Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks all for your comments and help.

I've done more investigating and, basically, I simply don't believe the speraneo figures (not as shown, anyway). They are either wrong or there is something we don't know, but no one has stepped forward to explain.

Janet, I read almost the same quote from Tom Speraneo in another publication and he was talking live fish weight. He said something to the effect that one pound of fish food would create one pound of live fish would create 45 to 70 pounds of gross weight produce (not fruit). The 1:1 ratio on food to fish left out the fact that they supplemented with algae and left over produce.

I did find that the Freshwater Institute built a system (modified Speraneo) and grew 950 lbs. of Tilapia and 7,000 - 10,000 lbs of all-eatable produce annually. They had another gauge too: "conservatively"a minimum of 20lbs per square foot of bed space.

Basically, they (FWI) were saying one could expect to produce at least 10 pounds of produce for every pound of live fish. That seems reasonable, anyway.

That means to me that my 300 gallon system with 5 4x8 beds could produce 250 lbs. of produce and 10+ lbs. of fillets per month. That gives me enough for my family and some left over to trade with the neighbors.

Thanks again,

Jim

PS Sorry about all the foot-pound stuff. No excuses, I'm just to old to learn to change.

[quote="steve"][quote]if there is a catch to ap, it's that you can't use strong pest control[/quote]

Which i'm tipping is a welcome catch by most AP'ers [/quote]

when i say strong i mean stuff like pyrethium and neem oil. you can't tell me if you were able to use those you wouldn't?

That would be amazing to see a family fed in only 300 gallons of tank!

Mmm...My thoughts too!

Oh, but no you're not Jim..... you're not only looking at change by becoming involved with AP and feeding your family nutrious homegrown food.... but you're doing it well before most of the younger folk have even heard about it.

[quote="DanDMan"][quote="mornings"]That means to me that my 300 gallon system with 5 4x8 beds could produce 250 lbs. of produce and 10+ lbs. of fillets per month.[/quote]

That would be amazing to see a family fed in only 300 gallons of tank![/quote]

steady supply is going to be the tricky issue, atleast that's what i'm running into at the moment.
I think the trick is to find someone you can trade with like Dan is going to do

edit.

woops - dont respond to a first page post on the third

Trade lifts a few issues.

My current plan is for continuous production systems. So, I have to work out the details of keeping the fish breeding ect year around. I look forward to measuring the output of my system to see what I can really do as well as see what everyone else is able to do.

dont want to take this thread OT but just to reply to timmy,

honestly? i've never yearned after the use of those that you mentioned. I've not had any OTT pest problems! had aphids once and treated them with some brew, cant remember what it was, but it worked.

Steve and ange had cabbage moth catterpillars and used dipel and it worked.

Dan,

I'm doing something I haven't seen any place else (maybe the folks in the V.I. do something like this): I intend to separate the tank into 5 graduated sections (9/19/38/78/159 gallons), each section representing the approximate weigth size of the fish. I will intro new fingerlings, harvest approximately half the fish weight, harvest approximately half the produce and move the fish into the next section every 28 days.

(The 28 days is arbitrary but it fits the schedule of the buying club my wife runs, morningsidefarm.com, and my penchant for using the moon cycles.)

I expect this will keep nutrient output from the tank more or less matched to plant needs. This, as opposed to starting with a group of fingerlings and gradually adding more and more plants as the fish grow. With the latter method, it takes a larger tank because the tank must sized to the maximum fish size rather than the average.

Simply put, this makes the use of the facilities more efficient and yields a fairly constant output of produce and fish. (if it's not already obvious, my background is in engineering)

Any comments any of you have are really appreciated as some of this still remains to be proven. I'm not a total neophyte but I'm doing some things that are for me, experimental.

Thanks,

Jim

Jim, it would be interesting to know how many of us are engineers - I suspect aquaponics is to engineers like honey to a bear. Irrestible. After all, we get to play at designing something and eat at the same time.

Oh, a quick note - my fish are starting to look nervious - perhaps it is me drooling into the fish tank?