Lots of questions!

[Bill Flatter]

First off let me introduce myself. My name is Bill and I live in Eastern Idaho, I have had typical gardens most of my life and I wanted to try this aquaponics for some time but was never home enough to do it right. I am now home full time and ready to get a system up and running.

I have a 1100 gallon FT and I want to put two 40 X 4 X 12" raft beds and one 40 X 3 X 12" media bed into a 20 X 50 greenhouse. My fish tank is going to be based in a 30 X 50 shop that the GH is attached to and the lines ran outside into the GB's. 

 

So for the questions;

 

1.     I have seen this stuff at my local nursery that is a pond primer I guess is the best way to put it,           its called Microbelift PL and their website is here, http://www.microbeliftstore.com Is this just               snake oil or could it be used to cycle a system and get it up and running faster?

 

2.      I want to know if it is alright to do a continuous flow system with Aquaponics?

 

3.      I am figuring there is gonna be somewhere in the neighborhood of 4700 gallons of water in the          completed system and if I do a continuous flow how often do I need cycle the entire systems              water? Basically a question of how big of a pump do I need to this.

 

4.      I have a trout farm close by and was thinking about 400 - 500 Brown trout in the 4" - 6" range.          I am not sure of the survival rate for these fish in captivity so is that too many for a 1100 gallon          FT or not enough? I chose the Browns over rainbows because they can tolerate a little warmer          waters and are a little hardier of a fish. My end goal will be Tilapia but right now all I can afford          is the breeder set. 

 

 5.     I am going to be using lava rock as my medium as it is EVERYWHERE in eastern Idaho and is          cheap. Can I add red worms to this medium if I run a constant flow system?

 

 

Thanks for any answers or insight anyone wants to throw at me. I am hoping to be a full time member of this board and site.

 

The Wolf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

1) Some people say that bacteria in a bottle is snake oil and doesn't make a difference, I have the opinion that it creates a vector for bad bacteria that might infect your plants. Bio-security is the name of the game. Don't add anything to your system that you haven't vetted. The bacteria will naturally find their way in you your system in due time. However, bottled bacteria may speed you up by a few days.

2) You can do continuous flow with aeration in you plant beds

3) You want to cycle the volume of your fish tank 1x per hour

4) I spoke to Dr Wilson Lennard about both trout species. Brown Trout don't like tanks, Rainbow Trout are not for rookies. Bluegill are the best option for a colder climate until you learn your system. Koi are also a good option, raise them to a large size and you can get $$$

5) worms breath through their skin so they can live underwater if there is sufficient O2. They will make a good addition to your media

What kind of filtration are you using? Are you counting on the media bed to do your filtration or are you planing to use a clarifier to remove the solids?

[Bill Flatter]

Jonathan,

 

Thanks for the answers, gonna give this snake oil a shot and see what it does, I am gonna have to tanks it looks like so I will use it one and see what happens. I am not gonna do the Trout as it is to late to get the browns anyway, the same guy can get me Tilapia so I am gonna go that route.  I was planning on using the media beds as my filtration for the system as I have 2 media beds that are gonna be 3 X 44 X 1, was figuring that would be enough for now. Any other thoughts let me know, thanks again!

 

Bill 

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

If the media beds are your filtration you won't need a lot of fish because all of the nutrients will remain in your system. You can probably fuel all those plants with 500-1000 grams of fish food a day. Make sure you are spreading all that waste through out your grow beds.

[TCLynx]

doesn't take a huge amount of fish to grow lots of plants.

[Bill Flatter]

Thanks for all the great responses! At the moment we are going to have two 20 X 50 greenhouses that will hold a total of 4 media beds that are 3 x 44 x 1 and then 4 DWC rafts that are going to be 4 X 44 X 1 and 6 more grow beds in the upper floor of the shop that are 4 X 40 X 1. It looks like we are going to upgrade to two 2000 gallon FT's as the fish supplier dropped his price on 2" to 4" tilapia to .25 a piece with a $35 delivery charge.  We have the option to buy a 15,000 sq ft venlo greenhouse and are going to look at it this weekend, it has already been dismantled and is ready to be shipped. Unlike so many of the other commercial growers I have seen doing AP where they grow ONE thing only we are hoping to do as many as 30 different kinds of plants, and we have a large Hispanic community here that are really interested in our fish as well.  

 

Bill