Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I see wander around the forum the basic question. How big for how much? Of course we try to estimate, but I was curious if we could approach it like the following:

What percentage of your food needs are supplied by your system, how big is the system, and how many people are you feeding?

My system is just starting so I really don't have any numbers yet - but I can tell you greens are starting to be a bit worrisome - as in I think I planted too much. My wife is concerned too and has told me no more green beds. She brought up a certain historical even when we planted way too many cucumbers once and had to sell off bushels of cukes... And then there was that time with green beans - I think you get the picture.

But she is game on excessive strawberries.

alright, we started with 250 fish, and since October have been eating about 3 a fortnight. We also get more ceylon spinach than we need and all the herbs we can use. At the moment there aren't many ripe tomatoes, but there is also a steady supply of beans, 3 or 4 meals a week. The capsicums are doing well too.

This is for a family of 2 adults and a 6 year old and a 4 year old.

What ever you put in your beds it is a good idea that you have variety. I now look more closely and ask myself if I have an abundance of something how will I preserve it, can I freeze it, or pickle it, make a jam or chutney etc. We have 1 bed per person and we eat from our system very often. I think you get better with time. Some things take longer to grow, some come and go quick. Just go with the flow and make the most of what you've got.
If you have heaps of greens try to find out how to preserve them or find a recipe that you love or swap with someone for something else.
Variety is the spice of life.

We have 35+ workers, we will have no problem swapping greens or giving them away.

Jaymie - what would be the weight of your fish? How big of a system do you have?

I notice many of you use number of fish instead of weight. Is this because you run on a yearly cycle? Since we don't have a fall or winter, I am expecting ours to run year round.

Which is another reason why I won't bother to freeze anything - we only eat fresh since something is always fresh. Funny story on that. My mom was visiting and we brought in our weekly load of veggies - and she wanted to know if we needed help freezing or canning any of it. We informed her that this would be eaten in a week and that we can buy it year round.

By the way - I should have mentioned. My system is 2,000 liters of water, 2,000 liters of gravel, and a sump of 1,000 liters.

I estimate I need to double the size of the grow beds which will be happening soon - once my plumber frees up a bit. (we are building a mechanic's workshop and expanding the furniture factory)

Have you got some pics dude?

we have a 10,000L tank with about 10,000L growbeds. We tend to harvest fish as needed, picking those that are around 400g-500g, 26-30cm long



I think I tend to use number of fish, because that's more what I know The silver perch tend to be smaller than the jade perch and so aren't being eaten as often yet

Since I have a nice worm bing and compost pile, I'm not as upset if we don't eat all we produce, the worms like much of it and the compost is better for what the worms don't get.

I'm also taking to planting some stuff with other uses, like nasturtiums (though edible we don't usually eat them much) as aphid traps and to hang over the street side of the beds to dress them up. Stevia as sweetener. Okra to act as shade for shorter plants, we eat okra some but most of the pods will probably just be cut off and tossed into the compost (the okra will be long lived in the system I expect so long as I can keep the ants off.)

I've also got some peppers in the system which I won't eat much but I plan to make some pest spray out of some of em.

Like said above, variety!

Photos of system

Yep - this is my thread