Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

have read a few places mainly US quoting them stocking densities, that should equal 6 GB's and only 1500lt of water then I could have 480 trout, it's hard enough to keep 50 in the tank

I know an Australian site that quotes 160 silver perch in 1000L fish tank as a reasonable stocking density.

... that's higher than the "sardine can" Tilapia operations.... and nearly double RAS systems with pure oxygen injection....

It just can't be done... I'd have to work the figures... but I don't think you can even provide the oxygen requirements for that number of fish in that amount of water... by normal aeration...

Let alone the oxygen overhead for feed processing and bio-filtration...

Heck, that's easy.....let's see....160 fish in 1000liters...OK, I would expect it would do just fine if you just make a 10,000 liter sump, pump water through the 1k liter tank at about 100liters/minute, no worries. *grin*

Yep... 160 fish in 11,000L would probably work OK...

Perhaps they're intending to grow Pygmy Perch, mosquito fish, gambusia and one Murray Cod.
I suspect 160 in 1000L would be insufficient in this case.

Well, it would work - but not for more than about 24 hours

Based on the filtration, 4 x 400 liters, I would probably start with 48 fish but supposedly 96 would be ok if you plan to harvest small.

Then again, there is some book somewhere (I guess from the 1970's or something) that claimed you could grow out multiple channel catfish in a 55 gallon barrel and do it by feeding them worms from your worm bin. I suppose it depends on how big "grown out" is and well I suppose if you are only growing out a few fish you might manage to grow enough worms for them.

so i was looking for tilapia and i found there( http://www.aquaponicsusa. com/)web site, so i did a search here(byap) for it and i saw this.
has anyone talked to them? are they good people?
i want to buy some fish, i can get the yucca valley in less then 30min.
if i doo talk to them i will post any feedback i may have

-df
PS , i live in palm springs, ca if you wanted to know.

I've contacted them before. They seem nice enough people and have put some effort into designing their systems but they are really small systems and in my estimation, not big enough to grow much fish in. I would estimate the one bed system to have about the same capacity as a barrel ponics system which you can build and fill for around $300. So nice little design but pretty costly for the capacity.

good to know, i was thinking about just buying some fishes, yea i am a DIYer.
-mikey

i got invited to a portable farm "webinar"

yeah, he got started when he put some tomato plants in the waste from when he worked cleaning aquariums, and thats where he got the idea.. uh huh

wow... growbeds look to be 6"
no straight answers regarding ratio of gb:ft:fish

he'll talk to you about being a distributor if you buy a system (expensive)
or if you will invest 7 figures
you can grow basil to pay off $250g in 2 years! (sorry, no actual data, someone else did this - ha)

sounded like an amway presentation my ex got sucked into years ago

but, if you buy a system, you get 3 free support phone calls and 6 free emails (then it costs $95 each)

i can understand trying to make a buck, but what a sh!tty business model

makes one really appreciate what BYAP has done here.. If you do ever get into the states, you'll have some pretty vocal support

Thanks Kieth, gotta keep fighting these assholes.. They give aquaponics a bad name.

They have no idea about aquaponics, they know how to create crap businesses aimed purely at making profits rather than providing quality products. And if they read this, I invite them to come and debate their figures with myself or any of the people here. Come on, please........???? OK, it will never happen.

I really detest these new business models and techniques of many modern businesses, it's capitalism gone mad with no thought for product or customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is dead in most modern businesses...

Do they have an open forum where you can discuss things directly and publicly with them? Hahahahaha, I think not....

Though I must admit, opening a business up to public debate in a forum isn't always an easy road, but, it certainly keeps you honest.

A simple question to ask such people is "What other people within the industry can offer a recommendation for you?" Notice that's "within the industry". I think that there would be no one established in the aquaponics industry that would have anything constructive to say about them.

These are the sort of assholes who are going to give aquaponics a bad name if they suck people into their crap sales pitches.

almost forgot, they use galvanized fish tanks, he basically "challenged" anyone to show any zinc toxicity claims by saying he's been using them for years

That webinar was a bit like an infomercial. Other than the stain on the wood… pretty weak lookin system.