Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

There has been some discussion on green water and tank culture and most people seem to feel that the DO and pH issues with strong algae blooms/crashes could be more than a recirculating AP system could handle.

Our tilapia are still quite happy to eat most things. Bugs included. They love greens, lettuce, basil, mint. Hopefully I will have some moringa to feed them in the future. I'll have to try sweet potato leaves some time, they are supposed to be pretty high in protein too.

Hi TCL. Perhaps best then I just go for an algae bloom in a separate tank. Pity. Liked the idea of a "growing larder" available to the fish if I was away a little bit - especially for the babies. Is the best food for them. Basil and mint! I will try those. Will look on the net what moringa is. Will youlet us know about teh sweet potato leaves sometime? I will try amaranth... aka pigweed... supposed to be the most nutritious vege salad leaf. Even for us. Forgot about bugs for protein. That must be excellent.

Dan,, we add a base amount, and also have rice sacks filled with fertiliser that can be raised/lowered.A sechi disc is used to monitor the algal bloom,,,aeration is used for morning low level O2.

What is the fertilizer? Commercial soil fertilizer or something else?

Gotta admit being naughty here,,,we use artificial fetiliser,,,urea mainly.

Chicken manure is good also but we just couldn't get a large enough supply.

I'll hunt some articles that are helpful.

What about creating a loop outside of your fish>growbed>sump (or however yours is set up) loop and make it so only a small portion of the water is circulated into the system at a set interval. I think you would find an equalibrium some where in there. Don't brine shrimp eat micro-algae? You could always add them as a cleansing process after cycling the algae, just to make sure it was clean.... just a thought.

You could even scrape the sides of the tank it resides in...dry it and pellet feed the fish.

Hi Chappo. What fertiliser? What is a sechi disc? You got any pics? Sounds interesting....

OK. Urea. What about vermicompost? Real easy to produce. Just kitchen and garden waste and waste paper needed. Hadn't thought of putting it in bags in the water but neat idea. Can also enrich the water for the GBs if fish not full grown or enough of them yet to produce enough enrichment. Would think that it would be necessary to keep a balance here though as water quality is essential for optimum fish health. I think I would lower such a bag near the venturi drain to keep the main flow clean - enough to encourage some algae bloom but not enough to go blocking stuff. A living larder! Comments?

I was thinking about something like this for the duckweed. Worth considering for algae too. Thanks.

Chelle,,,The only reason we used urea is because the base dosage was a known quantiy and the soil /water already contained the other necessary elements.
Worm castings would probably work well,,but you would need to assess and adjust the amounts added.
A sechi disc is just a circle made of wood or plastic with each quarter painted alternatively white and black,,,,it's attached to a pole and lowered into the water ,,then the depth the disc go's out of site is measured and that gives a good indication of the bloom density.

I definately agree the algae should be kept seperate from the AP system,,,
Maybe a bit of research into how they make algae discs for aquarium fish would give some ideas/answers.

Pics,,,umm farm is in Thailand ,I'm in Australia ( will remember to take more pics when I'm over there in November,,,ahhh 4 weeks on the farm,,just what I need.

OK. Understand Chappo. I'll let you know how it works with the vermicompost. Am on the farm....got the fish...but no AP system yet. Busy building the greenhouse first ......as and when I can.... and learning, learning, learning on this fabulous forum! The wealth of info is outstanding.....

A few comments on that study/article that freaked everyone out about the health of eating tilapia. It was only one group that did that study. The guy who wrote something like "Inflammation Nation" is the one insisting that eating a dognut or a burger is better for you than eating tilapia is not the one and only authority on the subject and many others don't really agree with him.

Anyway, I think most of us involved in raising our own food are likely to eat healthier and be healthier (from the gravel washing of course) and we shouldn't fear eating our own tilapia, anything in moderation.

So, there are ways we can supplement our fish feed to help improve the Omega 3 content. Ya know those Omega 3 eggs that some stores are selling, they get those by feeding flax seed meal to the hens. Flax seed meal could probably be added to feed to improve our fish. Heck, Flax seed meal is good to add into our own food.

There are other plants that are high in good things and I'm testing those to see what the fish will eat.

The sweet potato vine leaves are a great success for feeding to the tilapia by the way. When ever I have to trim off bits of vine as they escape the garden, I toss the length of vine into the tank. Then next day I can remove the stem that the fish have cleaned of leaves.

Was just doing some research on the sweet potato leaves and their Omega 3 to Omega 6 levels
Total Omega-3 fatty acids 13.4 mg
Total Omega-6 fatty acids 72.3 mg
This was for steamed leaves.
Doesn't look like the greatest levels for trying to improve the ratios but not so terrible.

Please everyone, do remember that Omega 6 is not "bad" it is needed too. Just that the American diet has got so much of it already with all the veggie oils used for fried foods that it is just too much.