Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss BCotton's aquaponics (growing plants w/fish poo)

Cecil,

I consider a modest fish load to be roughly less than or equal to 1 lb of fish per 6 gallons of *media*. The problem is. When i am running so many different species and ages it's difficult to really know my fish load at any given time. Maybe i can develop some ways to track my fish and vegetables better once my main projects are complete.

With your mechanical filtration do you have to backwash and discharge water to clean the filters?

I hesitate to speak on raft type systems because I dont practice that technique. It's a very viable technique and is generally considered the best practice for commercial scale aquaponics. It's also what UVI did all of it's scientific research on so it's more mature than my media based grow beds as far as technology. I do know that many commercial scale aquaponics companies try to raise only the minimum amount of fish required to grow the plants. The general idea is to try to break even on the fish and profit on the produce sales. Obviously i have no idea how viable that is as a practice, but rafts dont supply a lot of surface area.

I would like to work with redclaws but i havent the space set aside or the supplier. My marble crays eat plants and are prolific eaters of roots so i would never use them in a raft system.

Far be-it for me to say someone cannot do something, but i dont see how someone could grow more tomatoes than salad given the same inputs. It's a zero sum game.

brian