Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have mixed feeling about the most recent addition to the growbed ecology. Last night I opened the lid to the sump to find, not our one frog (we used to have two, but only one lately), but a nice 2' (60cm) garter snake in the glare of my headlamp. This would answer the mystery of the hiding place of the other frog..... I love snakes, but I also like the frogs and they were eating the mosquitoes attracted by the warm sump water. Should I train the snake to eat the mosquitoes and forget the frogs?

The plants are doing great. The flavor of all so far is good to excellent, although I would like soil-grown controls. We also had some concern about mildness of squash, but it may simply be the variety, the weather, or the current nutrients.

Some problems with aphids (abetted by ants) on the lower stems of the parsley, so I've been hitting them with concentrated streams of water from the hose and knocked them down to 5% or less of former populations. I think we are ready for the next system.

The white spot (ich) symptoms that showed up a week ago hava disappeared. I hope it is completely gone, but I will keep the salt (.3% or 3ppt) going for another couple weeks and do another tank scrub to dislodge any cysts and 100% water change to get rid of most of the free-swimmers. Then, cross fingers and make sure never to introduce them to any other systems! I have seen very very slight flashing for several months with my original goldfish and assumed it was normal behavior, but I guess the population of ich finally grew too high for me to ignore the symptoms. The white dots on the fins, sudden lack of appetite, and fish floating flat on the surface also were a bit of a clue. But zero deaths!

Hello Hydrophilia,
I'm new to aquaponics, but am planning on a similar indoor/outdoor setup with Tilapia growing in the basement and grow beds in the sunny eastside of the house. I'm also thinking about multiple Grow Beds both outdoors and indoors to keep the system going effectively all year.

I was wondering how your system turned out.....

Welcome aboard!

Outdoor beds cool the water far too much in winter without special setups, *sigh*. While we do not have your cold, it does get down to hard frost (crunchy grass) here, so I have disconnected the growbed for the winter and have a few fish in the aquarium. Even so and with glass over much of the aquarium, I am running about 100w to keep it at 80degF. If one could place the aquarium near a heat register or radiator the heat could warm the tank first before heating the house, saving some funds.

The growbed is currently pumping a couple hours a day to keep a few winter crops semi-happy.

Most of the fish are in a giant box (4x4x19 ft), partly covered in glass and partly with a growbed, next to a reflective wall. It takes very little heating to keep it up to 60degF for the cold bits.

I have considered running the cold return water inside or along the pipe carrying the warm fishtank water as a simple heat exchanger, but have not figured out how much heat might save compared to the added maintenance and materials.

There are some folks with greenhouses and tilapia in much cooler climes than here, the Speraneos. You might google their setup, but they want $$$ for full information. Knowing it is possible is useful, though.

It is really tempting to go with catfish as they tolerate warm water well, but still eat well in far cooler water than tilapia, not to mention surviving/hibernating down near freezing. Nice to worry less, but I like the idea of breeding my own tilapia and feeding them algae, duckweed, etc as well as commercial foods. I also have no good source for catfish.

Koi or fancy goldfish are possible, but then one must sell them......Still, it might work better than raising meat and they are far more temperature tolerant than tilapia.

I am thinking that I'd have an all indoor system from Fall to Spring. Then switch to outdoor growing beds in the summer. I'm pretty new to the aquaponics concept (though I've kept aquariums and gardens all my life). I'm catching on to the basics, but there is a whole lot I still don't quite grasp yet.

I just bought a 270 gallon tank off of craigslist which is the beginnings of the system. It may have to sit cycling in the basement for awhile until I have the rest figured out.

How big is your tank for you indoor/outdoor system?

55 gal, but was only filled to about 30 gal with about 2gpm continuous flow. Happy fish, happy plants, clean water. Now filled to capacity, with undergravel filter and 6ppt salt. My understanding is that tilapia can handle quite a bit more than that with no trouble and that catfish (I have three punctatus) can take 8ppt and thrive, 11ppt before dying. Too bad plants can't take it.

Thanks for the pointers....
by the way, my 270 gallon tank turned out to be 150 gallon. I'm buying it from craig's list and the person was misjudging the size. It is still a really good deal though and is probably a much more workable size anyway. I think i'll get some 50 gallon rubbermaid stock tanks for growing beds.

A month or so back a tilapia yawned and through her throat I could see little spheres. EGGS! I also noticed teh full mouth, pursed lips, and mumbling behavior as she cared for the eggs. Unfortunately, the next morning she ate with the others and fry never appeared.

36 hours ago, Bully stopped chasing and butting the other tilapia and the female, once again, showed egg-holding behavior. Now the fretting started....would she eat them again? Should I steal them? Finally reached a decision: decide later.

12 hours ago: female definitely still holding, but much less full mouth. Time to take action! So, I set up a ten gallon aquarium with heater and undergravel filter (easiest way to avoid sucking fry into a filter). The eggs washed from mom's mouth with ease and are tumbling nicely. Now keeping fingers crossed.

Probably jumped the gun on taking the eggs, but just worried about accidental swallowing, catfish, and goldfish in main tank. We shall see.

Here is another initial left profile of the fish so you can compare jawlines: she had her throat extended about twice as far as in the day 2 picture.

The eggs are in a glass, tumbling about once per minute in a light stream of water I have diverted from the powerhead. I've used irrigation fittings and have included a clothes-pin spring as a weight. Salt is 6ppt as that was level in mother's tank. Temp is 28C to 30C.

Blast it! That was not the egg pic I wanted! (note to self: use preview)

Wow!

Fingers crossed!

I will be attempting breeding soon and thus in the same 'boat'. I think taking the eggs is the best way to go. I never find the fry fast enough after they are released.

100% .... failure.

The eggs became slightly darker, turning from cream to very lightly toasted, but did not approach the darkness of those that Synaptoman photographed. My guess is that my lone male is not doing the job with the female.

Further speculation: whatever causes the eggs to darken (a chemical released by the developing embryo?) probably also releases a chemical that tells the female "this is a good eggs: don't eat it". This would explain the quick disposal of the first batch.

Since I found fry in my big-box greenhouse system there are functioning male-female pains in there. I may simply eat my bullying, ineffective male, toss the rest into the main system, and wait for warming water to trigger breeding there. With good shelter (water weeds in a basket to keep big fish out) the fry may do fine or I may do weekly roundups and steal eggs/fry from parents.

If I wish hard enough, do I get my edit button back?

should have read:
Further speculation: whatever causes the eggs to darken (a chemical released by the developing embryo?) probably also tells the female "this is a good egg: don't eat it". This would explain the quick disposal of the first batch.

Since I found fry in my big-box greenhouse system there are functioning male-female pairs in there.

Dang. Well next time then! Everyone says breading tilapia is so easy...

I still think stripping the eggs has got the be the best solution, but your male has got to do his job.