New to aquaponics

[Cedric Ragins]

So I am 11, and I have managed fish tanks before (I fully set up, cycled, and stocked one for my sister, my family has a 72 gallon reef tank, and we've had 2 other tanks before too). I also live right by a trout hatchery, and I know it like the back of my hand.  But now I would like to set up an aquaponics system that could help me get a large profit by selling both plants and fish, but also could let me have an enjoyable time with aquaponics.

                   My equipment is a 500 gallon kiddie pool, a spare water pump I fixed, some PVC pipe, and about 80$ I saved up doing chores.

     I am not really sure of what fish to stock in it. My main fish I may stock would be either the local fish around here (I live in Northern Iowa) would be rainbow trout or channel catfish, which both of those I have a large knowledge about.

    I have heard really good things about Tilapia, as they are fast growing and very hearty. Another fish I am interested in would be Barramundi, but mainly tilapia.

            My setup will simply be a pipe with flowing water (gravity, not a pump) down to the growbed (more pipes), then a pump pumping water back up.

           Please comment on this, give me what fish I should raise, what season to stock them, how much and what size to stock them. Maybe what plants I should use too, really just a whole guide on how I should start. THANK YOU FOR READING AND THANK YOU MORE FOR COMMENTING!

[Alex Veidel]

Hey Cedric. I think the channel catfish may be your best bet (although, you can pretty much do whatever you like if you have the experience). An $80 budget may or may not give you enough to work with to build enough growing area to support a 500 gallon tank chock full of fish. Since catfish are bottom feeders, they'll like the surface area on the bottom if you aren't able to fill your pool up all of the way, and if you are able to expand you could always throw another fish on top. I know of a few people that have success with bluegills and catfish in the same tank (catfish take the bottom and the bluegills fill in the rest of the space).

Also, totally awesome that you're 11.

[Cedric Ragins]

Thank you very much Alex. Do you know how much fish I could stock into the system? Maximum but safe amount?  I can get more materials for the grow bed, as I can earn more money. That's just what I have right at the moment. I read your bio and I saw you like plants, so what do you recommend?

[Alex Veidel]

Sorry Cedric, I totally forgot to reply :/

Unless you're providing a bunch of additional aeration and filtration, typical stocking rate for aquaponics is 1 lb of fish per 5-10 gallons of tank water.

Aquaponics pretty much grows anything you can imagine. Fruiting plants such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash have higher nutrient loads, so they provide extra filtration, but you also need to be more conscious to provide some the nutrients that your fish food won't supply. Lettuces and other leafy greens seem to require less in the nutrient department, so they're great for starting out.

I'd love to give you a hand with any other questions you might have. The forum is fine, but you're welcome to use my email address as well.

[e-mail]

[Mark Lassiter]

Hi Cedric
I think Alex had a lot of good advice and he's right ... Start with leafy greens at least untill your system establishes it self and that could take 6 months or more. As far as fish are concerned. The type of tank you discribed sounds like a soft walled kiddie pool. If so I would highly recomend you don't use catfish. There a great fish to grow but they also have sharp barbs that could poke a small hole in a soft walled tank. I would hate for you to wake up one day or come home from school to find your fish floping around in a puddle becouse of the off chance that one of your catfish got frisky and poked a pin size hole in the side of your tank. Go with the bream or maybe the trout and a safe inexpensive fish to learn on untill you gather more experience would be the common feeder gold fish. ... Anyway thats my two cent worth. Good luck and if you want to succeed in aquaponics ... Don't rush it and read, read, read all you can off the internet. Mark