Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey TC, Ive never worked it out but what the heck is your avatar? I cant work it out...

The house design we hope to one day build
http://www.tclynx.com/Thinshell/

I have the CAD file, rendered this a few months ago with our newer renderer:

a couple of your people appear to be missing parts.

Hi TC,
I was wondering, do you know what the temperature range for bluegill is? Everything I've seen online has been kind of vague.
Thanks.

Hey

I have bluegill and channel cats in my GH system here in coastal NC...

my water temp has been down to 45 degrees (7c) and as high as 95 degrees (35c)
and didnt seem to have any effect other then at the lower temp they slowed down on their eating and growing...

I have an outdoor system with koi and it froze over last winter and I kept the air going and didnt lose any.....

jT

I've had the Bluegill only since spring here. They seem to be doing fine with warm water up to 95 F so far. When the water started staying over 80 F overnight I had to add more aeration to keep them eating well since the warmer water doesn't hold as much dissolved oxygen.

I haven't had them over winter yet but my guess is they will survive the same things my catfish do and just slow down or quit eating as the water gets too cold.

Bluegills live just fine under the ice in ponds and that water is between 32 and 40degF.

Great. Thanks for the info.

there are quite a few different species that folks call "bluegill" in the us, and there are hybrids as well..
"nothern" strains of bluegill will tolerate colder water, while the southern strains will do better in the heat.. you want the best grower for your area, lots of pond meister's doing interesting breeding - look up condello strain bg and check out bigbluegill.com

I agree there, get BG from a local fish farm rather than having them shipped from a different climate.

Well my systems got a lot of attention this past weekend when the Farm Tours for the Aquaponics Association Conference happened. Lots of people came to see.

I must admit having a group of over 250 people gathered together that were all excited about aquaponics was a really energizing experience. Even if the association isn't able to do much more than organize a conference every year or so, that is enough for me for now for the dues. Picking a different city/location that has some places to tour and setting up speakers to give presentations to provide education and a chance to see some new things is worth it even if they don't manage much more than that.

However, I expect that more will be done and educational materials will be made available online and as chapters and branches manage to fill out more local gatherings and training will become available.

Anyway, many people came and saw and it was fun.

Congrats! At least they saw what a good system can be! Did you mention the neighbor/zoning parts?

Some one did ask during one of the presentations about zoning/permitting etc to do with home aquaponics and I told them I asked if an ornamental pond was ok and I was told it was fine provided you had a proper power point installed or pulled the electrical permit and have an electrician install the power for your pump.

I asked if raised garden beds and container gardens were allowed and they said yes.

Anyway, this was asked of the County since I'm in unincorporated Orange County Florida and there is no home owners association with any power or control over my property.

That means they are thinking serious about it - Good for them!