Found this a whole 2 minutes after asking a "Hey what about fish" question. Im thankful and humbled by your spirit of patience with the audience who is learning! Ive been heirloom seed gardening for a long time and looking for something to take our urban homestead to a new level.
Much love from Canada! Love the channel and get so happy getting the notification from your uploads!! Up here we like to raise rainbow trout in our systems, only fish that really tolerates the temp changes, especially since we either have to bring them in for the winter or start fresh in the spring!
Howdy Rob, g’day to you! Excellent fish video. It’s a subject that needs research for one’s own specific environment. My choice was bluegill, which you introduced as a sunfish (which it is more generally). It’s got a range of tolerable temperatures in which I find myself, and it also is tolerant of a wider range of pH levels. A hardy fish, & have tested their temperature limits (~5-30C). They tend to not eat much below 10C. They’re also picky about eating their pellets and will wait for flies, bugs, or worms. I’ve got a system for harvesting flies, supplemented with mealworms or composting red wigglers. I have to clean out the uneaten pellets in the morning from the previous evening feeding. Maybe the long cooler season we have here has made them grow slowly. They will be two years old by August/September and they are still well under 500g, or less than a pound. I need to get a submersible camera to adequately monitor them. I have been taking some videos of my system for a video to show you. I’m working on a script. And trying to straighten out my messy garage which holds the fish tank and compost worm farm, oh, and my fly harvesting system. (I’m also a world class procrastinator 😁). [side note: ran into a poet at the tavern who identified my greenhouse as my atonement. My job before retirement was exploration for fossil fuels] Cheers 🍻! -Joe.
🤣 I edit out all the messy background shots from here. If you take notice of the camera angles I use, they're all very similar across all the videos.😉 Looking forward to sussing out the system but only if you want to share. Cheers, 🍻🍻
😂I get splashed a lot too! those goldfish and koi really know how to splash😂. I call them my little footballs, they are such chunky fish. love the vids! thanks for the info on alternative(additional)food sources for the fish.
Guides awesome been using it about a month now just waiting for a power supply. 🤞 Why re-invent the wheel when we have a guru like Rob. You're knowledge is priceless. Thank you.
@@RobsAquaponics thank you for the week wishing. I hope it goes well. Hoping to turn it into a small income. With luck I be able to market the ornamental fish, and put food on the table. Modest investments mostly cast offs this person's old rain barrel, another's old pond pump.
Great clip on how to keep & feed fish..I have a small yard. Who knows in the future I might try goldfish & do a mini aquaponics, now that would fun :) 🐠 🐠🐠
@@angerainbow9200 do some googling but once you figure out the life cycle its super easy. Neglecting them for a week or 2 is one of the steps. Just keep the substrate dry.
@@angerainbow9200 TH-cam has some videos about the subject. It is really easy. You buy them alive once, and once you have it started and as long as you keep maintaining it you will have a never ending supply of Meal worms.
@@angerainbow9200 They will absolutely love it. And if you have chickens, and you can get your hands on some cow manure, you should look into a thing that is called chicken composting. All you have to do is to ad a pile of cow manure to their enclosure, and the chickens will absolutely love it, and they will start scratching the pile of manure in the hunt for bugs and worms, which will help to make you some excellent quality of compost. And while they are doing their thing they also ad nutrients with their own chicken manure.
Great video Rob. Here in Indiana, USA, "the Mid- West", sunfish and blue gil work very well. However, we can only grow four about five months. So they don't always grow to full size. But it's fun to run the system and grow the plants!
I have tried the barrel chop and flip. I had a several feeder goldfish live quite awhile and one that grew to the size of my hand. Thinking about a solar-powered system in my backyard. Not quite like Building with Todd's setup, though. Thanks again for all the videos and information.
