Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello Everyone,

As a new member of the forum I want to say a little bit about myself.
I am a student at the university in Jonkoping [Sweden]. I am in the process of building my AP system, two 500L containers which I want to use for tilapia. For plants I will have few PVC pipes and 2 GB on top of fish containers. I am still exploring the forum and looking for best configuration for my situation. I look forward to make my system work smooth with the help of the forum 

Welcome

First of all welcome.

Second: Tilapia? In Sweeden? Why?

I want to use tilapia since I read this fish is easy to maintain and grow fast. The only disadvantage is higher temperature which I can manage. Of course my system will be indoor. Why did you ask? Do you have better suggestion?

Trout will perform well at a lower temperature.

I'm not sure about the legal situation in Sweeden but rainbow trout would be your best bet. I think they are highly restricted in Norway but I don't know about Sweeden.

I know a lot (like a LOT) of rainbow trout are grown in Denmark though. Brown trout will be fine although they are a bit harder to look after and don't grow as fast. Eurasian Perch would be an easier option. Grow at about the same speed as brown trout but are a lot tougher.

I know trout can handle lower temperature but I also know it needs nice clean water all the time. Since I am a beginner I thought tilapia will be the easiest. I checked and there are no law restrictions with harvesting tilapia. I know a place where they farm tilapia so this is fine. I guess I will see what will be easier to get baby tilapia or baby trout. I am going to draw my system and upload it in “members systems” I hope to get some comments before I build it.

If you follow the filtration requirements, eg, the right amount of media to fish. You won't have any trouble keeping the water clean.

Tilapia are a warm water fish, you'll be fighting against the climate with them, or need to invest in expensive heaters, and they are supposed to be more prone to diseases, and very sluggish when the water is below 20C. Trout will thrive in your conditions. Many people here wish they could grow trout year round, you'd be able to.

After reading all your comments I think trout might work better for me, so I am trying to find more information about it. At first I was planning to have 20-25 tilapia per container [Length 100 cm, Width 70 cm, Height 85 cm], is this fine? Alco, how many trout can I keep in such a container?

Can I ask what you´re studieng?

Depends on your filtration.

dEEcor I am at the business school.

Stuart by filtration you mean GB with expanding clay or gravel? I will have 4 GB with expanded clay 90L each [75 x 52 x 30 cm] with siphons.

Divide your gravel volume by 40.

So 9 fish.

Lots of threads discuss this so I'd do a search on stocking density.

So the fish density is dependent on gravel volume not the water volume?

I will look read more about fish density as you advised.