Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Would using a pond thats stocked w/ fish and connected to a well on said property that then is also being pumped to either conventional (dirt) farming or to a hydroponic type system and the runoff goes back into the ground or a well (far enough from 1st well to not contaminate) work ????

This to me seems the simplest and least costly way to get fish and veggies. They already live in pond all year so no maintenance is required and only if you have a green house would you worry about winter crops (it would be more like conventional farming but no need for chemical fertilizers)....

Could even drain pond and restock if desired or only farm fish over a certain size... The water would be mostly returned to the same well so you wouldn't be depleting that either.

In my area there are ponds and lakes, all have native fish in them, water table is 6-18 ft (2-6 m) (on hills water table is deeper) But most wells are 20 ft (shallow wells) 60 ft for human drinking and over 120 ft for huge demands like chicken houses in area... (they are 1/2 mile + away btw)

Thoughts, comments, pluses and minuses....

What you are describing is not really aquaponics because by definition aquaponics is the integration of aquaculture and hydroponics.

Doesn't mean that it is not a good idea though.

If you are going to irrigate your dirt crops why not grow fish with the water first?

You could boost the ability of your pond to support more fish but would have to feed them more because they wouldn't be able to get enough natural food from the water.

There are a number of operations that have been experimenting with this idea on the Murray-Darling and other places. The biggest problem is that cotton, rice or any other crop farmer doesn't know the first thing about fish. Several farmers have started growing murray cod for example and have completely failed to get even vaguely commercial results because the advice they got was so wrong, inadequate or both.

it would be aquaponics if the plants are grown like hydroponics, but used the pond water instead of chemicaly enriched water. I might use both soil and plants grown in other substrate (ie rockwool)

also I was planing on growing fish, just the well water is added to pond to offset any water taken from the pond to irrigate the crops.

The fish are in the ponds now (some white perch, bass and blue gill) these fish live there all year now, if I feed them it would only increase their growth rate.... (though I'd like to have some catfish in one pond)

Sorry, I don't know how I missed your initial mention of hydroponics.

From what I see and understand the fish (carrying capacity) of normal or slightly increased pond culture is not sufficient to really help with the aquaponic needs. But I am thinking 1 to 3 acre ponds.

If you load the RAS at a mid to max rate then you have the nutrients to work with. I dump my "ponds" (back yard 1200 gal.) filter every two weeks when I back wash but wold not call that Aquaponics, even though I am using the good stuff for the plants in my back yard.

I might be wrong.

Rob C