Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello all,
I'm trying to get a network base for the european to communicate informations specific to Europe.
All those Aussies and Americans have tons of infos concerning them, not that I'm jealous but if we all know each other we might find a way to developp aquaponics here aswell, and adapted to our needs and possibilities.
This is not a sect for Europeans, it is just a way to create a list of the members of the forum who live in Europe.
So just post here anything that could be usefull for us all:
hardware, fish, plants...
If anyone is interested just post.

I know some equipement suppliers for fish farming and horticulture.
I know aswell where to find aquaculture fish such as perch and maybe pikeperch/zander.
I've got contacts for wholesale aquarium fish too.
Don't worry I'm not the MAFIA, just been interested in each of these domains for while and it's aquaponics that linked them up.
Amacafish

Hello Amacafish,

I am a newbie here and new to the whole setup. I have been putting a great deal of thought into this subject, and hours of research, (a lot of it on here!).

Trouble is I have some extreme ideas about aquaponics more suited to USA and our Good friends and somewhat forgotten allies in Australia.

I would be interested in discussions related to Tilapia/hydrponics in Europe.

Just PM me for specific questions about europe for fish, or gear.
Anyway most of the basic infos are on this forum.
If you have ideas just start a topic in the members system thread, people will be glad to help you.
I would know how to source Tilapia fingerlings aswell.
Just ask for infos here and I'll see what I can do.
And what is Offshore UK by the way?

You have been PM'd

Yeah... Do you live on a tanker or oil-rig?

well here's one guys, are you all working on your own APs? i'd love to pay a visit to someone that already has a BIG system that i'm building now.

it's a great thing to work on, so dig in and we will meet somewhere sometime

I have only a small fish tank going actually but will be doing a bigger presentation one in an hydroponic shop.
I'm trying to find a way of converting all my aquariums to AP, or to find a way of recycling the water that I have to take out.
i'll get a thread going when it is done.
Hope to see ya one day.

i dunno that tilapia is doable in europe without getting away from one of the concept of aquaponics, sustainability. In Texas I don't want to do tilapia because when the water gets below 50 F (10 C) tilapia start going belly up. Instead I've decided to try out a native species, bluegill.

tilapia have some nice things going for them... breed easily, feed on a very low part of the foodchain (algae), grow quick, tasty. All of this stuff is moot if you have dead fish, or fish so far out of optimum temps that they don't grow well, breed, etc. Of course you could heat the water and keep it at 27 C year round... but wow, expensive.

i bet you could raise some other pretty tasty fish though, just have to find the right one.

A few projects here are to raise perch, pike perch (zander) or some sort of catfish and trout. Problem is that they grow very slowly (except for trout) and need at the least one year to grow at eating size.
The world's biggest aquaculture recirc system is in Belgium and they produce 3000 tons of tilapia a year.
I hope you'll have good results with bluegill.

wow! what's the name of the place in belgium, i'd love to see pictures of it.
3000 tons!

Not a lot of info but here's link:
http://www.vitafish.com/index.asp?taal=en

I am in the early stages of my system so I can't give you an authorative answer. I can tell you that in this last week we have had temperatures at best about 9c, as the sun comes up the temp in my ploytunnels has been getting up to the mid 20's

Now for tilapia that is dooable, like I said my system is in the early days and I don't have a lot of cash so I am keeping it simple and cheap.

I have bought a couple of large second hand sheds which I am going to insulate and put in a double door similar to the darkrooms I used to work in. During the winter, provided there is adequate insulation 500 lts of water can be kept warm with a periodic imput of 300w, that is not bad. Trouble I have is getting hold of the fish because people say you can't do it and that is that.

As confuscious said "A journey of a million miles starts with a single step!"

Sounds like you've taken the first steps BigDon....

How about starting a thread in the "Members Systems" area .... and posting some pics so that we can follow your journey

Hi BigDon
Theres plenty of trout farms dotted about the country so rainbows/browns are an option.
A guy was advertising a while ago for prospective "small scale" tilapia fingerling producers in the uk (not commercial volumes).
whether he`s still looking i don`t know, but as he was offering to provide the initial breeding stock.. i think tilapia must be available over here somewhere