Fish... "chicken of the future"

[Jared77]

The biggest things your going to have to deal with is making sure you have the correct algae for the fish to eat if thats your goal. Algae is a very opportunistic type of plant but if the light spectrum is not correct or the nutrients are not correct you won't get an edible algae for your fish to eat and survive on.

If it was me who was looking to do a set up like this, Id use catfish. They are very tolerant of water conditions, have very good appetites, easy to breed, and they are a marketable fish. Catfish are a low cost high yield kind of fish that would be a good introduction species if I was going to do a set up like this. Yes you have to suppliment their diet (they don't eat algae) but the other benefits would outweigh the feed cost.

This is one of those ideas that on paper I think is great but reality on a large enough scale to make it worth while? I don't know. But I do know that the plants do so much better with the nitrogen rich water. Ive got around 200 gallons of fish tanks and anytime I do a water change the old water goes on my plants, garden and other flowers. It makes a huge difference.

 

[vatterpa]

The Little Homestead in the City raises tilapia in the backyard.
http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/2010/09/16/backyard-fish-farming/

 

[Cindiloohoo]

I wonder if an above ground pool would work to raise fish in? I haven't studied it much, but some of you who have might know. I have thought about raising catfish this way. Any ideas?

ETA:Okay MAYBE that was a stupid question considering it looks like these folks have done that

Now I'm just thinking startup costs in the Spring...we eat a lot of catfish around here

 

[Buster52]

Jeff that is so cool you visited Growing Power. Will Allen is another of my agrarian heroes. A good friend who works with me just moved down here from Milwaukee and said she worked with him on a regular basis when she was involved with the local food movement there. She said he is a great guy and the place is just amazing. Thanks for sharing the pics. I want to get up there someday, too.

I have a large pond and we are considering farming some catfish but have yet to work out the logistics. Right now we have too many bass and turtles, so we would need to raise them in cages. We are currently in phase two of our farm project. Just started goats. Once we get that down, we will move on to fish, more than likely.

That isn't the same thing as aquaponics, though.

 

[DIYSeattle]

I have a recirculating hydroponics/aquaponics setup in my basement. I am running an 8 foot shop light with 6500k and 4500K lights from Home Depot. Ive ran that kind of light for years for plants and I use the lights for cuttings initially. The hydro stuff is about 2 feet below it off to the side slightly. I just took a setup I had and moved it uunder the lights. The sump pumps up and is divided into 5 gallon buckets with a bulkhead going out into a drain that goes into the true hydroponic part. The 5 gallon buckets have fish and plants in them. I have grown mini bellpeppers this summer mostly. They are about the half the size of a regular bell pepper or smaller. They are sweet, but they flowered and fruited with no problems.

I use duckweed (and duckweed will feed tilapia and also supplement chickens) in the buckets to take out excess nutrients from the sump, I use it to put in my raising tanks for wild type livebearers that need the comfort of duckweed until they are big enough to venture out. In theory you could have chickens to poop to use for nitrogen, to feed the duckweed, to feed the tilapia and chickens, and the tilapiua scraps could feed the chickens too. Also plants of the vegetable kind will grow also. I grow lots of herbs and spices as well, as I like cilantro, oregano, cinnamon basil, and pineapple sage fresh. I use the hydroponic part to root cuttings that I get also. The veg greens go to the rabbits or chickens when they are done fruiting.

The water comes from my fishtanks also. I do water changes weekly or so. I have a 55 gal holding tank I age water from the tap in. I have another waste barrel. When I do water changes I empty the hydro sump into the waste and fill the sump up with the fishtank water and re fertillize the sump. The rest of the water change goes intot he waste barrel. I pump it out to the garden or yard with a sump pump that is automatic. Int he summer it is nice as it doesnt rain a lot here, but int eh winter time I dont need it so much but I still water the garden with nitrogen rich water instead of paying for fresh tap water.

All of this could be set up in one system to simplify it but I dont want to lose a tank full of 20 dollar fish so I seperate my aquarium tanks from the hydro (but food fish would be good to integrate). I think that it could be done inside if you had a basement you wanted to overtake. Perhaps cotournix quail instead of chickens? and tilapia and all the seasonings and veggies you could garnish them with.

I use the water anyway as Ive had fishtanks since I was a wee lad. I just decided to try to integrate and repurpose it for other things. I would guess that tilapia would be a better choice for cramming into a small tank but I dont think that catfish are very active anyway. Id rather clean a thousand tilapia than 100 catfish though. An old man told me once that if you get stuck with a catfish spike to rub its 'vent' on the place you got jabbed and it will make it quit hurting. If you raise catfish maybe you can tell me if it works for you. It may be the same adage as rubbing a cats butt on your lips to keep them from getting chapped. I dont know.

Enough rambling, it will work. How productive the aquaponics will be for you I cant say. If you can get 55 gallon barrels cheap or free go for the gusto, you can link them all together with self siphoning overflows made from pvc, or you can use bulkheads. They both could possibly clog, but the self siphoning overflows dont put holes in your barrels.

 

[RoosterGeek]

I think that is just fantastic! I have always wanted to see a successful setup like that. Thanks a bunch!!!