Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello all,

It's good to see the forum index pages working! I decided to join a few days ago. I've been using the view new posts/search to browse the forum.

My name is Jerald, married, have a year and a half old daughter, currently attending community college for an AA. I've been researching aquaponic setups for the past few weeks so it seemed like a good idea to join the backyard aquaponics website. My wife is a very earth conscious individual. She likes things eco-friendly, organic, sustainable. While I'm the exact opposite, I do like to design and build. So it works.

I've looked at lots of things about aquaponics, it keeps my head spinning on a daily basis. The three of us live in a small apartment near the college. We have an upstairs balcony and a downstairs up for use in the summer time. However our only resolve for the winter would be dedicating our pantry to the task of hosting an indoor AP system.

There are a few sketches I've drawn up for replacing the pantry's shelves with grow beds. So far my current system would be;

1x 68 gallon fish tank
2x 17 gallon grow beds with roughly 6 inches of depth

maybe LED grow lights, I know my way around a soldering iron and have some working knowledge of electronics.

I haven't figured out what kind of fish to raise for food. I've seen a website about growing catfish in a 55 gallon barrel. Not sure how the stocking densities work in general with fish.

If anyone has any advice, suggestions, comments, or direction let me know! Maybe in the future I can contribute as well.

Welcome and have fun.
First tip... keep reading

She must be a pretty bright 18 month old! Our kids in Oz don't normally go to Prep until they are 5 years old!

I'm sure you will enjoy your AP journey, it will take a while to read through this forums posts, but it is well worth the effort!

Cheers and Good Luck IanK

Welcome. There is no escape now, AP has you all in it's grasp.

Now if you can arrange to put the AP system near a bright window, you might avoid spending as much money on electricity for lighting.

As to how many fish you could grow in a 55 gallon barrel, personally, I say not very many and catfish can get BIG!!!!! I got a 6 lb catfish down in my sump tank, that guy would be bent if stuck in a barrel. However, you could probably keep some tilapia in a 60+ gallon tank. How many fish you can keep will be more closely related to your filtration and aeration. Start with 5 fish per 25 gallons of flood and drain gravel bed or 1 fish per 5 gallons of flood and drain gravel bed. This is kinda figuring they could grow out to be 1 lb fish.

I recommend reading the Basic Information and Useful Information sections of the forum pretty completely, they are not too terribly long. Then you could pick out a few member system threads to read through. Perhaps ask and see if anyone can point you to some threads that have some of the conditions you will be working with (like indoors and small scale.) I know there are some.

Welcome!

Hey all, thanks for the replies.

Haven't invested in anything yet, it will be a long while before I put my foot forward into anything.

As far as reading, well... I think I'm one more forum topic away from eyeball combustion.

Just noticed your post. English is/was not one of my favorite subjects.
Yeah she is pretty bright

*Watches as she runs around the living room and smacks face first into the trash can.*
Err.. I'll be right back.

Precocious kid! I didn't start running into stationary objects until I was decades older! Well, not that I remember.....

contemplative1:

I currently have an Aquaponics system which has been 8 months in the making. I currently rent and have very limited space to grow anything especially with a Landlord who does not even let me put up a temp. fence for a service animal. My living room has a very large window which I have been trying different configurations to maximize. I have now a IBC tank with two drain and fill beds made from Walmart tots. I Started with gold fish and a 55 gal tank. I now have Tolapia and am having great luck with the drain and fill beds. I currently have tomatoes, okra, chard, basil, and cucumbers growing in these two small containers. I have started a twin trellising system to have these grow across the windows to maximize light to the plants. My cucumbers plants are about 6 feet long and only 1 and a half months old. Cucumbers are kind of time consuming since they require the most time to pollinate. I have played with different plants such as lettuce and cabbage which do much better in a floating raft type container. I will say the vegetables I have gotten is some of the best tasting vegetables I have ever eaten.
I would love to start a local club were folks can get together and bounce ideals off each other. I plan one one day having a place of my own with at least one large green house to move this to large scale. I have learned a lot about heating these green houses and cutting cost on winter gardening. Hit me up with a PM anyone in Spokane WA if staring a local club sounds like a great ideal. We can also talk here but it may be a little cumbersome to weed thru the out of Spokane folks.