A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Arizona Aquaponics

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Helping each other to learn and grow big nutritious plants and fish to help feed the world.

Location: Phoenix
Members: 230
Latest Activity: Oct 7, 2019

Thank you all for joining my group, I hope to do a lot with all anyone interested. Please
tell me any event suggestions you would like us to do.

Started by Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr. Mar 21, 2019. 0 Replies 0 Likes

Started by Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr. Jan 4, 2018. 0 Replies 0 Likes

Started by Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr. Jan 4, 2018. 0 Replies 0 Likes

Comment

Comment by Robert Rowe on March 19, 2013 at 8:52am: @Larry in Casa Grande

If you have media grow beds just add worms. The worms love algae. Algae is a natural food for Tilapia, but they won't clean the FT sides. Perhaps a large plekostomus would do the job. I'm not sure if the pleki will bother fry.

Comment by Larry in Casa Grande on March 19, 2013 at 8:18am: Well my Tilapia (most of them) survived the winter. We had to employ three solar collectors, and a small electric heater at night to get them through, but they seem OK and their appetites are back.

My big concern is that I developed big slicks of algea during the winter months. Some of them cover 20% of my grow beds. Yesterday I went out there with my hands and removed as much as I could. I suspect these plants are not desirable right? Are they destructive other than using up grow space? Do they consume resources or help purify the water the way our garden plants do? Also is there a way to minimize them without damaging the Tilapia or desireable bacteria colonies?

I am thinkign it might be time to plant some stuff in there again.

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on March 18, 2013 at 6:20pm: Hi Stephan, welcome aboard to your ever addicting hobby! I just picked up a an IBC Tote from Tank N Barrel, They run around 120 bucks for food grade totes. They also are aware of the aquaponics crowd, and can cut the totes for you if needed. I looked all around craigslist and wish I could have found cheaper but this was the average price I could find, if anyone else knows of cheaper IBC Totes in the phoenix area please post! Oh, forgot to mention if you do cash, it will be straight 120, if you do card they have to add 3% I believe for processing.

Comment by Jim Troyer on March 17, 2013 at 11:44pm: Welcome aboard Stephan.

We're here to help you get started. Hope you can join us on the tour, the timing should be really good for you.

All the best,

Jim

Comment by Stephan Youngers on March 17, 2013 at 9:55pm: I finally got in my deluxe parts kit, now all I have to do is buy my IBC totes and I can get this started! Im quite excited. This is the first steps to much greater things!

Comment by Robert Rowe on March 17, 2013 at 5:02pm: "I am interested in buying a few mature Nile Tilapia. Do any of you have any available and if so whats the price? My 700 gallon tank is just not going to get stocked unless I speed up the process."

Comment by Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr. on March 16, 2013 at 7:06pm: Looked for the aquaponics store. Could not find it. Beautiful neighborhood though.

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on March 16, 2013 at 5:30pm: I wanted to thank Sheri and her husband for the fish today and a tour of your set-up it was nice to meet you and be able to ask you some questions. It was also nice to finally meet Jim in person and see how he's doing things. Some of my fishy's didn't make it unfortunately, I think it was due to waiting to long to get them into some oxygenated water . So Sheri I may be hitting you up again for some more fish if that's okay. I also borrowed one of Jim's fish tanks we got on the way home, as I wanted them to grow a little more before putting them into my system, which is fine since that will give me some time to adjust my set up with my new IBC tote and add a grow bed and maybe some vertical towers - oh and I need to make a cover for the system with the heat that will be on its way. Yah just the little things