Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all, greeting from Phoenix Arizona USA

I’m new to aquaponics and just found out about it a few weeks ago when I was looking
into buying a fish farm but after my research, fish farming is a really risky business and
I’m going to past on it. But in my investigation the ponic bug has bit me. I have keep fish
as a hobby for many years and use to garden. I think I would really enjoy combining the
two. So let get right to it :arrow:

Here is my plan for my first setup

Build a pond/fish tank half in the ground using landscape timbers for the above part. Size
of the pond (.76m) 2 ½ feet deep by (1.2m) 4 feet wide by (2.4m) 8 feet long about
(2270L) 600gal. I will be using a liner that is safe for drinking water.

The Grow bed will be (.30m) 1 foot deep by (1.2m) 4 feet by (2.4m) 8 feet. It will be a
flood and drain system with the returning water going through a clarifier before draining
back into the fish tank/pond.

The pump will most likely be the pond pump from Home Depot.

Plants will be veggie.

Fish; would like to grow Tilapia but summer is just about over and the temp will be going
down (10deg C) 50 to (27deg C) 80 dec F with the temp dropping to 0deg C for a few
nights during the winter. So will most likely go with gold fish.

Some of my questions?

How deep should my grow bed be for F/D I’m going with 20cm for the gravel?
How much G/B can I have with 2270 L pond?
How long should my cycles be for F/D?

I know there is no one correct answer but I do plan on have the max # of fish and Plants
for the system.

Green House; I will be putting a temporary one over the setup when the weather get cold
and toss a heater in the pond if needed.

I have to get started I’m loosing to much sleep thinking about getting this going

welcome to the forum.

1) Grow beds should be 10" minimum gravel depth, 12" preferably.

2) Here in the USA we still use the imperial system of measurment...hang on let me see what 2,270 L means? ok...600 gallons. That happens to be close to what I have so I can tell you with certainty that...."it depends
on how many fish, how big the fish are, how often you feed the fish, how densely planted your grow beds are, and what type of plants you are growing." I grow 48 square feet of basil side by side inches apart, keep between 50-150 tilapia in the system at any given time, and feed twice a day. I yield around 5 lbs. of basil every two weeks in the summer. I am heavy on the fish side and could use another 48 or 96 square feet of grow bed space.

3) Cycles also depend on the above factors. I cycle every 20 minutes but my beds drain verryy slowly. So my roots are almost always wet (not good I know but I still get awesome results). Cycling accomplishes two important things:

a) delivers fertilized water to plants
b) keeps water flowing in the system for aireation.
Plants and fish both need oxygen.

Max density demonstrated in some of the most succesful F/D systems were 1 lb. of fish per 1.5 gallons, but this requires alot of growbed space year round (ie a greenhouse).

Welcome to the addiction.....

Let me hijack this post for a sec. Is there a formal fish-size-qty / food / plant / flood-drain formula?

People want exact formulas. Wish we had one. There are so many variables, so little time, right Mike?!?

All I can tell you is what is working for me, and the original formula I have been using: 4lb fish to 2gal growbeds to 1gal tank.

In my case, tank to beds is 1:1.2, so I need more beds. But that's what fits in the sunroom.

I'm feeding 40grams (8 tablespoons of pellets per day), but with my newly corrected pH, I hope to go up to 50% more.

I turn over my water 3x/hour.

I think I have 6KG (13 lb) total of fish in the system right now. By my calculations, I should be able to support 37 lb, and with my newly corrected pH, I hope I can do it. With pH at 6.0, bacteria starts to fail, and that's been my problem.

Janet you are so good at keeping track of all the paramaters I am envious. But it brings up a good point.

Some folks like me keep track of absolutely nothing and manage our system by sight, smell, and sound quite literally. Other folks take daily samples and measurments and keep logs. So part of it depends on how you manage your system.

Janet can probably approach her system's threshold in controlled fashion therby reducing risk of crashing out the system plus provide better data. I on the other hand would either crash the system through trial and error, or simply err on the side of caution, which is what I do by default.

Despite all the daunting variables....it is a relatively forgiving venture, just don't add too many fish at once or try to get to the threshold too quickly. It can bite you.......

cheers

S&S had a fairly reliable formula as did the Universty Virgin Islands. Other systems built off those models have maintained the same ratios with reliability. Don't ask me what they are because I learned long ago that I will never approach those ratios unless I was a commercial operator.

And interestingly, when my pump jammed up from bits of coral in it, it was the sudden cloudiness in the water, and the lack of fishie-enthusiasm-for-breakfast that clued me in really fast. So it is important to be familiar with 'normal' behavior of the system and the fish.

Thanks for the reply. After I got the idea of how to proceed I was questioning my grow bed size. That will be stage two increase G/B.

Ooops, said is wrong and no one busted me (publicly, at least ) It's 4gal growbeds : 2gal tank : 1lb fish.

In your formula is the 4 gal growbeds the volume of the growbed container or the amount of water that cycles through them? Knowing that there would be less water do to the displacement caused by the gravel.

Thanks
Bruce

hey bkausfish,

i asked a similar question on Worms thread(i kinda hijack it, my bad )

the 2:1 ratio there talking about is the volume of the grow bed/fish tank.

so basically, you can have a 100l fish tank, supporting a 200l(or 2x100l) grow bed. the growing medium is what makes up the difference in volume.

this makes it alot easier for planing the system, you can just go with strait numbers on your GB and fish tank. and let the growing medium just fall where it my(all I'm volume sense).

what im getting is that the finer the growing medium, the less water being consumed from the fish tank. the larger the growing medium, the more water it consumed form the fish tank.

that the end of my long winded post, i know, i know is was unnessarily long but im board. thank you for your time.

-df

Dank u sound cheesed off? Your board I can't sleep!

Hey bruce do you know a company called eco safety products?
their in your neighbourhood?

JP I picked it but you corrected before I had a chance, think my eyes were shut then.
Oh BTW welcome Bruce!
C1

C1 sorry if i came off that way, didn't want at all. maybe its because im at work, i can only get like 4 words typed before i have to answer a phone or something else. it gets frustrating some times. but hey, a least i have a job where i could research AP all day . pretty good if you ask me.

so i am just chillin. not cheesed one bit

c1, but i bet we can both agree that we rather be asleep

Ah don't Know but guess if I could it would be good!!
I am also doing some research on a few things, that is why I am not sleeping...not able to brain is in hyperdrive.
Just checked out a property yesterday arvo.
In the ferguson valley western australia ..here, its awesome country side.
33 acre creeks, dams!

[quote="creative1"]not able to brain is in hyperdrive.[quote]

ya, i have a sleeping disorder, my Brain is always in hyper-drive. the only way i am able to get to sleep is either, im running on 4-5 hours of sleep from the previous night, or some how i able to focus on one thing to think about to get to sleep. it sucks, but ill stop talking now

-df