Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Howzit!

My name is Donovan. I currently live on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. I am the assistant manager of an Ace Hardware over here and after talking to some customers who have AP setups, I was instantly interested. I live in an apartment and thus don't have a yard to start an outdoor setup, so I am attempting to do my first one indoors. I am pretty much heading into this headfirst with no idea what I'm doing so I'm sure I will have a lot of questions in the future. So just wanted to introduce and say aloha.

Here's what I currently have going for my setup:

60 gallon fish tank (from craigslist $25 )
21 gallon concrete mixing tub
180 gph fountain pump

How does that ratio look for GB to FT? I was planning to do a 10 minutes on, 50 minutes off cycle. I currently don't have the whole setup up and running yet, but I will post some pics as soon as I get it up.

Mahalo for the advice ahead of time.

Donovan

Excellent!

Welcome aboard, I know the ratio is based on number of fish,size of fish, frequency of feeding

all that VERSUS grow bed stocking.

In other words, more fish, bigger fish, fed more frequently means you can grow more plants.

Less fish, smaller fish, fed less frequently means you can grow less plants.

I recommend Aquaponic Food Production for Food and Profit by Nelson and Pade, you can buy it at amazon.com or you can buy it from them at Aquaponics.com

It is very good reading, I've read it twice through so far, but currently have it loaned out to a friend.

Ok, stay tuned, and happy Aquaponics to you!

jeff c

Hi Donovan,

Kauai, great place. My wife and I visited and stayed along the North shore not to long ago.

You need the pump to be able to circulate the tank volume (60 gallons) each hour at whatever the head height is. Even at 185 gallons/hour - Running only 10 minutes per hour it will only pump about 30 gallons so not enough. Usually the pump will come with a diagram showing you what volume your pump can circulate at any given head height(sometimes you can find them online also). This URL will explain head height in case you need it - http://www.creativepumps.com.au/zpumps/pump_hgh_explain/pumping_flow_explained.htm

Stock based on your growbed volume and not so much on the fish tank volume. It's a good idea to stock lightly at first and you may want to fishless cycle the system to get the bacteria started before putting the fish in.

Look in the basic information section. There is a summary of some useful information at the following URL;

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6646

Hope this info helps. Lots of people here to help if you need it.