BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[hellbender]

What is the height?

 

[cyborg]

Top center is about 8' 6". The greenhouse is 26' x 12' and about $400 on Amazon. The growbeds are 8' x 4'.

LOL! when the walkway gets impassable, go in with some hedge trimmers and clear it out. The chickens will love you!

 

[islafarm]

Looks fabulous, what about the fish? What type, and how much do you harvest per season? And overwintering?

 

[cyborg]

I have tilapia in one tank, koi carp in the other, and plecostomus catfish in both, and also in the sump tank. The koi grow pretty fast (actually, so do the tilapia). I get about 30 pounds of fillets per year, per tank. Overwintering is not a problem here.
I am actually thinking about bluegill, perch, and bass, but they would need more live food, and goldfish canget expensive in quantity!

 

[islafarm]

Can you do black soldier fly where you are? Granted, not as big as goldfish, but a good protein source, and a simple system. Are the plecos for cleaning? And the breeding just happens, or do you have tanks for that too? Great set up! Thanks for sharing

 

[cyborg]

I could do BSF, not sure I could produce enough to feed the fish. Yes the plecos are just for cleaning, and breeding just happens. Tilapia are mouth brooders, and will eat their fry if they are disturbed, so I usually just buy fingerlings every year.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

BUILDING YOUR OWN AQUAPONICS SYSTEM - A PHOTO ESSAY

An aquaponics system consists of fish tanks, with a water overflow system that drains water into gravel filled grow beds. The water is nutrient rich from all the fish poop, and the plant roots filter out all the nitrates. The plants grow exceptionally fast and large. The water, now cleaned, drains from the grow beds into a sump tank, and is then pumped back into the fish tanks, making them overflow into the grow beds again. Here is a bunch of pics of the construction of my system. The fish tanks are 330 gallon food grade IBC's with the tops cut off. The grow beds are made of 3/4 plywood and 2x12's, painted with waterproof paint, then lined with a pond liner, and filled with gravel. The later pics show the plants growing like crazy.

(pics)


Gotta try it guys! You wouldn't believe how many tomatoes I got this year!

I'm so glad you posted this - I'm actually planning to do this, though I might wait a year or so (I have chicken/duck/rabbit related plans for this Fall and Spring, and don't want to get into many projects at once). Are you using the Rubbermaid stock tank as a sump tank, then?

- Ant Farm

 

[cyborg]

I'm so glad you posted this - I'm actually planning to do this, though I might wait a year or so (I have chicken/duck/rabbit related plans for this Fall and Spring, and don't want to get into many projects at once). Are you using the Rubbermaid stock tank as a sump tank, then?

- Ant Farm

Yes. There are 2 submersible pumps in the sump tank, one feeding each fish tank. Not shown in the pics is another IBC outside the greenhouse, that I keep full of water for refilling the sump tank as evaporation takes it's toll. Keeping the water in the outside tank for at least 24 hours allows the chlorine to evaporate out of it.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Yes. There are 2 submersible pumps in the sump tank, one feeding each fish tank. Not shown in the pics is another IBC outside the greenhouse, that I keep full of water for refilling the sump tank as evaporation takes it's toll. Keeping the water in the outside tank for at least 24 hours allows the chlorine to evaporate out of it.

Yes, that was going to be part of my plan as well... Do you worry about overconcentration of solutes as evaporation occurs? (We have very hard water here, so I think of stuff like that).

Thanks so much for sharing this!!!! You are encouraging me to go ahead and do this NOW!

- Ant Farm

Edit to add: Actually, I'd love to try the "duckponics" idea, with muscovies. Takes some serious attention to filtration of solids though.

 

[cyborg]

Yes, that was going to be part of my plan as well... Do you worry about overconcentration of solutes as evaporation occurs? (We have very hard water here, so I think of stuff like that).

Thanks so much for sharing this!!!! You are encouraging me to go ahead and do this NOW!

- Ant Farm

Edit to add: Actually, I'd love to try the "duckponics" idea, with muscovies. Takes some serious attention to filtration of solids though.

Actually, that is the biggest problem with this system. Not so much the solutes, as the hardness of the water. I have very alkaline water here. My original plan was to use reverse osmosis water, but the system uses so much water that it is impractical. Closing the greenhouse to limit evaporation would probably help, but would turn it into a sauna. You may notice in some of the pics that I actually had to put shadecloth on top of the greenhouse to limit the sunlight some, it was actually burning the plants. (In May!). Now, I carefully add acetic acid (vinegar) to lower the pH of the water, and this helps keep the calcium and lime in suspension.