Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Anybody interested in Aquaponics?

I found these two websites, which could augment this great website if you are interested in expanding your horizons even more:

http://www.aquaponicshq.com/forums/

http://backyardaquaponics.com/

Wow, I've never heard about that before. Great concept. Do you have any experience in this, Cecil?

Nope. But I'm interested in playing with it in the future. Life is too short. I won't have any shortage of hobbies when I retire!

Cecil, (I am searching right now) have you found anyone using an earthen pond for their system? It seems that they may be calling for a 2:1 ratio of plant bed volume to fish tank volume, but that would be a gigantic plant bed with our ponds. It seems to me that the ratio of nutrients in the water would be the same in a pond of 100 gallons and 1 fish, as it would in 1,000,000 gallons and 1,000 fish, so I do not see why it wouldn't work.

bbjr,

Only thing I can tell you is I read an article about a perch producer on the east coast that raised the fish in tanks but used the pond as a nutrient sink that not only reduced ammonia via dilution but also by biologial reduction. Seems compelling as it would be less risky than using a small biofilter.

Still really basic on my knowledge of aquaponics.

Aquaponics is a very interesting and viable subject. I cant remember what company it is, but they provide certain spices on a global market through Aquaponics, (I think they are in the Dakotas???). A bunch of companies on the west coast, south America, Caribbean, provide products produced by Aquaponics. Keep researching to learn and see how it may work with ponds. Not sure how well a pond might figure in. Aquaponics is quite exact, to make it work, and has been around for a long time.

All the folks I talked to said more money is made off the plants grown than the fish. Expecially the specialty plants and spices.

Absolutely Cecil!!! Aquaponics is all about the plants. Fish only feed them. Here we go on the fish powered perpetual motion machine. And believe me, It can happen Coho??? , that was the answer in aquanic.

Coho? It's just a matter of time when they will be part of fish kill in the Great Lakes. Sorry dude!

If that is the fish of your choice where are you going to get your broodstock, eggs etc.? I think they are tied up in fed and state hatcheries aren't they?

If you attended the PB convention then you know there was an excellent program on aquaponics by Doc Cornwell.

Hi Cecil.

My cold water ras program is designed for the needs of Coho. I was going to give it up, but a number of factors are coming in to play, especially the move further north. This would be a closed system, so VHS would not be a problem.

I already had 10,000 Coho and 5,000 Steelhead eggs for delivery last year but the VHS thing and that project we did in NC kinda messed things up.

MI state vet approved the import as long as they complied with the documents.

Coho eggs are available: http://www.aquaseed.com/p-coho.html

I don't think we could get the place in Fruitport approved as an aquaculture facility due to possible airborne contaminants from soluble oils.

Moving north will solve some of these problems.

Still have a lot of work to do.

Phil

Natural ponds have earth substrates which do a fine job of nitrite - nitrate conversion via nitrifying bacteria but nitrates are consumed by pond flora. To have a successful aquaponic pond it seems possible but one would have to overstock heavily to provide ample nitrates to supply growbeds with enough excess nutrients. It could be done but I'm not the expert to say just how much loading or grow bed area required to make it successful.

In a conventional aquaponic design all the variables are constant and fairly predictable. The Backyard Aquaponics link is probably the best source of AP knowledge available

Hi Charlie and others interested.

Aquaponics is just a big bio-filter with plants in it really. It's an easy learning curve for fishy folk, just the plumbing stuff which you'll know some of, and choosing what you want to eat to plant. Backyard aquaponics has a wealth of info about all sorts of AP related subjects.

The 1:2 ratio for water/growbeds in backyardaquaponics systems is merely a guideline for removing wastes under highly stocked conditions.

1000 litre aquaponic pond stocked with 30 plus kilograms fish might require 2000 litres of growbed.

But 20 000 litres pond with 30 kilos of fish will only require 2000 litres of growbed as well. Just circulate the pondwater through the growbed and nature will take care of the rest. At 300 mm (recommended) depth this is approximately 7 m2 garden area (dodgy math). This would supplement a family's household food well with the most delicious vegetables and herbs while simultaneously keeping the above mentioned ponds so clean they require no maintenance.

For ponds that already use pumps this is a great way to take advantage of the circulation of water to recycle the wastes. You could even feed the garden to soldier fly larvae and recycle it all back into the pond as high quality protein.

I've also has success in having a 'double' layer of beds, the first grows fruiting veggies and the water from this goes through a watercress bed. This needs only 10 cm medium and when it's warm it sure cleans the water up (and grows) fast.

Adding a 1/2 m2 watercress bed (nasturtium officianale) reduced a 600 litre pond system running at a constant 60 ppm nitrate to 5 ppm nitrate within a week. The pond has about 3/4 kg goldfish in it. I feed them fairly light, the pond runs clean now with approx 300 litres medium.

That's 2:1 pond:growbed ratio instead of a 1:2. When I had less fish I just had less beds. 3:1. 4:1! I first kept it clean with a 50 litre bed and a tomato plant. Of course the vine ended up 30 feet long a year later. 200 tomatoes before christmas.

A ROUGH guideline I use, 1 kilo of fish per 100 litres growbed. If you feed heavily for raising out fish fast you might want to raise that to 1 kilo fish per 150 litres.

Note: The garden needs reasonable light period for photosynthesis. The plants growth removes the wastes. The better the light, the better the growth, the better your filter.

I use small continuous flow pumps and auto siphoning beds. One moving part, minimal power consumption.

I've got overflow from my trout pond that bypasses our raised garden on it's way to the biggest pond on the property or runs straight into a ditch. I'd like to set it up where I can run it into the garden so we don't have to run the how well during dry periods.

It would be all gravity flow and I'm thinking a PVC pipe down the center of the boxes with a feed to each box.

Here's a good article describing the nitrogen cycle and temperature requirements for the bacteria needed in your growbeds.

Nitrogen Cycle

Bit of myth busting called for here.

Nature and bacteria does not stop working below specific pH nor below specific temperatures. It might slow down, even stall, it doesn't all "die".

I run cold water - 20 degrees, Aquaponics.

Please refer to a marine biologist for the truth to this matter the myth has been around forever.

I'll try better now I've had coffee...

Recently hooked up with a marine biologist and we were discussing Aquaponics in fresh water. When questioned about pH and temperature vs bacterial parameters he laughed at me, then said.

"The filter still works, it just slows down. If you have 100 litres medium to 1 kilo of fish you have ample filter to deal with pond waste in slow and peak production.

When nitrosomonas and nitrobacter pH range is low they can switch dna with other bacteria and become something else which will utilise ammonia and nitrite under pH 6.0."

I have 'proved' this many times in practical application of aquaponics in cold systems with marginal pH.

Back again....

I'm a big fan of aquaponic filtration in ponds, and so would like to offer a free service for the forum here for a limited time. (While I retain interest)

If people give me their pond volume
Fish stock: volume and type
Water temp range (winter through summer)
And current planting ie: water lilies cover ?? percentage of pond for approx ?? months.

I will do the math and propose a growbed volume required for keeping your pond beautifully clean.

That's a generous offer Kokopu, if my pond wasn't new I would give you the numbers.

My pleasure, you are how i got here. black soldier flies, can't wait till spring!

I saw so many colonies and I didn't realise they were BSF this summer...

I want to process cafe wastes with them.