Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am so excited. I am having a 12 x 12 foot greenhouse built for me by a friend and it will be ready this Friday. I have two 275 gallon totes that will serve as my tank and two grow beds. Grow beds are roughly 3 x 4 x 1 feet. Which is 12 cubic feet, or 681 liters volume. I'm needing help deciding on fish, I need something that candle both hot summers and chilly winters. Any help would greatly appreciated. It is a pleasure to join all of you on this forum!

Hi tyknight,

It seems nobody else is keen to put their neck on the block, so I'll kick things off for you and we may get some discussion happening.

While I'm no expert on your local weather/temps etc, I would take a guess and suggest that in Colorado you have one of three options:

1. Heating your fish tank through winter and stocking something like Tilapia maybe.
2. Not heating, and doing the summer/winter thing with maybe Tilapia and Trout.
3. Stocking a mainly ornamental type fish that can handle the two temp extremes, ie Carp. (some people like to eat them)

Mr Damage.

look for pond stockers in your area..
trout (depending on size you buy) can grow out to plate size in 6 to 8 months (shorter if you buy bigger fish)
you can probably find pan fish, like bluegill, maybe yellow perch... crappie will all handle a wide range of temps, catfish too..
some fish have a very high fcr (food conversion ration) - large mouth bass is somethign like 10:1, 10lbs of feed =1lb growth! trout are close to 1:1

Pictures please!

Thanks for the help gentlemen. I don't have pictures yet because I am in fabrication mode right now, but I will post some as I am going. I would prefer to not have to change fish species during the year, so i am trying to find a fish that can survive both temps. It seems like yellow perch might be able to do this. I would been to keep the temp of the water between roughly 72 give or take 3 degrees. I don't have enough experience to know how difficult it will be to maintain my 250 or so gallons at that temp. Is that amount of water relatively stable? I can also insulate the tank in some ways if that might make things easier throughout the year.

yellow perch will do well, up to about 85d f, and then they start to stress..but they also survive winters in ponds that freeze over (as long as precautions are taken-lots of info) so there really won't be a need to heat the water that much..the fish will just grow slower at the lower temps.. heatin water is big $

I find catfish to delicate to bother with and they will not breed in tanks. I started with feeder goldfish (read cheap) and now have some 8" long. They will breed if not crowded. Bluegill are my main fish and I run 40 in a 1000 gal tank and 12 small ones in a 150 gal tank. You need to see what you may keep in your state and what you can get. Here in N.W. Arizona bluegill do well and are available from fish farms and stocking permits are issued for them.

I would vote a big no on Tilapia for you in CO. Here in Houston, in the spring, I had trouble maintaining 55°F water temps. It would be nervewracking and/or expensive to do in Pueblo. Bluegil are cool fish that are neat to watch and interact with. I dunno if they have a temperature min, but I have also seen youtube videos of guys ice fishing for them in Minnesota, so I think you'll be O.K.

Yeah, I never really considered Tilapia. I hadn't considered bluegill though either, so I might do some reading about them and see what I think. I'm also basing my decision on what I can find here locally so I don't have to pay shipping charges.

Tyknight, it's been a few months since you posted and I'm wondering what you worked out? I'm in your immediate area...just West of you, hint-hint and about to start up my own backyard system. I'm building a small 10'x8' greenhouse with salvaged double-paned ex-sliding glass patio door glass for three walls of it, East, South & West.

My thoughts are to use 55 gallon blue water barrels for the fish tanks to help mediate the winter temps. I know from past experience that if I get everything balanced correctly temps in the winter will be no problem to keep high enough for Tilapia, however summer temps might be a problem when we hit the 90's and above around here, however I'm sure by next summer I'll have that worked out.

Please update us on your efforts.

+1, I'm around too, if you guys need any help!

I am in northern Colorado. This is day two, and I am still in reading/research mode. I need a Ibc container to start with. But they run like $150 for used food grade. Is that a fair price? I have a place in Mind in my backyard and I too was worried about what fish I can get and is legal. I had thought of a mixture like carp (not for eating) and trout (for eating occasionally). Couple that with non hybrid vegetables . Just not sure what will work at our altitude and arid conditions. I was thinking also of a solar powered pump that would only pump during the day. Any ideas?

i looked for quite a while, 150 seems a bit high, i paid $40, and had to clean them myself,,, you should be able to find some cheaper than that..
right after i bought mine from a place almost an hour away, a landscaping company started selling them - they had contained food safe die for mulch, for something like $35, and they were only 5 minutes away..
when searching craigslist, try using search terms like 275gal, 275 gallon or 330gal 330 gallon

I'm in southern Colorado too. Realize this is Kinda an old thread but thot I'd chime in here. I'm not too far from pueblo, about two hrs S/W. Would love to hear whats been working out for others near me!