you would probably need to stock a large number of fish to support fully planted beds and you would need to have some way to deal with level fluctuations in the fish tank. This usually means a sump tank or some way to flood only some of the beds at a time and sequence things. That all adds complexity which you may not need unless you are planning to feed a village.

I think your method of figuring stocking density might be the rules for an aquarium. In Aquaponics, you can stock a lot more fish depending on your filtration (or growbed) capacity. I can never remember the numbers in lb and gallons but if you convert I think the numbers are something like up to 3 kg of fish per 100 l of water (if doing 1:1 this comes out to 3 kg of fish per 100 l of flood and drain media or gravel filled grow bed) If you want lots and lots of fish then you might go to 6 kg of fish per 100 l of water but then you need to support them with 200 l of media filled flood and drain grow bed so it still comes out to 3 kg of fish per 100 l of grow bed provided you have enough water for them to survive in.

I have channel catfish. They are easily eating size under 1 kg and I have quite a few that are between 1 and 1.5 kg. (most of the ones we have been pulling out of the tank for eating have been 2.5 to 3 lb and one was 3 1/2 lb.)

As noted by turando101, you can probably make things much simpler and cheaper to start. If you add grow beds that are above the pool level, then you can simply pump up from the pool into the grow beds and then let the grow beds drain back into the pool. If you only stock as much fish as you can support with your grow beds, you need only add a few grow beds to start. This will save you on containers, pumps and gravel. It also allows you to slowly work up as you gain fish keeping experience.

Is the pool in ground? If not it may change some of the suggestions. What kind of space do you have for the aquaponics? What kind of climate? What do you want from your AP system? What is your water source? What kind of fish do you like? How much time do you have to devote to the fish?

As to what kind of fish, Catfish seem pretty easy so long as you give them enough aeration and can handle killing/cleaning them without getting barbed. I have channel catfish and they are easy to feed. If you can get them from a fish farm locally, you can be pretty sure they will endure your climate. I don't know much about raising most of the other fish but you might want to research feeding them. Some types of fish are partial to live food and it makes training them to eat pellets tricky. Trout are a favorite of many people and they thrive in cool water but they might not be the best first fish unless you get your system cycled up without fish first (I actually highly encourage anyone to do the fishless cycling anyway.) Trout need very good water quality. I do hear that they are a joy to feed though.

Welcome to the maddness, there is no escape.

Slugmar, this is why I said you should wait for one of the experts.....they think of all these things!

Welcome Slugmar!

Does your pool have a shallow end and a deep end? If so maybe think about keeping fins in the deep end and making the shallow end for the beds. Then put an arch of plastic over the whole thing to make a sunken AP greenhouse!

You could even post some pictures of your pool space and such. Maybe start your system thread and we can start throwing design ideas at you any time you like.

The pool is in the ground as far as room I have basically 40 acres most of it we do hay cutting.

I Hopefully will be posting some pictures here shortly hopefully this weekend. The pool it self does have its own pump and hasn't had any chemical in it for awhile.

Anther plus my wife is fully on board with the idea also. I do have equipment and such so digging is no problem also.

some other things we live off a well system here.

with the AP system I want to be able to supply myself with fresh fish and some garden we garden about 5 acres on land but with the AP im thinking of doing all my herbs right near the house. I would also like to be able to sale to people at Farmers markets and the such after I develop my system.

Climate- well it the summer time its hot and in the winter time some year it can snow but that like once every 5 years.

Time for fish-as with most of my project I don't have a ton of time but as a family we all work together to get stuff done.

Kind of fish we like - we like all fish... Is this possible with salt fish ?

ill post some more later tonight while at work.

Welcome Slug
sounds like the right location, space and help no need to convert
the converted
so you have a double addiction...or will before you know it
I hope you have several computer access points
Pics will help

Couldn't find the edit button but some more info.

Talked to the CDFG (California Department of Fish and game) I don't have to have a permit to grow for my own personal use and they would recommend for my area catfish but in the summer I might have to worry about cooling the water off for the fish.

So it looks like I'm good to go now I just have to design the system and purchase my hardware to get going.

Shading the system ensures that the water temps dont get too hot in summer. 50% shade makes a huge difference.

Welcome

And with an in ground pool, for fish tank, you have the added benefit of the ground helping to moderate your tank temps as in keeping water a little cooler in summer and a little warmer in winter. Some shade cloth over the grow beds is definitely a good thing if they are otherwise going to be in full blistering sun in summer. Shade over the fish tank is often a good thing too. In winter some sort of cover over the fish tank can help keep water temps up a bit too.

I have found Channel Catfish to be a good choice of fish for us. 90 F water doesn't seem to bother them though I don't think I would want to let the water get up to 100 F on them. I suspect the upper safe limit for them is probably around 95 F for southern bread channel catfish. Their tolerances with vary depending on where the fish come from so buying locally is often a good idea if you can.

If you want to get a large amount of grow bed for minimal cost, you might do a search in my system thread for notes about my monster growbed. Might be able to do a few of those radiating out from your pool (provided the surface is level) and get started pretty quick and cheap.

good luck, looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

I have been reading and searching the forums and my head finaly hurts lots of Infromation to go through here.

Ill hopefully be posting a pic of my Aquaponics sight in the next couple days. As of right now all it is a old swimming pool that is a mess.

Kind of got this Idea in my head so far.

Raising: Channel Catfish

I would like to get the system up and running and the water balanced right first before I introduce the catfish into the mix.

I was hoping some one could point me to an area on how to start cleaning up my water from its green color it is now to something for the fish. any help or advice would be greatly helpful.

Just got to run the water through growbeds, lots of them.

+1 and as soon as the water starts clearing strat adding ammonia (urea is the easiest from what I have read here) to kick start the nitrogen cycle to prepare for fish. Make sure you understand that cycle well. I am from a fishkeeping backgorund and to me if you do not understand that you will not keep fish succesfully and although I am yet to get my hands dirty with aquaponics it seems to me if you cannot get the fish to be happy you can forget your plants unless you are adding nutirants and then you may as well stay with hydroponics.....my 5 zimbabwe dollars worth of advice!
Cheers,
KarelM

Welcome.

Don't bother with the pool pump. They are expensive to run and there are cheaper ones that do a lot of ltr per hr. Also if the bottom of your pool is on a slope have the pump in the shallow end. This means if you get an overflow the whole pool will not empty. Pictures will help.