Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Check on that closely. In FL it is illegal to keep wild caught "game fish" in an aquarium. Maybe not all, but I wouldn't take the chance.

time to sneak into one of the local hatcheries with a net?

I think most of the rules are for pond and lake stocking, but yeah, I'll keep researching this. It'll be a few months before I'm ready for fishies

Just be sure. Game wardens are not known for their sense of humor.

Generally they have a great sense of humor, just not with poachers. The closest hatchery is completely enclosed, it'd need to be via an inside man, hopefully with permission. I wouldn't really go netting in a hatchery, besides there are plenty of places to catch fish. Indeed the fish and game posts where, when and how many trout they stock. The little ones are pretty easy to catch


these are the fish the nearby hatchery breeds

I gotta learn which breed doesn't jump as much.
the stocking report, t may be early in the season for stocking. http://www.wildlife.state.nm.us/download/fishing/stocking/Stocking-Report-03_20_15.pdf Yep, looks like mostly other regions of NM.
Gotta love those Tiger Muskies got a goldfish infestation? Not for long after the Muskie is introduced

That would be a cool AP fish!

I have to go Muskie fishing one day. Caught lots of fish. Rainbows, Dolly Varden, Brook, Cutthroat, all salmon, including a 40plus pound silver(King) , Char, walleye, plenty of largemouth bass, a few smallies, and pike, but no Muskies. That's very much like catching a barracuda here. For freshwater, that looks like the ultimate..or close.
Snook and tarpon are my favorite in this area. Snook have the added advantage of tasting really good. Tarpon are just plain fun. Kings(mackeral) are also a blast. I'm going to have to go fishing now. This damn hobby is keeping me from my other favorite past time...fishing. This is the best time of year here. Everything is biting once the bait comes in.

Oh man that does sound like tons of fun

BMN-Finishing-pond-top-with-help-pond-window
Good Morning

We had a fantastic weekend. Starting with a wonderful Saturday morning with my daughter Brittany. Later, Jona Sara and grand daughter Rachel arrived and stayed through Sunday. Sunday Jason and Matty brought us a another giant flagstone from Jason’s next door neighbor, whom we did the trailer rebuild a couple weekends ago.

Finishing-the-pond-top-with-help-Jona-Sara next to new large flagstone for plant shelf – fish hide

Finishing the-pond-top-with-help


Sorry we didn’t take any pictures of Rachel. We did let her in and on the pond top the first day, but it was too dangerous. Unfortunate for kids, it was a construction zone situation. We did play outside for a while, and got to visit some.

Finishing-the-pond-top-with-help-Matty-Jason

Finishing-the-pond-top-with-help-Matty-Sena
Matty and Jason took charge of building the lily pads planting-shelf and fish’s hide-hole support forms. Meanwhile, Jona and I figured out which circuit in the house could handle additional appliances such as the sump pump and exhaust fan.

Thermostatically-controlled-exhaust-fan-installed

Finishing-pond-top-retrofit-top-stairstep. Drilled in rebarr to tie it to wall

Finishing-pond-top-Fish-hidiehole-plant-shelf
Nell researched growing lilies and found that they grow from a shallow planter set 14 inches below the surface of the water. Jason built this wooden form which is about two foot across and two feet deep. It should make a nice place for fish to hide as well as a large surface for the planters to sit and possibly a safer habitat for smaller fish to hide from the big fish.

Finishing-the-pond-top-French-doors-entrance-flagstone-from-north

Finishing-the-pond-top-French-doors-entrance-flagstone-from-south
After making cement for hours, Matty, Jason and I put our artistic hats on and set several large flagstones in the between the house and the boardwalk. Holy moley, it is so close now, not only can we feel it, but it really looks like it too.

I still have a couple small walls to form up around the sump tank, but yeah, it is ready for some smoothing with El Rey Fastwall stucco. The cement it needs to cure for a few weeks, then we can start painting on Herco ruberized pond coat

Right now I need to get ready for a new work week, although my body is saying rather loudly, “take a vacation!” Soon body, just hang in there a little bit longer. In no time we’ll be into the scientific stage of aquaponics, all probes and white jacket like.

Honestly. I can’t wait to install lights in the water. I can see the pond with lilies on top just glowing from within.

Brian Tuckered Rodgers

Looking good Boss...getting close to h2O. You need some dinosaurs. Hers's one we put in a recent job that we did. It's breath is a fogging nozzle, and it eyes are fiber optic that turn colors with the pool/spa which we also redid. They have since added a T-Rex and velociraptor. More dollars then sense.lol

Fish in no time!

Clay beads came in yesterday, now hunting for a couple 30 gallon HDPE barrels hopefully with resealable lids
but these will work too


we still need a couple more gallons of Hetch Herco koi pond coating. We have tww gallons of black, but I'm hopping to add swirls of tan and white to brighten it up down ther in this six foot deep pond fish tank

I can't imagine a more expensive way to go on building a fish tank / pond than cement covered in Herco, I hope it will be worth it, and damn sure hope it adheres for a long long time

Especially since your FT is so far underground it would be near impossible to find a small leak towards the bottom, as you would never see the escaping water.

Doing some calculations for our grow bed rack After reading Mr. Damage's post of sizing media GBs to trout stocking level "...Long story short, the deeper GB allows 5x more fish to be grown in the same system footprint… and provide 5x more nutrients to the same amount of plants...

The wood in this design is there to make it easy yo tie the plastic liner to something. Also this design employs the corrugated tin for the sides and bottom structure, as I saw Team41 do, Not certain about the drains yet, still need to look closely about how the siphons are built.
We decided to skip the DWC bed and go with all media beds at first, as per this discussion http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22175&hilit=depth
I realize there are more issues to consider, but at this point I'm taking baby steps

I'm sure I've said this before, but just in case I haven't, awesome thread and love following it!

Great work


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk