Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My System:
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=26833

I am planning a 4,000 gallon system. It was mentioned that I could grow upwards of 600 trout at a time in a setup as large as I am planning on building.

I wonder if anyone could elaborate on this math.

Thanks!!

That's about 1 fish per 25 litres. As long as you have a sufficiently large volume of grow bed media for filtration/mineralisation purposes, enough dissolved Oxygen, efficient ermoval of solids etc, it can work. You really do need to have good backup systems in place with that many fish.

However, if you dont have any experience in AP, I would recommed starting with far fewer fish.

I've got 400 trout in 9500l FT ATM, although I'll be transferring some to another system once the weather cools down.

Thanks.

You either need to make a decision on how many fish you want to suit your needs then design your system around this OR design a system and stock to that design.

You mention that you will only be growing 20 plants as per limited by lighting etc so as mentioned by Scotty I think it was, you would have to design it primarily as a RAS system, this changes the whole dynamic of the system and requires great attention and skill.

I personally don't like the idea of growing under lights, in all the years I have been involved with AP I haven't seen any great success in doing so but there are advances in this area since the boom of Urban style farming although I thing it has a lot further to go yet.

Id recommend making some decisions on what you want from this system. Both plant and fish.