Thinking about aquaponics

[BigM]

So I'm thinking about aquaponics. What I'm thinking I'd like to do is to build a small "pond" (say 4'x3'x5') and stock it with tilapia. I'm wondering though, if I can just pump it to my regular garden? Do you think it would drain the pond to quickly? By that, I mean by topping off the water level with fresh water that the bacteria won't get replaced quickly enough for the fish to survive. I'm not sure that the space I have will be enough to support grow beds. (They would be to heavy where I intend to plant the garden.)

[Valerie]

Two things:

1) Check the internet, because last time I looked it was illegal to raise tilapia in Florida. Apparently, if they escape into local waterways they can become invasive and choke out native fish or something like that. I think you could do bluegill or cats, though, or even bass.

2) You wouldn't want it pumping all the time, or even very often. I would think of it kind of like doing a water change in an aquarium, where you replace about 1/4 of the water every so often. Just instead of wasting the water, put it on the garden. In an aquaponic system, there's a constant flood/drain thing going on, and the grow beds are the biofilter for the fish water. Without bringing the clean water back in from the garden, you'd still need some kind of filtration system. If you were to stock at the fish density they do in aquaponics, but without the biofilter of the growbeds, you'd have dead fish in just a matter of days. I saw this awesome pond filter online once, where you use a plastic box with a lid, lava rocks (the kind like for gas grills), a pond pump filter gizmo (like what comes with some pond kits), green scrubby pads, and fiberfill. I made one and it worked great. The bacteria grew in it and kept the water nice and sparkly. We only had a few fish, though.

Check out theaquaponicsource.com/ for tons more info. They have good blog posts and videos and stuff, and a good forum. Someone there might be able to give you more specific information to help you do this.

[Valerie]

Oh here's what I found about tilapia in Florida. Apparently, you can have a quickie inspection and get a permit. Yay! Well, really Yay would be no permit or any of that foolishness, but at least it's not a solid NO!

www.tilapiafarmingathome.com/Pages/LegalIssues.aspx

[BigM]

I was looking at the second link you gave yesterday and really liked it. I'll be checking out the other link here in a bit. Thanks!!

I think I'm going to use our fish tank to learn the basics. (I need to get my grubby little hands on one of those ready made kits to check the layout of it.) I want the roots to reach the water for the fish to nibble on. I'm thinking that I won't really need a filter that way, just something to move the water around?? Have any of you seen what I'm talking about??

[Granny Smith]

How about something like this, but on a smaller scale, of course~



How-to here~

www.mouseplanet.com/dtp/gardens/floating.htm

[Valerie]

Yeah, that's kind of like when people grow the lily in the vase with the betta fish. I'm not sure how that would work on the scale of a garden, but maybe you can figure out a way.

So are you thinking having a pond, with plants in it for filtration, fish in it to make nitrates, and then moving water from the pond to the garden for fertilizer? I think that would work. You'd need to protect your plants somehow to keep the fish from eating them, but they make cool plastic pots just for that, with slits in them. Or you can get those barley straw planter from pond supply places. You plant the plants in them and float them in the pond for pretty. The feed from the water in the pond, and the barley straw helps clarify your water. Pretty nifty. That's probably what Disney uses for those pretty flower islands.

www.amazon.com/Summit-1139-Clear-Water-Planter-1500-Gallons/dp/B000HHLJLA

[BigM]

Actually, I wasn't, at least not on that scale, but I like it! Very cool!! I'm going to try the roots in the water thing with kitchen herbs on a fish tank. The pond's probably a pipe dream.

[joanfromzonesix]

Mar 5, 2014 10:20:24 GMT -5 Granny Smith said:

How about something like this, but on a smaller scale, of course~



no need to worry about tilapia permits with this one - you could stock it with gators -

[BigM]