Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have perused the postings, and figure I want to get my fish up and going firstly and that doing this aquaponic piecemill would behoove me.
Looks like cats and tilaps are most recomended, and delicious trout more difficult. Shucks.
I guess if I wanted to feed the fishes food scraps channel cats would be most voracious?
So cheapskate that I may well be, I have an old 1/2 size spa that will be the fish tank at about 250 gallons.
Somewhere on your site I found an excel calculator that gave me an estimate of how many fish/gallon. I assume those figures are for what the aquarium maxes out on when fish mature?
ANY OPINIONS fish quantity wise?

Does it seem to make good sense to get the fish up and going 1st so they can get settled in and have happy bacteria for themselves and waste for the plants to come?
What kinda bubbler is recomended.......the hottub does have a circ pump, hmmmmm jets and a level of heat. Maybe I can tub with the tilapia?
Random, I know, but what about draining grey water......make that light grey water, from the shower to the fishes, and plants world for irrigation If I am oh so very choosy about soaps, urine and ph and temperature, and perhaps use the extra h2o on the lawn?

I would say no, get the fish later. Ya want your grow beds up and running with the fish if not before (see fishless cycling.)
I would also say, no grey water and fish are probably not a good idea on such a small scale, way too many products that would kill the fish. Grey water system should probably be a separate thing.
I have run AP systems without fish, Pee Ponics. But I don't really recommend mixing the two since it would be too easy to kill the fish by overdosing with pee.

Welcome and read up as there is lots of info here to be had.
Stocking, about 6 lb of fish per 25 gallons of flood and drain media filled grow bed so long as there is enough water for the fish to survive comfortably (13 or more gallons of fish tank.) The more water in the system, the more stable it will be.
Look up CHIFT PIST for info on how to keep the levels in a fish tank stable even when you have lots of grow beds to flood and drain.

Good Luck!

+1 for fishless cycling

this just spares you from killing all of them in 1 go when starting as all new systems are prone to water qualities swings and this will kill fish as does other parameters being to too high during cycling for some fish

Hum, maybe we scared him away as he hasn't been back since this first post.

Come back........We didn't mean to drive you away

Hi TCL

maybe we did but there is so much information on here that he could just be lost on here too

Can someone give a link to that fish/gallon calculator?

I kinda like the 5 lb of fish per 25 gallons of flood and drain gravel grow bed (amount of fish tank water could be anywhere from 12-25 gallons or even more for that 5 lb of fish and 25 gallons of grow bed.) The most important number is having enough filtration for the amount of fish/feed and then you also want to make sure there is enough water for the fish to turn around without bouncing off the sides or bending in a circle to do it.