Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am an avid gardener but i am new to aquaponics I built a green house last year and an in the process of designing a system. my goal is to have it as automated as possible. although I have many questions and a lot to learn, a big concern is buying a lot of fish and than end up killing them because the water cemestury is off. so my question is should I put filters after my grow beds and before my fish tank to ensure that the water returning to the tank is clean? sort of like a safe guard in case I don't have enough plants in the grow beds? can you filter the water to much? any info is much appreciated

As long as you enough GBs installed correctly you don't need anything else as long as you don't over stock/over feed your fish.

If you over stock or over feed your fish having a filter after the GB won't help much.

thanks for the reply. there is so much good information on this site that is really help full . is there a ratio of fish to plants (lbs of fish to square feet of GB) or some formula that is used as a guide? also is there any way to make a automated feeding device for the fish something low cost

For every cubic foot of bed space you have you should be able to stock about 7.5 lbs of finished fish. So if you have one cubic foot of grow bed you would start 7 fingerlings knowing they would one day grow to about a pound each.

Hope this helps.

Simple answers:

1. Yes but No but yes. There is the UVI guideline of grams of feed per day per m2 of growing area but it is not really applicable to most BYAP systems. The guideline I was taught and still go with is a raito of 2:1 (GB:FT volume) with the grow beds 300mm deep. If the GBs are deeper than 300mm then extra growing area can be added by DWC or NFT.

2. Haven't seen one.

Oops. Sorry I said "bed space". I meant "wet gravel". So one cubic foot of wet gravel means you should be safe with 7 fish...