Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Anyone doing aquaponics in this area? Just started a small system but it is indoors, not sure how I could make this work outside/in greenhouse. As luck would have it I started this in like oct/nov. If I did do this in a greenhouse setting will it work to do it seasonally as heating a greenhouse w/o geothermal or something would be prohibitively expensive late oct.-mar or april. I guess what I'm asking is can you get a decent crop of fish produced from like may to mid-oct when the greenhouse is warm enuf? I realize the fish crop is generally considered secondary to the veggies but I dont like the idea of having to get rid of half gown fish at the end of the season if they aren't big enuf to harvest.
Thanks
Jared
Del Norte, Colorado

start with bigger fish so that they are harvestable in one season..
can you get hybrid striped bass? they're fast growers and handle a pretty wide range of temps

So far the only fish I know I can get for sure are Tilapia, and probably trout. But, I'm not going to get trout pretty much no matter what. There a a few fish hatcheries around guess I'll do some calling around n see whats available. Hadn't thought about starting w/ bigger fish, lol. Makes sense, thanks. Would love to do this year around so I don't have to buy fish every season but that may not be in the cards around here.

So just thot I'd throw up a few pics of my system. Kinda small but thats ok considering the room I have or... don't have. The top two grew beds don't get much light and in the summer when sun is higher probably won't get any but, I'm leaving them in for extra filter space and who knows maybe I'll get some lettuce out of them? The clear grow bed on bottom is growing some algae I just noticed. Is this bad? I've heard conflicting opinions. I could cover it with something to get rid of it if I should.

]more pics

Tried to get one that showed the whole set up.... Not sure how good it is but maybe you get the Idea

I think about the closest I got to aquaponics is sticking a sweet potato in my fish tank. Actually I was pretty impressed at the rate of growth it received after doing so. But the fish kept eating the roots so I had to configure a 2 liter bottle so that I could put the potato in that and protect it from the fish. I probably should have planted the potato though because eventually it rotted. The leaves tasted quite good. I had originally wanted to set up a small aquaponic system using my fish tank but now that has to wait until I finish paying off my land in the San Luis Valley!

By the way, since you are in the San Luis Valley you might be interested in this forum. The membership is kind of lean right now since it's new but I figure if I get more folks from the valley to sign up it'll get better in time. Hope to see you there.

http://san-luis-valley.boards.net/

Scot

Hi Jared, I'm in Colorado Springs....so not that close, but I've got a small basement system too.

bump

im going to be moving south of blanca soon and will be getting my system started by next year hopefully...im in santa fe now.. hows your system coming along? (MORE PICS??)

Havent been on in a while. I actually took my Aquaponics down, I lost the light as spring came on and the sun got too high and didnt feel like the expense and effort of growlight was worth it at that small a scale. Thinking I need a greenhouse of some kind to do this right or perhaps a basement where I have space enough to justify grow lights. Also my fish started dieing after I added some rainwater/snowmelt from roof. I htink I changed the pH too fast doing it or maybe something toxic was coming off my roof anyway my aquaponics adventure is on hiatus for now....
Jared