Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I just scored 4 55 gal plastic drums. I was reading about how to set up a barrelponics system with them, but read that Hughey only kept 4 tilapia that where 1/2 lb each in the system. He went on to say, "This systems fish tank at the lowest point in the cycle will only have a little over 20gal. of water in it. In my opinion it's simply not practical in the real world to grow high densities of fish and have a system that is forgiving at the same time."

After reading this I decided to do my system differently. Mainly have the GB's drain into a sump tank, using the CHIFT PIST so I don't end up with 20 gal in the FT.

Seeing that it could be closer to 40 gal, in my tanks, what could I be looking for the amount of fish? I see some post in the small tank section where people are raising tilapia and stuff in small tanks, but wondering what to expect from them. I will be using 2 tanks and possibly raising catfish in one and either tilapia or bluegill in the other.

Thanks.

you should base your fish load on the amount of filtration you have..

i used 4 barrels and built 2 pairs of travis's barrelponics system, and used a rubbermaid stock tank (110 Gallon) - so my ratio was 1:1 fishtank to growbed, for 100 gallons of media you can grow out 25 pounds of fish

inside system is more like 1:3 media to fishtank, i only brought in 1 pair of growbeds, and have my fish in 2 55 gallon glass tanks, and a 55 gallon sump but i have fewer fish now, pretty small since the water got so warm this summer. if i decide to add more fish over the winter, i'll be adding a bio filter to make up for lack of growbed filtration