Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just thought I would finally quit lurking and actually create an account and post.

I have had my current IBC set up for 2 seasons now, and I am getting ready for my 3rd.

Unfortunately, The weather here does not permit year round operation, so I have to take everything down, around early November, or the fish will die.

I have learned alot of useful information from you guys! I used the free pdf guide to build my first setup, and I will be adding a second 330 gallon IBC Tote to it this season.

Welcome to the forum JMCD . Post up some pics of your system . You might want to investigate running the system as a Recirculating Aquaculture System indoors through the winter and then connecting it with the plant beds during your growing season. It's easier to heat just the fish tank and some barrel filters that are inside.

Cheers

The wife and I are discussing the possibility of erecting a green house, just large enough to house a recirc. tank for the fish. It woulndt be a huge project to run a supply line off of our current LP tank to keep it warm enough in the winter.

Im already maxed out on fish tanks in the house, I am big into saltwater coral keeping, and i have nearly 1000 gallons of salt water in my house as is lol.

There is a very interesting YT video on salt water AP. They grow all sorts of things to eat, including some of the fish food. I don't think I would chance it on a coral tank. Fish yes. Coral take too long to grow and replace if you have a simple accident.

A thousand gallon salt coral tank you say.! Ok I have Salt Water FT envy for sure. NICE... I would love to see a picture of it.

I wish it was 1000 gallons. I have 1000 gallons total. I have several tanks through out the house. My largest 300 gallons. Here are some of my tank pics in the house. I apologize for the crappy pics.

300 is better then my 0 salt. I used to get my own anemones (sp) diving off a hidden ship wreck hold. The only thing left of the ship was 1 hold and it was packed full. The ship was in 30 feet of water and getting beat to death every storm. It was way out of the way from the other good diving places so no one ever went there but me. I do like salt water fish to eat better then fresh so If I could it would be a Salt AP for sure. Lots of money for that idea.

You have a large assortment, do you need to buy it or do you dive for it?

I aquaculture it actually. All of the pieces you see in my pictures are 3rd or more generations from wild species. I have suppliers out in Aussieland, Fiji, Vietnam , etc etc, and When they call me with a pretty special catch, ill have it shipped to me. then ill grow it out, and carefully frag it into smaller pieces, then allow those to grow, and rinse and repeat. Right now, I have 0 wild corals. I try make as little impact on the oceans as possible. Anemones are the same for me. In the right conditions, they can be induced to split. Literally one, mouth becomes two, and they will eventually pull apart and be separate organisms.

I used to dive alot, however, I have been land locked for the past several years...

That is very good of you.

I do like the pedestals you have them on and what looks like stone plant stands to drop them into. Cool idea. Multi level condo farming for coral. And now I can see what the grid of coral is for.

Being land locked is no fun. I miss the Ocean.

I thought when I moved to the southern part of China I would be in diving heaven. NOT !

Never even seen a real face mask here let alone a dive shop. The people have almost zero hobbies yet. And the water in this area is all full of clay extending out a hundred miles from the delta. I would need to travel a few hundred miles or go to Thailand again to dive. That was Ok. All my gear is back in the states anyway. Would need to rent.

I didn't know you could split Anemones. Learned something new today. Thanks.

The sad thing about coral is that unless you are a diver and have seen this first hand in the open seas, most people could care less about what pollution and the killing of reefs is doing to them. I just read that something like more then 50% of the plankton is also gone now and when it goes to zero we are all in trouble.

It is nice if people like you keep on posting and inform people as to what happens out in the wild. Way less then 1% of the worlds population have ever seen them. (coral) in the wild.

Coral is my main passion, so by extension, the seas are as well. Keeping them is not easy, or cheap sometimes. Most stores still sell live caught wild coral. Even if they are ethically collected, it is still coming from the ocean. There has been huge advances in aqua-culturing, and now many places. Most of my suppliers *farm* the coral they sell,

Here are some pics I took last year from a visit to one of my suppliers.

It is nice to see people farming coral like this and take some of the load off the sea. It takes so long to grow and I would guess that 90% of it ocean harvested never makes it to a fish tank or the first year.

You should do demos and a short 1 hour class for the local school kids so they can see it first hand. We need to teach them to save them. The coral that is. If I teach a kid about shark fin soup, they never eat it and also try to stop mom and dad from eating it too. IMO 98% of adults do not understand the oceans and how we depend on them for life and O2.. Half of all the air we breath comes from the Ocean. And all we do is our best to kill it. We are doomed if the kids do what we do. If you setup some Coral classes for kids, the rewards will be worth all the hard work you put into it so far. Every science class in a hundred miles will want to see it.

When I do classes like that I make up some nice booklets that they can buy if they want. Enough to pay for the paper and a beer. lol But they have a take away to bring home and show the parents.

I am actually working for that. The local highschool has decided to set up an outdoor classroom, and i am going to be setting it up. of course there will be a small *proof of concept* AP system involved. Im going to try and introduce coral farming in there somewhere.

The coral being farmed in the pics above are Acropora, a Small Polyp Stony or SPS coral.

congratulations on that. Let us know how the class makes out. The kids need hands on. It is better then a face in a book.