Mass of edible periphyton - 09/17/15 06:51 AM
2 yrs away from pushing dirt for 2 acre coldwater pond in foothills of Rocky Mountains. Wondering if any of you have tried anything like this.....
Essentially masses of dense (but not so dense that air/water could not flow through) organic material, such as hay, that functions as a substrate for a large amount of periphyton and after time the substrate itself could be consumed. The system would have to 1) produce a surface area of an order of magnitude as to approach that of synthetic floating islands 2) be populated by herbivorous organisms, such as crawfish and/or tilapia 3) be suspended off the bottom/away from any anoxic areas and 4) ideally be coupled with aeration (which may make #3 less relevant.)
The goals of this would be 1) to filter the water column of nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended clay 2) to "harvest" phytoplankton/incorporate into the periphyton community 3) to add to the primary productivity of the pond. These goals would vary significantly in relative importance depending on specific water body.
I would imagine that a Southerner in a state with permissive laws about what can be stocked may be able to do well with a crawfish, tilapia, freshwater shrimp polyculture. In addition, it would be interesting to see what the omega 6/3 ratio of such tilapia without a soybean based diet would be.
May try to raise some warmwater species in a cordoned off (solar heated/doubling as swimming area?) part of our pond 5200 feet up in Idaho, but for the most part, I'm hoping for a clearwater, productive pond with thick crawfish, insects, and therefore fat trout.
Essentially masses of dense (but not so dense that air/water could not flow through) organic material, such as hay, that functions as a substrate for a large amount of periphyton and after time the substrate itself could be consumed. The system would have to 1) produce a surface area of an order of magnitude as to approach that of synthetic floating islands 2) be populated by herbivorous organisms, such as crawfish and/or tilapia 3) be suspended off the bottom/away from any anoxic areas and 4) ideally be coupled with aeration (which may make #3 less relevant.)
The goals of this would be 1) to filter the water column of nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended clay 2) to "harvest" phytoplankton/incorporate into the periphyton community 3) to add to the primary productivity of the pond. These goals would vary significantly in relative importance depending on specific water body.
I would imagine that a Southerner in a state with permissive laws about what can be stocked may be able to do well with a crawfish, tilapia, freshwater shrimp polyculture. In addition, it would be interesting to see what the omega 6/3 ratio of such tilapia without a soybean based diet would be.
May try to raise some warmwater species in a cordoned off (solar heated/doubling as swimming area?) part of our pond 5200 feet up in Idaho, but for the most part, I'm hoping for a clearwater, productive pond with thick crawfish, insects, and therefore fat trout.