Beginner Questions.

[Chi Ma]

If you need a question answered post here and one of the many experienced APers will try to answer it for you.

[mike kati]

Hello All,

I am new to the aquaponic and have been doing research for quite few months ,I am researching to see if any body really made some money of aquaponic.

All what I see is about the system it self (mechanical aspect or operational)  and nothing about the result of the work -such as -- grown so much tomatoes or lettuce or fish  within so long period. or I have harvested so much within  (   )weeks and so on ..so I will be able to do my calculation about estimated results.

Thank you for replying

Mike kati

[e-mail]

[Chi Ma]

Being a Noob to AP I don't have any numbers. But I did stumble upon this Research Paper.

[Margaret]

Can anyone tell me the benefits of using a raft system as opposed to ebb and flow?

[mike kati]

Thanx for the Infi,the paper is academic work(I think),so those guys-in the academic field ,have agood budget behind them to try every thing and to come out of such results,If we get info fromordinary person experience will ve very useful,Do u agree w me?

mike

[e-mail]

Chi Ma said:

Being a Noob to AP I don't have any numbers. But I did stumble upon this Research Paper.

[Nick LaHaise]

Hey experienced AP'ers,

 

I need some help with the system I'm designing, as I'm a newbie to aquaponics.  I'm working with a 18ft geodesic greenhouse GrowDome, with a 700 gallon tank in it.  I've perused the 'Design Numbers' forum and am still a little bit confused by the numbers..

 

My question is, since the ratio is 1:1 growbed to fish tank, what is my grow bed design going to look like?  How many beds should I have, and what dimensions should they be (already knowing that I want to have the beds be 1 ft deep)?  If the space doesn't allow for it, I don't have to use the full 700 gal.

 

Any help on this would be extremely appreciated!  Thank you!

[Chi Ma]

On some systems you can't use the gallons to grow bed rule.Your grow beds dictate how many fish you can have. Use stocking density to grow bed ratio. The more grow bed you have the more fish you can have. So use about 2 sqft of growbed per pound of fish. As your grow beds mature you can add a little more fish but not too much. It's not quite a science yet but you want to err on the conservative side.

Nick LaHaise said:

Hey experienced AP'ers,

 

I need some help with the system I'm designing, as I'm a newbie to aquaponics.  I'm working with a 18ft geodesic greenhouse GrowDome, with a 700 gallon tank in it.  I've perused the 'Design Numbers' forum and am still a little bit confused by the numbers..

 

My question is, since the ratio is 1:1 growbed to fish tank, what is my grow bed design going to look like?  How many beds should I have, and what dimensions should they be (already knowing that I want to have the beds be 1 ft deep)?  If the space doesn't allow for it, I don't have to use the full 700 gal.

 

Any help on this would be extremely appreciated!  Thank you!

[Nick LaHaise]

Thanks Chi.

 

However, I'm a still a little unclear on the equations.  I'm still not sure where to begin on designing the size of my grow beds, and how do you calculate the lbs of fish per grow bed space when they start out as fingerlings and grow to much larger (not sure how large tilapia will get, I need to do my research on that).  I just want to make sure the design for this system is functional and high producing- not enough fish per growbeds and not enough growbed space per fish. 

[Chi Ma]

Ok. Let's keep this simple. Tilapia are usually harvested at < 3 lbs. So using 3 lbs of fish you will need about 6 sqft  8-10 inches deep. So a 4ftx8ftx10in deep grow bed will support about 4-5, 3lb fish or 15, 1 pound fish. I remind you this is not an exact science. You can put a lot of tilapia in a 700 gallon tank but to do so would require huge amounts of grow bed or extra filtration. The more water you have in your system the easier it is to maintain water quality and temperature. So by all means fill it up.

Hope I don't confuse you. 

Nick LaHaise said:

Thanks Chi.

 

However, I'm a still a little unclear on the equations.  I'm still not sure where to begin on designing the size of my grow beds, and how do you calculate the lbs of fish per grow bed space when they start out as fingerlings and grow to much larger (not sure how large tilapia will get, I need to do my research on that).  I just want to make sure the design for this system is functional and high producing- not enough fish per growbeds and not enough growbed space per fish. 

[Nick LaHaise]

Okay great, the confusion is declining.

