2 100 gallon rubbermaid fish tanks

[Mark Deardorff]

Aquaponics is totally new to me, so I'm finding that  second guessing myself has become a bit of a hindrance to progressing my system. My dilemma is this, I have 2 100 gallon rubbermaid tanks for the fish and 2 50 gallon rubbermaid grow beds. The 2 fish tanks can be easily connected due to the drain near the bottom of the tanks, would that be beneficial or should I create 2 seperate systems. I plan on raising catfish but am concerned having 2 100 gallon tanks is not big enough to raise fish large enough for the dinner table and quite possibly not enough to feed the family.
  Any thoughts and guidance are greatly appreciated. I try to read as much as I can to learn from all of you. Thanks in advance.

[Margaret]

I think that there is a woman named Maggie who posts stuff to YouTube that uses that system. Beyond that I am no help because I have been using gold fish.

[Mark Deardorff]

Thanks Margaret, I  believe I have watched her videos. I also recently read some posts by others that dont recommend such small tanks. This will be an indoor system so not sure how big of a tank I will be able to fit through the door and into the basement. I may have to build my own tank, anyone know of a good design and where I might find it?

[Tom OBrien]

I've got two 150 gallon stock tanks (not connected) and I am trying to grow out some trout. I think catfish is probably a better choice of fish than trout because the temperature sensitivity is kind of a pain now that temperatures are going up, but you will probably want to start on the low side with the number of fish and see how it goes. I think having the tanks connected may be good, because bigger is better as far as the total water volume goes. The grow bed volume may be more of a limiter than your tank size though. I know Sylvia and TCLynx had some helpful guidelines on this website for the amount of grow bed area or volume per fish. My space was limited, so I only have two 50 gallon grow beds and I was strongly encouraged to take that into account when I stocked the tanks.

[Margaret]

Thanks for the information Tom. I think I am going to stick with gold fish for this summer (and maybe winter) as I like them as pets. However I am certain that I will want to expand to a more food based production. I am doing some research on fresh water shrimp and may try to see what I can do with a heated tank for the winter indoors. Rapidly this is going to get out of control!

[Tom OBrien]

Let me know how your shrimp research goes. I read some of the comments here about raising redclaw crayfish and thought those would be fun to try at some point, but right now I'm focussed on keeping the remaining trout alive for a little while longer.

[Mark Deardorff]

Thanks for the insight Tom and Margaret, I have read a lot of TCLinx post and have found them very informative. What Im guessing is that my tank size will be more of an issue because of the width being only 2 feet wide. The connection of the 2 would only be through a 2 inch port at the bottoms of the tanks and not nearly enough for them to swim through once they reach any discernible size. As far as grow beds, I am realizing that my grow beds may not afford enough of a filter so I am also planning on floating trays in both tanks.

[Tom OBrien]

Yeah, the physical dimensions of tank may be a factor. I have the 150 size and the trout still bounce off the sides sometimes. It sounds like you have the same kind of limits I do though. I went with the 150 gallon instead of the 300 gallon stock tank I really wanted because the 300 wouldn't fit down our basement stairs.

[Roger]

Mark - To keep it simple since you are just beginning I believe the usual recommendation is you need as many grow beds (by volume) as you have fish tanks.  So you will basically want to try and have 200 gallons of grow beds since you have 200 gallons worth of fish tanks.  This ensures that the fish tank is filtered properly and the fish are happy with the quality of water.  As another option you could always flood each grow bed twice a hour; however, you'll want to be sure this doesn't drop the fish tank water too low.  

To answer your question about fish I would recommend providing five gallon of water for every fish.  This mean you should successfully be able to house about 20 fish in each fish tank.  If you feel the fish are getting too big you can always "harvest" them for dinner or for fertilizer in your garden.

By the way, I'm new to aquaponics as well and am still struggling with the design of my system.  My first set up didn't exactly work as expected.  I think I'm relying on too many pump (3) which makes it hard to coordinate the proper amount of water in my FT, GB and sump tank.  I think I'm going to have to gravity drain both of my grow beds instead of relying on the pump in my sump.  Unfortunately I lose a lot of valuable, vertical grow space since I am in a basement.

I wish you the best of luck!

[Tom OBrien]

Is there a basement aquaponics group? It sounds like we several members right here!