Fish and seed starts

[Peter H.]

Hello All,

 

I've got ~30 gallons (with three tilapia) of fish water running through a 14 gallon tote with hydroton.  I've planted some seeds (arugular, basil, swish chard) directly into the hydroton; but after 12 days, less than 50% have sprouted.  The system is outside, so the slow sprouting is probably due to the cold weather.

I've also started seeds indoors in coco pellets 6 days ago.  These are sprouting much faster with higher yield. 

Can I bury these coco pellets in the growbed? 

The coco fiber material of the pellets will breakdown and disperse throughout the growbed and fishtank, but as I understand, they are largely inert.

 

I'd like to get one or two more tilapia and was thinking of buying them from the Ranch 99 asian market.

I would quarantine these before adding to the system.

Has anyone had experience buying live tilapia from Ranch 99?

What issues/problems may arise from this?

 

Thank you for your time.

 

-Peter

 

[TCLynx]

I've put peat pellets right into my grow beds before.  Some might not recommend it but I've done many odd things.  Now with your really small system you might need to be more careful though.

 

Yes I'm sure the slow sprouting is because of the cold.  Beware, tilapia can't take too much cold.

 

You only have a 14 gallon tote for filtration, don't get any more fish until you get more filtration going.  Once the water warms up and the tilapia get to eating, that little tote may have trouble keeping up with three fish, especially if you give them a good high protein feed.

[Peter H.]

Thank you for the advise.  Yes, I will be adding more filtration/growbeds.

When time permits, I'll repurpose an unused jacuzzi into a fish tank for a larger AP system.  I'd like to slowly add different fish (tilapia, catfish, bluegill...) and so was considering buying ones and twos from the live tanks at the asian markets.

 

P.S.

I've read your blog entries on your website and BYAP.  They're very informative and inspiring.

TCLynx said:

I've put peat pellets right into my grow beds before.  Some might not recommend it but I've done many odd things.  Now with your really small system you might need to be more careful though.

 

Yes I'm sure the slow sprouting is because of the cold.  Beware, tilapia can't take too much cold.

 

You only have a 14 gallon tote for filtration, don't get any more fish until you get more filtration going.  Once the water warms up and the tilapia get to eating, that little tote may have trouble keeping up with three fish, especially if you give them a good high protein feed.

[TCLynx]

Good Luck with it, just always make sure to keep your filtration ahead of the additional fish.  Waiting till the new fish are in the system before hooking up more grow beds is like running behind the bus to get where you are going.