Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Accomplished a lot today. Picked up the new 300 gallon tank from the dairy this morning. It weighs a slim 500 lbs. It is over 30 years old, so it is made very stout. The outside is coated with some kind of industrial paint that is impervious to bleaches, cleansers, constant moisture, etc. as it was used in the operation of a dairy, and the procedures were quite elaborate. That is good for me, because there is no need to weatherize it, or even seal it. I will most likely need to paint it white though. Even though it is double-walled and insulated, I want to keep as much heat away from it in the summer. It came with an agitator that I will need to remove. It was used to keep the milk from separating. I will need to plug a couple holes where the cooling tubes entered in between the walls, but that won't take much. As you can see from the pictures, it was a messy job getting to the back yard, and set in place. I nearly broke my daughters toe in the process. Another day or so to hook it in to the system, and I will move all of the fish from the smaller tank into it. We will be moving our goldfish into the smaller tank, and making it more decorative, although it will still be hooked into the AP system. This project is taking on a life of its own.....

The tank shape will settle out solids well, just get them from the tap!

The fishman waits for no tank to be 100% ready! Today is the scheduled fishman day, when the fish farmer comes in from out of state, and everyone gets fish for their ponds. I have plenty of fish in my pond, but they need to learn how to eat pellets. The farm raised fish know how, and hopefully will pass on the information. I now have 10 wild Bluegill, and 20 farm raised. In the picture, the larger fish are the adults from our pond, and the smaller ones are from the fishman. I plan to catch 20 more from our pond, for a total of 50, most of them adult sized. Once they are trained on the new food, they should fatten up and be ready to eat soon, while the little ones grow for eating next year. CookieCows and I are already planning the additional GB's we will need once they really start putting out the fertilizer. We are moving our goldfish into the smaller tank, and bringing all of their nitrates, solids and good bacteria with them.

DD, yeah the tank is designed to flow to that tap. I can then either pull out the solids with the sand filter, or pump them into the GB's if I want. I will need to try it both ways to find out what is the most efficient. The bacteria colony should be the same in the sand filter, as in the GB, but the water flows through much faster. If I let the solids flow into the GB's I will probably have to clean it out more...decisions, decisions! Any advice for a beginner?

Here is the updated layout of the system. We will need more growbeds, but CookieCows and I haven't decided what/where yet.

As to cleaning out Grow beds. I get the impression that most people don't do that unless something really clogs up and shuts down (more likely from non washed gravel that from the fish solids.)

A few handfuls of composting worms (with their assorted comrades of microbes) released into some mature grow beds should be happy to help clean up the organic matter build up.

TCL...The worms can live in the GB's? I would think the flooding would kill them off. I will have to look into getting some. I wonder if you can buy them online and have them shipped to you.

If the water is well aerated and doesn't stay flooded in the bed for too long, the worms will survive.

Worms breath through their skin so a worm bin being too wet and become anaerobic will usually cause them to try to escape, usually resulting in death. However in well aerated water, worms seem to be able to survive.

Yes, you can purchase worms online and have them shipped to you.

Where I got my worms

This link is for the place I got my worms from (of course they are local so I didn't need to have mine shipped.) If ordering worms from elsewhere, make sure you find out how they ship their worms. Worms will ship just fine in some bedding put into a cardboard box lined with newspaper. If some one tries to ship you worms in a plastic bag or plastic container, stop!!!!!! I would not trust them to survive the trip that way.

I haven't really put any worms into my grow beds yet. I do have a nice worm bin going and it is a wonderful way to dispose of some of the kitchen waste!!!!! I will be putting some worms into my barrel system soon as some of the lettuce has been harvested and there will be some stuff for the worms to digest.

I am planning on my system being on a 30/120 minute flood drain cycle. I might have the system on constant over night to maintain temperature during cold weather. While I am not flooding all the way to the surface, it doesn't sound like the worms would like my system very much. I guess I will keep it in mind in case I have a problem later on though. The sand filter can completely remove all solid matter from the system if I let it. It is from a swimming pool/spa system. I can filter the entire system 20-30 times per day, or I can just circulate the water without filtering. I can also backwash the filter into the growbeds to "energize" the bacteria/nitrification process, at least as I understand it. We are really starting to get excited.

I have been monitoring the nitrate levels, and they have been fluxuating, as I have been adding nitrate rich water each day from our aquarium. Upon instection, the lettuce plants have new growth on them, so they are out of shock, and slurping up the "good stuff"!

Solids in the growbeds are typically good...contains minerals that are released by decay and are then used by the plants. The time it takes for things to decay may be one reason that AP systems really improve after a year or so.

Once again, this is the understanding of a newbie....take with a grain of salt.

Yep BB, use compost worms...I inoculated my GBs with them about 6-8 months ago...always find worms in amongst the roots when pulling out plants - and occasionally find one or two in the sump tank (still alive).

Plenty of O2 in the water and they seem to live quite well...clean up the any fish pellets and fish poo very efficiently

Hello, you have a neat system. I do not know alot about the growbed part but have raised millions of bass, bluegill and channel catfish (literally). Bass are difficult to feed train if started at two inches in length. Nearly impossible once they have a taste of live fish. You could maintain the bass with minnows and other live things such as crickets or worms. Basically, they are the top of the pond food chain. Also, I would guess you are correct about the jumping out of your sump tank. I have found a cover is essential to prevent jumping (one of the traits that makes bass the #1 freshwater sportfish in the USA. I would not reccommend them as a tank fish unless you have an abundance of reproduction from you bluegill (witch I doubt you will in a tank).

I have found bluegill don't do well in tanks either. I think if you keep your densities relatively low, maintain relatively high dissolved oxygen levels (4ppm +) You should be okay. They will eat catfish food once they get used to it. If they are small begin by crushing it up to a small size. (bluegill have very small mouths). Feed the same time every day and you have them eating out of your hand. Just a little at a time. You will find the big fish eat most the food so it may be better to try keeping uniform sizes.

Bluegill are not so prone to jumping like bass. Yet they will like some structure like short sections of PVC pipe or old flower pots.
I mostly have trouble with warm water, they seem prone to Columnaris sp. and other bacterial diseases. I would get do any size separating before it gets warm and don 't put any more 'fish man' fish in when water gets over 75F. Dealers with fish hauled in from other states often get fish wholesale from the cheapest place, quality can be qustiionable and are prone to have been exposed to numerous diseases in general.

Hope this helps you or someone.

Ell...I will keep this in mind for later on. I think I should let the system settle in before adding anything new, which the whole system is aat this point. I like the idea of the compost worms though.

JDP...Wow, thanks for all of the information. I worry a little bit about the outside fish too. I get the feeling that these guys were pretty square deal sorts. A family run operation, still, I hope everything will be okay. We are planning on keeping the water from 68-72, which should be high enough for the plants, but low enough to keep the fish comfortable. If the big fish eat all of the food, I will need to find a way to solve the problem. We want the system to provide fish live when we want to eat them rather than have a large harvest all at one time. I guess we will have to see how it goes.

Our local gas station/convenience store has red wrigglers for fish bait. 7-11 has bait too, maybe you won't have to get them mail order. There are worms in my beds in the basement; they came in either from previous systems or from when I added a small amount of compost to the gravel (for fun, hoping to increase the biodiversity).

Thanks for the bluegill info JD!

The idea of worms is interesting, but I think we will wait for a while. I am just barely letting myself get excited now that the plants have new growth. When they grow without any help from me (i.e. adding nitrate rich water) I will be ready to call it a success. At this point, I have some very expensive lettuce plants. I hope to have a system that will allow me to grow almost anything without having to invest any more money, just time.