Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Has anyone else ever heard of or seen the work of Theopolis Inslee and his sons? They have a fish farm in southern Oklahoma (USA). It is primarily a traditional fish farm, but he has a very large experimental aquaponic system. I dropped in one day about two years ago and he showed me around the farm. It was very simplistic and low tech and according to him it worked great. As he was in the design process, many "experts" (engineers and university professors) said that his design was flawed and that it would never work. Basically it was a large concrete pond that was enclosed in a barn. Attached to the barn on the south side was a greenhouse. His system was a continuous flow system that ran on one 3 hp air pump. An airlift brought water up through a biofilter (which Inslee said would probably not be included if he ever built another system) and through grow beds (media was in small perforated pots). At first he grew tilapia and basil. The basil was sold to high end markets in Dallas, TX. After NAFTA, he switched to growing ornamental aquatic plants which he sales along with koi. A very neat system. I may have some photos if anyone is interested.

we always love pics

I have a copy of this magazine somewhere. I need to find it. I remember it having some neat pics.

Sounds great!

JR did you have any luck finding the magazine? I'm especially interested because this sounds very similar to what I'm setting up. I have a large metal building(junk storage) that I have my first fish tank in. I'm planning on keeping the fish in the building and I'm putting my greenhouse outside with insulated underground piping. I'd love to see the pics if you find them.

I haven't heard of it but I would be interested in visiting his farm. Where is he located?

In Connerville.
Try here...listing #19 looks right.

http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare ... 205web.pdf

Alright, I've found my copy of this magazine. I'm not sure if it is o.k. to post the images (copyright, etc.?). But if anyone is interested, I can e-mail them some scans of the article with pics.

It appears that he used to grow chives, not basil. My bad.

Correct, he used to grow Chives before the commodity market fell through. I visited 3 years ago with my wife and had a pleasant time with Theo and his 2 sons. His system is nice they have an inground tank which had Tilapia and another species of fish, and their greenhouse has some of the lushest aquatic greens I've seen. Talking with them is the reason I picked Tilapia for my Aquaponic system. If anyone has a chance to visit them, I would highly suggest it, since Theo knows more about fish than anyone else I have ever met. In fact, the State Fish Hatchery right outside Durant, OK always go to him when they don't have the answers.