Bcotton,
I hope you don't mind but I posed this same question to Keith in his thread to get as much information and viewpoints as possible.
Finally assembling an aquaponics system outside next to a raised garden. I've built four recirculating systems now with good success so I've got the fish part down pat. I will also be using a moving bed bioreator I kept in standby mode by adding ammonia after selling the fish that went with the system.
What method do you prefer to determine plant surface area output vs. fish pounds or amount of fish feed fed daily in raft culture? UVI says about 7.1 ratio of surface area of plants to fish tank surface area. Another text I have is more specific and says 60 grams of feed per day per square meter of the raft for nonfruiting plants to 100 grams per day of fish feed fed for one square meter of the raft for fruiting plants. Seems to be quite a difference.
My raft is about 3 square meters. (4'X 8') and 1' deep with a divider in the middle. Flow goes to the end on one side of the divider and cuts over and comes back where it dumps back into the fish tank via gravity. Preceding that is an upflow clarifer tank and an outside standpipe that removes suspended and settleable solids respectfully. Before flow drops into the raft it's treated with the moving bed bioreactor (mbbr).
Circular fish tank is 5.16 feet in diameter and has surface are of 20.90 ft2. Water volume is 286.1 gallons.
Just now assembling outside. Probably going with 3 to 5 inch tilapia only because these fish -- for a change -- will be for the table.
Thoughts? I'm new to aquaponics but I'm excited! Probably going with lettuce and tomatoes.
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 06/09/13 04:07 AM.
