Howdy, MFK!
My name's Preston, but I usually just go by Red. I'm an aquarium guy that has converted to aquaponics, but I'm having a lot more luck with my fish than with my garden.
So I did have an indoor and an outdoor AP system until a few days ago, when an aquarium leak forced me to partially break down my indoor system. Now, the indoor is just a 40gal sump and a single (empty) grow bed. My outdoor system is centered around a pair of 330gal IBCs that I plumbed together and buried in the side of a hill as a pond under a couple trees. Currently, it is stocked with about a dozen tilapia and a pleco on one side, and a mix of about 10dz. rosy reds and feeder comets.
For filtration, I'm running a DIY swirl filter feeding a pond filter w/ UV sterilizer. Simple, effective, and the swirl filter solids compost easily into fish manure for soil gardening and my hybrid gardening (still using the water from the AP system to irrigate my planters, but without losing water back into the ground).
So my tilapia... They are a mix of whites and Mozambiques, I believe. They aren't quite monsters, yet. I stocked them in my 30gal display tank in my indoor system in mid-April, and they were somewhere between 1/2"-3/4" long. 4mos. later, they are all 6"+, and with continued luck, will hit the 1Lb. mark before the end of the year. I was planning on harvesting once they hit 12", but now I'm 2nd guessing myself, just to see how big I can actually get them.
So my thought was originally to stock my pond with game fish, but I'm having difficulties finding the fish to stock legally, and tilapia are available and usually (much) cheaper. That said, I have 2 42"x48" tanks, and I would like to reserve one of them for my "monsters," which brings me to why I'm here: figuring out what species I can stock with, and how big I can go. I know my options are limited until I can heat the pond, but I would like to find some fish that will grow into monsters, without outgrowing the IBCs, and preferably something that I could have something of a relationship with (or at least interact with).
Also, throughout the last 2yrs that I have done AP, I've had plenty of successes and failures to learn from, and I have learned a fair bit about system design/engineering, and I'm more than willing to share what I've learned.
Thanks for the add,
AZR
My name's Preston, but I usually just go by Red. I'm an aquarium guy that has converted to aquaponics, but I'm having a lot more luck with my fish than with my garden.
So I did have an indoor and an outdoor AP system until a few days ago, when an aquarium leak forced me to partially break down my indoor system. Now, the indoor is just a 40gal sump and a single (empty) grow bed. My outdoor system is centered around a pair of 330gal IBCs that I plumbed together and buried in the side of a hill as a pond under a couple trees. Currently, it is stocked with about a dozen tilapia and a pleco on one side, and a mix of about 10dz. rosy reds and feeder comets.
For filtration, I'm running a DIY swirl filter feeding a pond filter w/ UV sterilizer. Simple, effective, and the swirl filter solids compost easily into fish manure for soil gardening and my hybrid gardening (still using the water from the AP system to irrigate my planters, but without losing water back into the ground).
So my tilapia... They are a mix of whites and Mozambiques, I believe. They aren't quite monsters, yet. I stocked them in my 30gal display tank in my indoor system in mid-April, and they were somewhere between 1/2"-3/4" long. 4mos. later, they are all 6"+, and with continued luck, will hit the 1Lb. mark before the end of the year. I was planning on harvesting once they hit 12", but now I'm 2nd guessing myself, just to see how big I can actually get them.
So my thought was originally to stock my pond with game fish, but I'm having difficulties finding the fish to stock legally, and tilapia are available and usually (much) cheaper. That said, I have 2 42"x48" tanks, and I would like to reserve one of them for my "monsters," which brings me to why I'm here: figuring out what species I can stock with, and how big I can go. I know my options are limited until I can heat the pond, but I would like to find some fish that will grow into monsters, without outgrowing the IBCs, and preferably something that I could have something of a relationship with (or at least interact with).
Also, throughout the last 2yrs that I have done AP, I've had plenty of successes and failures to learn from, and I have learned a fair bit about system design/engineering, and I'm more than willing to share what I've learned.
Thanks for the add,
AZR