Any other preppers out there?

[Daniel]

I don't consider myself a hard core prepper but I do try to plan for potential disaster situations as I can. I think having an AP system is a great match for any survival plan. Wrote a blog post about the reasons here: http://www.whatisaquaponics.co/4-reasons-preppers-need-an-aquaponic...

Any other aquapons consider their system part of a survival plan?

[ray]

I feel strongy the prepper. Has to have a month mind set.

 

theres 12 months in a year. And 120 months in 10 years.

 

One example is:

 

if it costs you 1000 dollars to live

 

and you have 30,000 in the bank./

 

thats 30 months/

 

12 divided by 30 is

 

2 years and 6 months/

 

thats how i do my fiances.

 

Thats also what i think about prepping./

 

i eat//// 60 lbs of food a month

 

60 x 12 x 5 = is 3000 lbs of food

 

in 5 years more or less.

 

 

[ray]

to Jim:

 

there is a new method here / in florida its called tower growing/// you get a 4 inch//// cylinder/// 5 feet long///

and you dump the medium in the tube/// then you punch holes in the tube:

 

in those hole you place the seed.

 

And it will grow dow//n ward ,, alowing liquid to travel better through the plant.

 

/////////////////

 

now what happens is you save tons of space.

 

it could allow you to possible grow 20 pounds of food in 2 sq feet.

 

i think you should try 2 or 4 towers there.

 

You can buy a tube at home depot.

 

punch some holes....

 

and give a shot tell us how it went.

[Jim Fisk]

The towers are on the list but I must say most of the veggies we grow reach 8 feet high as it is, in the AP system and many produce for a year and more. Now that is efficient.

[ray]

wow. nothing short of incredible. do you think its possible to eat only from what you grow with out aving to buy food. also can you comment on using garden and growth scraps To feed fish ,, Also what about fish guts to feed fish. anything to reduce using dollars.

[Daniel]

Hi Ray - I'd like to try adding some towers to my setup sometime. As far as reducing costs, you can use kitchen scraps and such to grow worms and then feed worms to tge fish. Search this forum for raising BSF larva also - which is another way to supplement your fish food. For me a 50lb bag of food costs less than $30 and is a very minimal cost for running the system. So I haven't tried to grow my own fish food.

[ray]

Thanks but im looking for like 3 to 7 dollars a month. ultimately nothing per month. The amount of fish i eat all month doesnt even reach 15 bucks. So it would have to be a fish that can live off organs and body parts of the fillet dish im eating, also off of worms , and off of scraps from meat, and larva , etc,. but the idea is no dollars.. lloll...Less? that 50 lb of food can last 6 months. And i can get 15 fish a month and store the rest now thats something else. but as is-  buying food - i dont know-

 

what i eat a month is prob 15 fish. tops then chicken

 

So it would have to be 150 fish a year. rasied.-

 

 

[Mark Hall]

Ray...Aquaponics requires an investment up front. Even if you scrounge a system to give you 150 fish per year, it will be a challenge to build and maintain. Be prepared for lots of work and initial purchases of equipment.

[ray]

yeah i understand but i gotta tell you im here to avoid dollars not for any other benefit. sorry to say. I mean im in pitched battle to stay employed where ever i go./ And the jobs dont pay much anymore like they once did. So while i like hobbies and stuff really dollar dependency is where it's at. And + im 43 so more and more people want less and less to do with me-

 

so if i can reduce my food costs- by 5000 dollars over 4 years- Then hey we gotta a deal/

 

but if you say its gonna cost 2000/ to 3000/ to maintain over 3 or 4 . which i think your eluding too.

 

then

 

i might need the ability to bring them to market./ to some degree. we will see.

 

i need more imput from you guys who are the vets and little by little i can build a cost yield number

 

i can live with/

[Robert J]

Ray,

You may want to consider a mix or a pure hydroponics approach.  If you have a green house, you can grow veg all year.  I spent about $500 on my hydroponics setup and have quit buying anything tomatoe related.  i've spent more than $3K on aquaponics, and am succeeding but its a slow process.  I've spent more than $600 on fish and the jury is still out.  not sure the minnows will yield sufficient product to eat.  best i can say, aquaponics is a gamble while hydroponics is a sure thing.

 

r/bob

[ray]

First I want let you guys know how happy I feel being able to talk to people I have something in common with. In society of dounces and people who hate progress and have stop being advanced. This site and you people are refreshing. Your not.hold outs your more like stand outs.

I hope to be learning as much as you allow.

Now getting back to the comment about cost benefit yeah your experiences are sobering....

I may scale down my project but I still reserve hope for a meat producing system.....

But no I don't have 3 k for 2 years to stand up a system sorry to say.

However I dohave enough for small garden.  Obviously raising these things has an expense. For a single person 

It may not be there.but youknow I.hold out hope that there is a meat producing cheap for me.

[Robert J]

For what its worth, my original plan was to start small.  A single IBC tank, using the top for the grow bed and the bottom for the fish.  Add a small amount of pvc, a small pump, and some kind of inexpensive media (shale is probably best middle of the road).  You can get there for less than $200--but a single grow bed can't handle the bio load for a lot of fish. 

[ray]

Yes rob and bob after talking here with you guys 

I was in the chat room and was reminded about micro systems so that could work for me since 15 fish a month is 

All I would and still I had someone say I need   a  900 gallon tank for 15 monthly harvested fish