Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I made a couple of minnow/crayfish traps today. They will be for stocking in the beginning and fish food for the future. They were ridiculously easy to make. I used hardware clothe, 5 gallon plastic buckets, and zip ties. Took about 15 minutes each. If they work I will post some photographs and maybe a video tutorial how to make them.

Thanks

well if u take a look at the bottom of the food chain algae is able to sustain all forms of life. algae is a micro plant that reproduces faster than duckweed which is a macro plant. the system uses water and is called an "algae turf scrubber". what it is is a vertical flow of water over a screen with a light shining on the screen or sun if out side. the bigger your screen the bigger algae harvest and tilapia love algae and the turf scrubber will actually reduce your nitrates in your tank to zero and will out compete your veggies so getting the right size is and how much u feed water with weeds and organic matter which is why its best to have a seperate sump with low flow for things to stagnate a little. i havent set my system up but im about to and i kno this works i used to run saltwater tanks and feed the algae to my tangs also the algae screen makes a good detritus catcher. feeding the water not the plants

what you could do with the algae is give it to your fish fresh or if u have an over abundance u could press it into mini pellet cakes and dry them package and store them or eat it yourself very nutritous.

now for the regular type feed

worm bin.
suspending poultry/mammals over water(fish eat poop)
keep a light on at night real close to water
cricket cage
veggie greens

Lets not forget those little bugs who help to pollinate the plants which we use in our agraculture, Bees..

have a look at this:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/death-of-t ... rica/25950

GMO's are just nasty which is why im wanting to get into aquaponics so my daily intake of poisens are zero, in the last 3 to 4 years iv started to notice my vegitables from the stores are tasting more and more "bitter" even after washing them off for 3 to 4 minutes before consumption.

Anyways, andytandreou im in agreement with your original post, Id like to find a way to naturally feed my fish with insects,minnows, creyfish, shrimp, that i "farm" myself and i have a theory about it, sure your fish will grow slower but you know exactly what they are eating, i dont trust the contents in the things we eat anymore so im going to do it my way regardless of how slow the fish grow. Sad thing is i have to stick to store bought things until next spring due to wife issues (she wont let me start a new "hobbie" right now because we're trying to buy a house and she wants a nice fat savings account for "oopsy" stuff) but anyway when i get it set up ill let you know how it goes..

I want to avoid GMO's and pesticides in all their forms. You just can't do that with commercial feeds. A large part of our food/feed supply here in the US is already GMO. Also the new head of the FDA(that used to be a bigwig at Monsanto) has gotten the amounts of pesticides 'considered safe' on food crops raised substantially.

So I have been thinking about this very question. How can I raise my own fish food to insure that I know what is going into my fish. For me this is more important than growth rate. Please keep in mind that I'm retired and have plenty of time as well

After doing some youtube searching I found that growing algae is pretty easy. I expect to have lots of high quality vegetable trimmings to add to the mixture. Earthworms and sprouts are very easy to raise. I'm currently investigating adding comfrey to the mix and seeing what other high mineral foods I could add. I'm wondering about using a small amount of egg as a binder and possibly even the eggshells as well. Doing the research is part of the fun.

I have been racking my brain for days on how to make this into pellets. Then it occurred to me...the fish probably don't care what shape it is in. Duh. So if I put all of this in the vitamix (I'll get a separate container...ewww, worms) and mix it up, I should be able to dehydrate the result, break it into pieces and voila fish food!

Found this forum searching for what to feed the fish other than fish pellets - many useful comments - THANKS. AP does appear to be a valuable food source. What is always missing from the many selling AP plans is that though the fish feed the vegys the fish must be fed from somewhere. If it sounds too good to be true, at the best, there are some pertinent things missing. So where are all the AP systems going to get commercially made fish food if SHTF and TEOTWAWKI do come about??? Can the fish food be stored indefinitely? This has been my hesitation in converting from dirt gardening though I do want to become proficient in AP. Also not mentioned is the holding tank between the fish and plants to allow the fish water to be ready for feeding the plants.

You'll find all the plans.. and info you need to build a working AP system.. here on the forum JJM... and for free...

I have my pump in my fish tank pumping water directly to my growbeds, and the growbeds drain directly back into the fish tank. No need for a "holding tank". I think what you may be referring to is a sump tank, which is not needed in some system designs.

Great natural fish feed regimen. I have been thinking of adding a light or a series of small lights.. have to do it today. Some said a filament bulb attracts more flies..
Any advice on bulb wattage for a 450 m2 system?

PS: To correct you a bit.. fish do not eat bird/animal poop... you add it in the fish tank as a manure feed for the phyto- and zoo-planktons growth which in turn are feed for both herbi- and carnivorous fish.

Need your thoughts on some research goals that I am looking at on feeding fish. I value all inputs and tips.

Goal 1. 100% on-farm natural inputs... no commercial fish pellets... 3 months into it, all well so far.
Goal 2. 100% plankton diet...phyto-plankton for herbivorous fish and zoo-plankton for carnivorous... partial manuring of the tank with rabbit/goat/cow poo.. twice a week.. long way to go

Inspiration - The Antarctic ocean. We don't feed whales or marine animals, right?
It is the storehouse of plankton which are the primary source of food for all marine organisms. Hence most species of whales, seals, fish, and sea birds are found abundantly in the Antarctica ocean. More than 200 species of mosses and 700 species of algae have been identified in Antarctica. Diverse marine organisms and rare species of fish are also found in Antarctica.

Sounds like pond based aquaculture to me...

We dont try and grow plants in the Antarctic ocean. The feed you put into your system is the primary source of nutrient, if it is lacking, you will find yourself adding other things to assist your fish and plant growth and health.

Like Rupe just said sounds like pond culture. These sort of diets are possible and there is a massive amount of research that has been done on how to manage such systems. The thing is though that they are an extensive form of aquaculture not intensive.

To support fish growth in this manner requires much larger ponds so that there is enough sunlight hitting the water surface for the algae to drive the production of the whole system. This sort of aquaculture has been practiced for centuries around the world (including India) and is well understood. While it the technique could be applied to aquaponics you won't find many systems on any of the AP forums that have a significant amount of algae production that leads to fish growth.

Oh and the Antartic ocean is an excellent system to copy or model but I'll tell you something about the Antartic Ocean...its big. Really big. In summer all that sun light hitting the surface 24hrs a day creates a huge growth of phyoplankton which then get eaten the zooplankton and so on up the food chain. But the densities are low and the volumes are huge.

Come on guys... Nano has dreams of a commercial system the size of Antartica...

It's not the size that's the problem... it's just that India is a lot warmer..

That is even bigger than my bull shark system.