Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Emily and Mark, it is great to hear of someone else in the area. Those of us in the Pacific Northwest seem to be pretty sparse. We've been considering Tilapia and Yellow Perch and would love to have a few freshwater shrimp and maybe some crayfish. We'll have to see what we can pull together.

Our current plan is to grow tilapia. Have you found a source for them yet? We'll probably ship them in from the FFA group in Illinois unless a closer source appears (are of any you USA tilapia folks interested in selling us some fish?). The shipping cost is probably the same regardless of how many come in, so we might want to coordinate our efforts. We're working on the details of what's required by the state to do this legally. If we can get them in-state we're told that no permits are required.

I'd be very curious what the state is telling you. I found the place on their website to contact but haven't done it. If its going to require a lot of ongoing inspections, we'll likely avoid it. I'm not big on government oversight of my private life.

We haven't started actually looking for a source yet. We've only been reading about AP for about 2 months, though we did buy our fish tank and some barrels for beds this week.

I'm also curious what folks do with goldfish they start systems with. Do you leave them in the system or find them new homes? Of course, I'm assuming I wouldn't kill them...

I left my 10 comets in the system with the silver perch, started to lose some from the SP ganging up on them so removed the remainder and gave them to a good home...found 2 small ones in my sump tank that must have been from one of the female goldies...could have been the reason they were being attacked (baby food source)

Most of my goldfish were invited by the perch to a feasting, the ones that declined the invite are still with the perch swimming about.

Um...The new inhabitance will look after them for you or make them a snack!LOL

I got my mossambica & hornorum from ebay, lol. The all arrived alive with no deaths. My pump sucked up quiet a few though

Glad to know there's no worries about what to do with the goldfish. I suppose no different really than feeding them those wonderful worms that are so profilic in the worm bin.

I think I have to do some fish tasting and see what we really want to grow. Tom has eaten a lot more freshwater fish than I have and loves most of them. I'm a bit more picky so need to figure out what's best. I was doing some reading about the types of fish raised in the US via aquaculture and think a fish buying trip is in order. :tongue8:

I'd prefer to limit the amount of heating we need to do. I'm not completely opposed to using some heating but the whole purpose of a solar greenhouse wasn't to be consuming large quantities of heat. From what I've read, it looks like water running over the media in the summer warms the water and in the winter cools it?

You may need a bit of supplemental heating at night in the winter, just to keep the plants from freezing. That is assuming your going to choose a cold water fish. Grow winter crop veggies during the cold spells and get as much thermal mass as you can.

I've actually been using some supplemental heating to keep it at around 40-50 F depending on what's growing in there. This last year I've had tomatoes growing all winter... have a fresh one in the bowl to eat with lunch today. I recently turned the temp down knowing that everything is coming out in the next couple of weeks as we start the transition. Darnit... wish we could just work at it full time. heeheehee

I think we all do...grin.

All part of the addiction and spending every waking moment available checking posts and designs- redesigns budgeting..

I'll send you via PM some correspondences that were forwarded to me between a guy in eastern Washington and the Fish & Wildlife folks. This is all second-hand info, that I haven't yet had time to follow up on it. Seems promising, though.

We've resigned ourselves to the necessity of heating (a lot) to keep tilapia. The tradeoff is fast production, self-propagation, and lower cost of feed. We'll be insulating tanks and the greenhouse to minimize lost heat. If winter heating get's too pricey, we'll reconsider after the first batch.

Victoria, I see that you and Tom have two fine examples of scale items in your avatar

Those are our babies. The darn children grow up and go away... puppies are here to stay.

little_froggi, we will definitely be doing some experimentation and tasting. Need to learn more about the water in the greenhouse so we can determine what we're willing to live with for heating bills.

I think I'm going to try some plastic midway up the gh in there this weekend and see what happens this next week as the temps drop down. Should be a good experiment ... might also turn off the heat and see what happens. Plan to empty the greenhouse this weekend to prep for some buildout work next weekend.