Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I think I have a new addiction since I found aquaponics which seems like a strange thing for a 20 year old college kid. I am currently in Australia but will be back in the states in about a week and hopefully I can set up a very small (75-150L) aquarium type system. They just don't give a lot of room to college kids in Columbus but I suppose it won't hurt a bit to start out small. A couple of quick questions about a small system:

1) would it be possible to grow any type of (probably tilapia) food fish in a small tank? I don't really care I don't really care if it makes sense or not I just want to start to familarize myself with these fish as I would like to have a much bigger system some day.

2) If so anybody know of suppliers of these fish in Ohio or even in the midwest?

Any help would be greatly appreciated and I would like to say I have learned a lot by combing through this website and the forums, thanks for all of the great info.

Welcome J.

From what I have read Talapia is the way to go, but don't know how they go in such a small environment. Will depend on your qty.

Well good luck and spread the word..........

Welcome JG!

I was born and raised in Lancaster, went to OSU, which college are you at?

Tilapia could get cramped in a very small aquarium, they can get like a foot long as adults. Think oscar-sized fish - you will need a good-sized aquarium for adults and then only a few.

I made a little demo system out of two aquariums, it is fun to experiment that way and you will get the hang of it from even a small system. You can use a little pump up to a cheap storage tub, or float plants on the water surface, etc.
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The farm fountain people are in Columbus, maybe contact/visit them for inspiration?
http://www.farmfountain.com

I have stuck some tilapia into what they sometimes call a 50 gallon aquarium but it definitely wasn't that big. Anyway, the 50 gallon aquarium might be fine for small tilapia but is not big enough to grow them out to plate size very well. Tilapia also like rather warm water to grow fast and this means adding heaters into the tank if the system is in a room at normal household temperatures.

I would suggest that for your first small aquarium type system, you might be better off with goldfish to cycle it up. If you really must have edible creatures in your system, perhaps cray fish but then you need to make the tank escape proof.

I use 100 gallon stock tanks for my tilapia and that works well for them. I find that smaller tanks are just too crowded and the fish can get agressive. For best results you should stock all male fish, otherwise the males fight over the females, and you end up with loads of fry screwing up the works. I do have a 40 gallon breeding tank I keep one male and 9 females in. For breeding you want glass so you can keep track of females holding eggs.

50 fish in a 100 gallon tank is about right. From fry you can start harvesting in about 9 months with 1.5-2 pound fish. 85F is the perfect temeprature for them.

BTW- I grew up in Worthington, OH.