Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Damian, I seriously think you need to research aspects of RAS filtration and oxygenation a whole lot further before even considering proceeding...

Even stocking Tilapia, which can live in sewerage and survive on a sniff of oxygen... to stock at the level you have suggested requires some fundamental filtration and aeration design...

Given your climate... the use of steel shipping containers as fish tanks would pose a problem with water temperatures...

And waters ability to hold oxygen decreases with rising temperatures...

Your steel containers would heat rapidly.. and probably lethally.. unless completely insulated... causing considerable problems with DO...

You would also have to bear in mind the effect any hurricanes might have on your power supply.. without which your pumping/aeration might be totally compromised... resulting in a coantainer full of dead smelly fish...

If you're determined to proceed down the path of a large system.. or systems...

Then I seriously suggest that you invest.. and attend the UVI (University of Virgin Islands) aquaponics course...

Please advise me of your supplier...

I'll buy a shipping container from you... stock it with liner.. and ship it over here...

Oh.. and by the way...

I asked "podponics" how much one of their "pods" cost... here's there Facebook reply..

https://www.facebook.com/podponics/post ... ed_comment

I would certainly not be investing in the company...

I can grow more lettuce.. in about as much "cubic space"... for a lot less money...

Rupert I have been around the block when it comes to AP I am no expert, but I am no fool either. This is all about the fish part and how to set it up to make money.I did a Google search for pond liner and fire stone was the first to come up, from memory I paid about the same thing.

A 10,000L tank will be cheeper to install but more expemcive to operate and harder to harvest, I am hoping I could move the fish through the 8 in pipes as well. With raceways I can control the water flow and airation way better. I compare the 10000L single tank and 7 container system to factory farm and free range.

Your concerns have not fell on deaf ears i am just looking at all my angles.

With a green roof the temps don't get to high. I will have to look at feed amounts and air quialty inside the container.

Rupert what is the water turn over rate and the amount of airation you have to use.r

I'm sorry.. I can't grasp how or why a 10000L tank could/would be more expensive to operate than a similar size container...

Or how/why it would be more difficult to "harvest"...

And I don't understand where your concept of "raceways" fits into your proposed design???

Why don't you go for one shipping container for starters?

Remember STRIVE in AP - start small, think all possibilities, reach a little further, imagine success, visualize success, and then experience success. Good luck with your efforts, will follow.

The 40foot fish tanks would be concidered racewayswith the amount of water flow I envition.
The total water volume would b 111002L thats thevseven containers if it was a circle pond not sure of the diameter at two feet deep, but that's a big pond to try and net capture talipia out of, for 3 people to do it could take a day or two to harvest a pond that size with out draining out most the water, and then were do you put that water while your harvesting if you do drain it? Replacing that much water at harvest will be costly and having a tank the same size as your single fish tank to drain to just sitting there is a waste of a good tank, if you don't drain the tank and go the rout of netting them out then you damage more produt and the live fish will be in holding conditions longer because decreasing quailty when you take longer to compleat the harvest, with individual 40foot fish tanks I can drain the tank and harvest a batch of fish in hours with out dumping any water, and airating the different fish tanks with the localised required amount of air and water flow will be more cost effective.

With the more focused attention you can give to smaller batches of fish will mean the enitial cost is not a good desideing factor but it should be the time to return on investment

A single 10000L tank is the equivalent of a shipping container.. so you'd need 7 to equate...

But a 10000L tank isn't that big... These are 45,000L..

Same would be the case for individual 10000L tanks...

Where are you going to drain and hold the water when you harvest?

Need to be worth the investors time, one container ent going to cut it, no mom&pops operation going one here I am looking to make money. I want to start with 3 full time workers, @ 40hr a week for 10 months or 40 weeks @ $16 a hr means I will be paying wages of $25600 per cycle of fish. Witch is almost total fish sales from 7 containers projected at $29600.5434 good thing I am looking at a 14 container system to start with.


Wages will be the highest reacouring expenditure are them all, maybe I should look to pay less? But the high wage bill like that will cut deep into the profit margin witch looks small concidering the high start up cost, I need to determined the true operating expenditure to get a whole picture and see if this is viable, right now it seams doable but the profit margin is defenate lower than I expected earlier.

The equivelant circlur fish tanks will be 1)50 foot diament tank or 7) 10 foot tanks.

I have 2 main questions.
1 how do I calculate the requiredwater flow rate and airation needed and
2 how do I calculate the feed required?

Hire a consultant... there's at least one based in India... lol

I can cap the single feeder stand pipe to the fish tank I want to drain and re move the drain pipe from one tank and it will drain into the other fishtanks raising water level 4in extra each by 6 for a total of 24 in.

But wont the water level just equalise between the tanks??

But isn't that less.. and cheaper...

Than 7 x 35 foot tanks??

And you wouldn't go a single 50 foot tank anyway...