Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just thought I say that I live in Port Orchard!! I'm new at this myself so I will be yet another with questions and general knowledge...

As for fish... If it is out side or in a green house I would go with bluegil or crapie. Trout realy like cold water (40-50*F) in the summer when the lakes warm up they go find a spring and hang out in the cool water. And if you plan to eat them the meat is better when they are in cold water. The warm water softens the meat some.

I told my dad (who has a degree in Fish Biology) that I was planning on puting a AP in our basement and he said I should go with the Bluegill, even at 50-60*F year round, he thought that was to warm for the trout. But if you do raise trout go for the Triploid or German Browns they grow the fastest!

can you get yellow perch out there? yellow perch are considered "cool" water, and do well up to 80, grow best at around 70, mine seem to be eating the most at about 65 and i've been pretty impressed with their growth, i have bluegill with them.. osu has done some initial studies that show that yp do better polycultured with bluegill than in monoculture

I'm in Seattle. Just joined the forum. Built an ibc setup this week. Been doing hydro for a couple years and keeping fish for decades. Would be interesting to see what else others in the area are doing.

Ill have to check into yellow perch. I know they are here in the ponds. I wouldnt need to heat anything as my temps are fairly stable aroung 70. From 68 to 71 as it sits most of the year.

I am new to the forum and also to Aqua Hydro well heck Gardening all together.

I am in Auburn I am starting with a small system in the garage out of an old fish tank I have a couple clear bins..

I have a few Metal halide ballast and reflectors from my saltwater reef tank I will use also. for the indoor sun.

I will be on lurking around and doing a lot of reading.

I'm in Spokane. Hubby and I are in the process of buying a house and have plans of adding a pond to the backyard. My pond plans now include an aquaponic system.

So questions from a newbie:
Is your system indoors or outdoors?
What fish did you have and where did you purchase your starters?
Did you need to obtain a Private Fish Stocking Permit first?

Hey guys. My name is Joe and I am a student at the Evergreen State College. I have lined myself out with an independent learning contract and will be building an aquaponics system. One aspect of my contract is to put together a database of washington projects public and private. If anyone is interested contact me so's we can start a dialogue together. Let me know!

PS :nice system DIY

I have a mid sized system in Olympia Washington and we have aquaponics meetings once a month. Lets connect Washington Aquapons!

Jessica

www.greenaquaponics.org

Jessica, just visited your website. Wish I could make it to one of your tours but just saw it and can't get there today.

I'm located in Graham Washington and about ready to take the plunge. I'm going to wait until after the mother earth news fair at the end of the month. There is going to be some folks there talking about aquaponics and I want to see what they have to say before I start my build.

any one close to Portland i am just west in aloha?
thanks
erin

I'm in longview, wa. Just a few hours south of Seattle and an hour north of Portland. Considering doing an outdoor system soon, but I need it to go year round. Anyone in this area manager a year long outdoor system?

You'll have to heat if you want it outdoors and that can get expensive. My system is about a 50-50 split between a greenhouse and outdoors. I keep it going year round but only heat the water to keep it from freezing. Water temps were mostly in the 40 to 55 degree range this winter but were colder the year before (especially when it got to - 14 F). I think your area is a bit colder than here. If you're hoping for plant growth during the winter you'll also need to figure out additional lighting. Most plants won't grow much when the daylength gets below 10 hours (cloud cover in winter just makes it worse). I forget exactly but I think this is from sometime in November through most of February.

I'd set up everything in a greenhouse if you can and add supplemental lighting if you want some plant growth.

Next best option is to make a Recirculating Aquaculture System (which is strictly fish) indoors and have it connected to grow beds outdoors during the growing season but disconnect in Winter, drain the beds and only heat the RAS portion. This abbreviated winter system would let you have whatever plants will fit in with the RAS and keeps you from having to heat all the outdoor beds. The RAS is designed to have enough filtration to be self sufficient (usually something like a Fish tank and solids filters with aeration - CCBear and RobBob have one, here is mine (it's outdoors), it's working well but I've made some changes so I wouldn't copy it at this point http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=22236&hilit=scotty%27s+RAS). If you setup the outdoor beds as hoop tunnels you'll be able to use them longer before disconnecting. The type of fish you are going to run will matter as well - trout would probably not do well in a greenhouse system but bluegill, catfish, and a bunch of other fish probably would.

3rd best option is probably all outdoors with hoop tunnels over the grow beds and trout in the fish tank. Buy the trout in big because you may not be able to keep the water temp low enough through the summer to keep them alive (75 F is the maximum) and you'll want them to reach harvest size before that happens. Bluegill, Catfish and Yellow perch would work in this system as well. Goldfish, Koi, Carp are very durable if you're not planning on eating the fish and would work in any of these setups.

Cheers

I'm north of Sedro-Woolley, just started the AP adventure in January

I am currently in Bellevue, WA. As a sustainability student from Bellevue College. I am completely new to AP. Hoping to meetup with like minded people and learn the basics. Then begin a small system at home and do more learning as I go.

I'm in Seattle and run Anything Aquaponics. Been designing/building/managing systems since 2014. Happy to help here on the forums or in person. Those of us on here are among the proud and very few humans who even know what aquaponics is here in WA. Feel free to reach out with questions and I'll be happy to answer them.