I have decided on using bluegill in my AP setup, I've got a few questions.

[DALE MORRIS]

I have a 16X24  with 5 -275 gal IBC's painted black for passive solar heat.  I plan to put in an AP setup using bluegill.  First question is how many can I raise in 1 275 gal tank? #2 I have a large 4 acre spring fed pond well stocked with bass, bluegill & crappie, can I utilize my pond inwith my AP operation?  #3  How do you determine how many fish to grow in each tank, and how many growbeds a tank will support?  Do you continually add baby fish to have different stages of fish in the tank at the same time?#4 How big should the bluegill be at harvest? We like to fillet them so is 1 lb about right?

 

Thanks

[DALE MORRIS]

Yea you are probably right, we stack them with our raised beds but we use a l much lighter wt. growing medium than gravel.  I might stack the blocks, put rebar in the cells and pour them with concrete before i put in the pond liner.  I assume I should buy a liner big enough to line my blocks with one big piece with no seams, is that correct?  Then all I would have is a drain out of the growing bed(s) into the sump tank and then a line from the sump tank to pump back into the fish tank, is that right?

TCLynx said:

I'm not sure if concrete blocks stacked would be able to hold gravel back from pushing the blocks out.  It may work for raft beds where it is only water pushing out but gravel with flood and drain water and plant roots can put much more force outward so you might need to pound stakes down to help hold the blocks in from toppling outward.

 

The test kits, well you can get them from Sylvia by clicking on the shop tab at the top of the page.  Or you might search the internet for deals on them.  That pet place/that fish place sometimes has a good price on them when they have a sale.

[TCLynx]

Yes you can get wider liner.  The epdm starts at 5 or 5.5 wide and next step is usually ten feet wide.

I think the durascrim starts at 6' wide.

 

The flow, yes you can do an in ground sump (make sure the lip is high enough that you won't get a heavy rain flooding into the sump tank.) with the pump in the sump you can pump up to the fish tank (with a SLO drain stands for solids lifting overflow) and you can have the water flow from the fish tank to the grow beds which would drain to the sump tank.  This is often called a CHIFT PIST (constant height in fish tank, pump in sump tank) system or a CHOP (constant height one pump)

There are other options too, you might do a CHOP mark 2 where you would pump to both the fish tank and the grow beds from the same pump and both the fish tank and grow beds would drain back to the sump.  I would recommend CHOP 2 if you want to use an indexing valve.

[Ron Thompson]

Morningstar uses concrete fish tanks as do many other fish farms I've seen. They do not use liners but coat the tanks with a waterproofing, I assume that would be for economic reasons. There are many options but I pulled this one up - http://www.sanitred.com/SwimmingPool.htm It is a rubberized coating for relining swimming pools. Of course it means pouring a concrete base which may cancel any cost savings

 

Firestone liners (which are 45 mil EPDM) come in sizes which would meet your needs. They go up to 50'x100', below is the size I believe you would need based on 35x16x1.5:

http://www.pondliner.com/product/20_x_40_firestone_45_mil_epdm_pond...

[DALE MORRIS]

Thanks TC.  I am not sure how I want to handle the pumps, sump tank etc.  I want to do it the best way, that will be the easyist to maintain.  Do you have a large commercial system?  Could you send me a pic of your operation?

TCLynx said:

Yes you can get wider liner.  The epdm starts at 5 or 5.5 wide and next step is usually ten feet wide.

I think the durascrim starts at 6' wide.

 

The flow, yes you can do an in ground sump (make sure the lip is high enough that you won't get a heavy rain flooding into the sump tank.) with the pump in the sump you can pump up to the fish tank (with a SLO drain stands for solids lifting overflow) and you can have the water flow from the fish tank to the grow beds which would drain to the sump tank.  This is often called a CHIFT PIST (constant height in fish tank, pump in sump tank) system or a CHOP (constant height one pump)

There are other options too, you might do a CHOP mark 2 where you would pump to both the fish tank and the grow beds from the same pump and both the fish tank and grow beds would drain back to the sump.  I would recommend CHOP 2 if you want to use an indexing valve.

[TCLynx]

Nope, I don't have a large commercial system.

 

Here is a link to the thread on BYAP about my Big system which has been ever changing over the years.

And my back yard 300 gallon system

And the closest thing I have to a commercial system is really quite small at the moment but it is going to expand soon to provide towers for a market. Tower system

 

I have been toying with the idea of using chain link fence top rails as a top frame for a liner bed but I don't know that this would be sturdy enough for gravel but I plan to try it for a water catching trough under the towers when I expand the tower system here in the near future.  I have used top rails and cattle panels to make frames for some elevated gravel beds but they have not been in operation long enough for me to really endorse them and I've seen some issues with the one I lined with HDPE 1/16" hard liner.  I expect this could perhaps work well for raft beds but gravel beds are more challenging.

[DALE MORRIS]

TC I went to the link for your towers.  That is the first time I have seen them, How Cool! How are they made?  It looks like they hang from the topand you put some kind of growing medium sleve over them for the plants to attach to.  Is this a constant stream of water running through them?  What veggies work well in these towers.  They lookl like they would be very good in my greenhouse.

TCLynx said:

Nope, I don't have a large commercial system.

 

Here is a link to the thread on BYAP about my Big system which has been ever changing over the years.

And my back yard 300 gallon system

And the closest thing I have to a commercial system is really quite small at the moment but it is going to expand soon to provide towers for a market. Tower system

 

I have been toying with the idea of using chain link fence top rails as a top frame for a liner bed but I don't know that this would be sturdy enough for gravel but I plan to try it for a water catching trough under the towers when I expand the tower system here in the near future.  I have used top rails and cattle panels to make frames for some elevated gravel beds but they have not been in operation long enough for me to really endorse them and I've seen some issues with the one I lined with HDPE 1/16" hard liner.  I expect this could perhaps work well for raft beds but gravel beds are more challenging.