A little help please

[Dick Wright]

Hello, my name is Dick and I am newly impressed/infatuated/enthused about aquaponics.  I have been reading everything I can find regarding this wonderful system, but as a totally new member of the community I have some questions.  Just reading all the forums on this site has been a tremendous resource, so thanks in advance for any help you are willing to provide

 

I live in far northern California, Shasta County to be exact, and if you know anything about this area it"s that it can be really HOT in the summer as well as moderately cold in the winter.  My intention is to start with a family sized system utilizing outdoor beds for the standard growing season, then add a small greenhouse for (hopefully) limited year-round production.  Question: should I just bite the bullet and build the greenhouse or wait until I have a little experience with the system?

 

Also, I've seen a couple posts at other sites regarding the legality of Tillapia in California.  Can someone give me a definitive answer to this question?

 

My intention is to use the float system for my beds.  I'd love to hear pro's and con's regarding float vs. growing medium.

 

I think that's enough to ask for now, thanks for your input...I will have many more questions I'm sure.

 

Dick

[TCLynx]

Well I would say get a little system running like perhaps a friendlies style micro raft system so you can start learning about cycling and testing and stuff like that.  Or perhaps a small media bed system since they tend to be very low maintenance once balanced properly.

 

Then you need to work out your space for the greenhouse.  In a hot summer climate, I would make one that you can roll up the sides as much as possible to keep it from getting too hot in summer.  (I'm in Florida and have given up greenhouse here all together, I'd rather be able to grow cool weather crops in the winter.)

 

It will likely be easier to build the greenhouse before you have a bunch of beds and tanks in your way.  Once you figure out the greenhouse size etc, you can work on designing a system to fit in it and perhaps extend outside it for the warm seasons. 

 

I can't answer on the tilapia since I'm not in CA but I believe it varies depending on where you are in California.  Personally, I'm not much into the tilapia, even in my sub-tropical climate and even in a greenhouse for the winter, the water got too cold for blue tilapia here two winters in a row and I had to resort to running water from the hot water heater into the system just to keep them alive.  If you actually want to keep tilapia eating through a Northern California winter, you would have to resort to heating the greenhouse and/or water to some extent.

 

I grow catfish and blue gill.  The channel catfish grow fast in my warm climate and they will survive and even keep eating most of the winter until the water gets down to death temperatures for tilapia.  Channel Catfish need a bigger tank than tilapia or blue gill though so I'm now keeping bluegill in the smaller tanks.  I also don't need to worry about the catfish breeding out of control the way tilapia will.  I haven't had bluegill long enough to know if they will breed in a 100-300 gallon tank or not.

[Dick Wright]

Thanks for the reply, I'm not married to Tillapia even though I enjoy eating them!  Like you say, the climate here would require fairly serious heating in the winter and swamp coolers at a minimum in the summer.  It would probably be smarter to start with Koi or even goldfish.  I need to check with fish&game to see if bass are allowable for home growing.  I live very close to Lake Shasta and bass are very prolific there.

Another thought is to build a small greenhouse to get a head start on the normal growing season and perhaps to put only one bed in for limited winter production. 

[steve]

Hi Dick, One fish I don't hear much about raising are striped bass. Very prolific, cold tolerant, and excellent eating. I think better than Walleye's. But like other fish much better if you cut the red meat off when filleting.

[David Waite]

Dick tilapia are legal in California. You will have to get a permit from Dept of fish and game though. Unless you run under the radar. You will be restricted to 3 seasons with tilapia though. Might consider bluegill or koi for year round. I would definitely plan on a greenhouse long term and TC is right on with the roll up sides. Redding can be hot and muggy. Would definitely start with gravel beds as they are more forgiving. You could build the system first and erect the greenhouse later over the top but you will have some hassle factor. Go for it. I have family in Redding might see ya someday.  Once the greenhouse is up you could have tilapia year round.Take er slow.

[Dick Wright]

Thanks for the info David.  You're right about Redding getting hot but it is rarely muggy.  We have extremely dry but intense heat, 10-20 days in a row over 100 are not uncommon.  I'm thinking that koi would be good to start with, although perhaps a little more expensive.  I also think that I will need to cool the water during summer even with insulated beds.

[TCLynx]

We have been experiencing high temperatures over 100 degrees for at least as much as 10-20 days in a row here this summer and it is muggy here so we don't get much in the way of evaporative cooling or as much cooling overnight as you can in a dry climate.  Provided you can keep the greenhouse from cooking everything, as long as the fish tank is over 300 gallons I think you will be able to keep even a flood and drain media based system cool enough for warm water fish (catfish, bluegill, koi, carp/goldfish)  If you get koi small and don't go for the fancy breeding ones you don't have to spend too much.  I have two systems out in pretty full sun (I do shade the fish tanks though) that are only 300 gallon systems and they have not killed my bluegill or my catfish this summer and the water I think has mostly stayed under 95 F.

 

I do have a kiddie pool of pond plants out in full sun with no shade over the pool and no grow beds.  That water has been HOT enough to kill fish but that pool is for pond plants not aquaponics.

 

If you are going to try to grow trout, you would need cooling for the summer months but then again you can grow out trout in less than a year so you could just stock in fall and harvest when the water starts getting too warm in early summer.

[Dick Wright]

That gives me some encouragement, our nights this summer have been getting down to the 68-72 range, but only in the last couple hours before sunrise.  In a typical summer it only gets down to 75-80.  Do you have any pictures on the site of your system?

[TCLynx]

Here is a link to my 300 gallon system photo album though it's old pictures from before the addition of three more beds to it.

Here are some pictures of the new cover over the in ground fish tank

 

I don't seem to have many pictures here of the tower system so here is a link to the system thread over on BYAP

 

[David Waite]

Hey Rob keep in mind I am in Nev. When I come from 7 percent humidity to 70 it is muggy to me. hehe. Redding is a great climate for growing things. My uncle's garden is incredible.

David Waite said:

Dick tilapia are legal in California. You will have to get a permit from Dept of fish and game though. Unless you run under the radar. You will be restricted to 3 seasons with tilapia though. Might consider bluegill or koi for year round. I would definitely plan on a greenhouse long term and TC is right on with the roll up sides. Redding can be hot and muggy. Would definitely start with gravel beds as they are more forgiving. You could build the system first and erect the greenhouse later over the top but you will have some hassle factor. Go for it. I have family in Redding might see ya someday.  Once the greenhouse is up you could have tilapia year round.Take er slow.

[TCLynx]

Heck, most desert dwellers I know think it's muggy at like 30% humidity when that is like bone dry for here.

[David Waite]

To true TC. I start sweating getting on the plane to Florida hehe.

[TCLynx]

Sometimes it isn't sweat on your skin in FL, sometimes body temperature is also the dew point.