 

So I'm going to use the whole 700 gal tank, since I agree that it's a larger thermal mass to maintain a temperature in the greenhouse. And I won't be harvesting the fish as much because the goal of our system is to produce plants, not fish for eating.  So we'll grow them out past 1 lb, towards 3lbs.  The correct numbers would be about 1 fish per 15 gallons of media then?

 

What I still need to play around with then is the size of grow beds I need in for 700 gal fish tank, but what I'm getting is that it really depends on the number and size fish more so than the amount of water.

Man, it's been a while since I've had to use my brain for math.

[Chi Ma]

You got it about right. Make as many grow beds as your space/funds allows, it doesn't hurt. You can always turn them on as you expand. As a suggestion seeing that you live in a place that has real winters you may want to keep channel catfish, goldfish, Koi or some other cold water fish.




Nick LaHaise said:

Okay great, the confusion is declining.

So I'm going to use the whole 700 gal tank, since I agree that it's a larger thermal mass to maintain a temperature in the greenhouse. And I won't be harvesting the fish as much because the goal of our system is to produce plants, not fish for eating.  So we'll grow them out past 1 lb, towards 3lbs.  The correct numbers would be about 1 fish per 15 gallons of media then?

What I still need to play around with then is the size of grow beds I need in for 700 gal fish tank, but what I'm getting is that it really depends on the number and size fish more so than the amount of water.

Man, it's been a while since I've had to use my brain for math.

[Nick LaHaise]

Great!  Thanks Chi Ma. 

 

In regards to your suggestion, I had thought about keeping cold water fish, but then realized that since my goal is for this to be a  year round productive system, the greenhouse will get too hot in the summers for the cold water fish.  In talking to Sylvia about this she said I could do a cold water fish for the winters and then swap out to a warm water fish in the summers (starting them larger than fingerlings).  But her suggestion would be just to raise a warm water fish and heat the water throughout the winters, that way the greenhouse will stay warmer overall too, and the plants will be getting warm water to the roots causing fasting growth (or so I hope).

 

Do you have any suggestions about the size of grow beds, in regards to keeping them more rectangle rather than perfect squares?  Any guidelines to go by?  Having multiple smaller ones rather than only a couple large ones?

 

Thanks I appreciate you helping me!

 

Chi Ma said:

You got it about right. Make as many grow beds as your space/funds allows, it doesn't hurt. You can always turn them on as you expand. As a suggestion seeing that you live in a place that has real winters you may want to keep channel catfish, goldfish, Koi or some other cold water fish.




Nick LaHaise said:

Okay great, the confusion is declining.

 

So I'm going to use the whole 700 gal tank, since I agree that it's a larger thermal mass to maintain a temperature in the greenhouse. And I won't be harvesting the fish as much because the goal of our system is to produce plants, not fish for eating.  So we'll grow them out past 1 lb, towards 3lbs.  The correct numbers would be about 1 fish per 15 gallons of media then?

 

What I still need to play around with then is the size of grow beds I need in for 700 gal fish tank, but what I'm getting is that it really depends on the number and size fish more so than the amount of water.

Man, it's been a while since I've had to use my brain for math.

[Chi Ma]

Channel Catfish do well in cold and warm water. You will need about 3000 watts to heat your 700 gallons of water. So take that into consideration. I would do 2 or 3 4x8 grow beds. If you do a bunch of little ones you will have to get all the plumbing done right and that sometimes can be a PITA.

 

Right now I'm trying out  Red Claw Crayfish.

http://aquaponicscommunity.com/forum/topics/red-claw-crayfish

 

Here is a crude layout that may give you an idea. This will make 72 sqft of grow bed. Probably enough for a family of 4-5.

Nick LaHaise said:

Great!  Thanks Chi Ma. 

 

In regards to your suggestion, I had thought about keeping cold water fish, but then realized that since my goal is for this to be a  year round productive system, the greenhouse will get too hot in the summers for the cold water fish.  In talking to Sylvia about this she said I could do a cold water fish for the winters and then swap out to a warm water fish in the summers (starting them larger than fingerlings).  But her suggestion would be just to raise a warm water fish and heat the water throughout the winters, that way the greenhouse will stay warmer overall too, and the plants will be getting warm water to the roots causing fasting growth (or so I hope).

 

Do you have any suggestions about the size of grow beds, in regards to keeping them more rectangle rather than perfect squares?  Any guidelines to go by?  Having multiple smaller ones rather than only a couple large ones?

 

Thanks I appreciate you helping me!