Backyard Aquaculture (fish farming)

[southeast-isher]

Way to go Clare, there's some DVDs out there by some Australian chap, Murray Hallam, which might help you... i think they are from the Australian Permaculture association or similar. I'm sure there's plenty of good other ones out there too which could be good inspiration information.

[chuck_n_grace]

Hi,
I found surfing youtube aquaculture and aquaponics to be very inspirational. It allowed me to ask lots of additional questions.

Regards,
Chuck

[clare.donovan]

I'll try looking further on youtube for further ideas.

Chuck - how are your plants doing? In your videos they seem to be starting out - are they big enough yet to produce anything?

Clare.

[chuck_n_grace]

how are your plants doing?

This was a lesson learned. They stopped growing. The bed is in the garage so a couple of plant fluorescents and some outside light were insufficent as light sources. Our new rig will have 4 pairs of plant lamps and is placed next to the window with a southern exposure.

However, I believe the growbed should be located in some sort of greenhouse or a very sunny room. We're discussing that very option.

Regards,
Chuck

[Mabu]

This is a great thread, but it makes me really need to pee.

[mamos]

I am really interested in Aquaponics as well

We are going to build a barrel ponics system over the next few months

Full instructions can be found here http://www.aces.edu/dept/fisheries/educ ... ponics.pdf

This is going to be a test bed so we can try out the system and if it works for us we will expand

[Oilystairs]

Hi, we have a largish pond here (about (20m x 10m) and i just put in 50 x 150g rainbow trout in it to grow over the cooler winter months. I heard i might need to fish them all out in the spring before the water temperature climbs avove 20 degrees otherwise the trout may not survive with relatively ow oxygen levels.

Does anyone know of plants that "fix" oxygen in the water or techniques that don't involve expensive pumps? I have a small mill leat above the pond and i could syphon water into the pond - would this oxygenate the pond? I will do it anyway next ummer in an attempt to keep the temperature down through the summer.

Finally does anyone grow their own protein for fish? Can you use plain soya meal or pellets or will only the fish pellets work?

Thanks

[chuck_n_grace]

I have a live stream of our test 'goldfish' tank. It's been a good year, lots of learning. Second tank is now cycling in anticipation to raise Tilapia beginning Feb 2012.

http://myfish.camstreams.com/

I might even have chat enabled.

Regards,
Chuck

[chuck_n_grace]

Oilystairs,
Regarding oxygen, most people put in a pump with a fountain spray pattern. This sort of aeration works very well and serves as a standard. Regarding the small mill leat above the pond. It seems to me you could allow it to fill some sort of container above pond. The container could then fill up and then "overflow". If this overflow was to act like a waterfall then it could do a good job of adding oxygen to the pond. Does the pond have an overflow?

Regarding fish protein, the only thing we are now doing is this. What used to be several rain barrels of mosquito larva for our garden has now become a protein source for our fish. Granted, the quantity is small but so are the fish.

I envy you with the small pond. Sound interesting.

Regards,
Chuck

[chuck_n_grace]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mQYKdrJ ... plpp_video

Hi,
This link highlights the filter systems we are now using.

Regards,
Chuck

[Oilystairs]

Hi Chuck,
Thanks for the info - i will syphon directly from the mill leat (like a small canal) and prop the lower end of the tube up on a stake so it drops into the lake instead of emptying. I suppose any disturbance in the flow will add oxygen to the water? There is an overflow in the lake that flows to the other side of the mill so no worries about it overflowing. If it gets very hot, i might add a solar water pump with a fan jet.

In terms of protein, i'll see how they get on with the insect life and perhaps feed them a little in the winter. I don't feel like encouraging any more mosquitos to our garden.

I you are interested, our blog has pictures of the lake www.moulindefaget.blogspot.com

Thanks

[chuck_n_grace]

Oilystairs,
Just viewed your blog and pics. Looks like a lot of opportunity to do a lot of cool things. I like the radiator for heating. Our goal is to move to a few acres outside of town one day...but first I wanted to prove that we could be good stewards with this 1/4 acre. This small plot is a good dose of reality...amazing how much time is required to maintain and do things.

Regarding your water drop, is it possible to drop it kinda like a waterfall, where the water dropping hits obstacles which splatters it into finer particles? Understand this is a better way to increase the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water.

Hope to see some pics of what you've got going.

By the way, the electrical engineer doing something wrong was very funny. I've done things before similar to this that required 'rework'. Hope he has gotten over it. =)

Regards,
Chuck

[Oilystairs]

Hi Chuck,

Yes i think i can get the hose to drop about 60cms and i like the idea of it splashing onto some stones to break up the flow into droplets. I think this will keep my trout alive and growing throughout the very productive summer. The pond is literally alive with insects for many of the spring, summer and autumn months.

The electrical brother in law engineer was not too impressed i posted that but it was too funny not too!

Good luck with your project. I'll post some pictures as and when the tube is installed.

Al

[Lost-in-the-Day]

Gah! Why didn't I stumble across this thread sooner?

Apologies if this has already been said and I missed it but if you are adding fish to a pond before it is fully cycled then regular water changes, ie: 5% every week, will help to stop ammonia, nitrite and nitrate building to dangerous levels. I agree completely about having a small fountain or other water feature, they are a brilliant way to keep the pond from going stagnant.

[chuck_n_grace]

http://myfish.camstreams.com/

Here's our Tilapia cam. We placed 25 fingerlings into the tank last night. Obtained them from a farmer about an hour away from here. They are mixed gender so we are hoping to breed them.

Of course, it's most likely that we will product thousands of fry (teeny, tiny fish). I asked the farmer how he managed them. He explained that his chickens love all those Tilapia fry.

Now I need chickens.

Regards,
Chuck