I live in the Netherlands and I am using ornamental fish for my aquaponics system. And instead of dedicated tanks that are situated on the land I buried my IBC tanks, and some other tanks and even barrels, and I connected them together below the water line so that the fish can swim around, and I made it look like a "regular" fish pond as much as possible with some rocks. I have a variety of gold fish. Regular goldfish, Sarasa, Wen, and some other varieties. Some were given to me, so I do not exactly know all the varieties that I have but they all fall under the category of goldfish. And I also think that they started to interbreed with each other. But I made sure that certain areas of my pond are buried at least 1 meter deep, and I also insulated the outside walls from certain areas of the pond with foam, as an extra protection against heavy frost, but also to give the walls some extra rigidity so that the walls do not buckle under the pressure from the surrounding soil. Without the foam a buried IBC container will buckle under the pressure from the surrounding soil, ask me how I know. But if the water is deep enough, and with sloping walls, the foam is not a necessity. I also have the fish that is called the Ide, a gold colored species, but they are much more sensitive for changing water (habitat) conditions so they are also a lot harder to keep in small systems or ponds, especially outdoors, and they grow fairly big fairly rapidly, so if you want to use ornamental fish for your system I would not recommend the Ide for a small pond or aquaponics system. I did insulate every pipe that is open to the surface, and I protected everything else that sticks above the ground that is connected with the pond and the flood and drain beds against heavy frost or extreme warm weather. Here in the Netherlands we can have it both. I try to minimize sudden temperature changes as much as I can. It is not only good for the fish, but what is far more important is that it is very good for the micro organisms. The micro organisms do not like sudden changes in their habitat, in any sense of the word. And they usually stick to all the surfaces in your system, including the inner walls from the pipes in your system, and if those surfaces are subjected to extreme warm or cold conditions the micro organisms will only have a very small window during the season where they can thrive in the most optimal conditions. By minimizing the temperature changes as much as possible in the entire system you can extend that window of optimal conditions. But imagine this, your fish tank water has a certain temperature, regardless if your fish tank is buried or not. But when you pump that water through a pipe that is baking in the sun or that is subjected to freezing temperatures, the micro organisms go from one temperature to a much higher or lower temperature in a very short amount of time, and that is not what micro organisms like. A good percentage of the micro organisms that you pump through that pipe will shut down, and that is not preferable. And the same story goes for very cold weather. And since you pump water through those pipes 24 hours a day we are talking about a substantial loss of potential capacity from the micro organisms if you do not do something to prevent those sudden temperature changes. I used regular insulation that is used for insulating the pipes from regular heating systems where it would fit. I mean, it does not fit 100%, but it fits good enough. And I tied it with zip ties. At the end of the day it is all about keeping the micro organisms happy. If you succeed in doing that your fish and your plants will do well as well.
@@vaazig Yeah, one of these days I might do a video about my setup. I should write a script first, because although it is not the largest setup in the world, there is a lot to talk about.
carp is the best one for mexico, low maintenance, sold everywhere as baby fish for like 0.50 usd and need just some easy to get food and an air pump (they get stressed so use an air pump stone thing)
Here in the desert southwest of USA, my koi pond is thriving, but I'm finding it hard to resist breaking out into aquaponics on the side. Appreciate your videos, thanks.
Way way back when I first started looking at alternative fish foods I found that: 1. alternative fish foods were worth more than commercial fish foods. Eg worms can sell for more than fish per kg. 2. fish nutrition is really really complicated and really specific for each type of fish. 3. Feeding alternative fish foods can harm your fish. Eg trout can handle really high protein diets but feed them too many black soldier fly larvae and the fat kills them. Whereas gold fish can't handle any where near the same amounts of protein and if you try their kidneys pack in.
Thanks for that Stuart. I had anothe Aqua designer tell me it would take around 3 hours a day to make the food for his fish due to the number he had. It wasn't feasible as a labour cost or due to the dedicated space required.
We have cold temperature issues here. We have tried channel catfish and tilapia with mixed results. We currently have goldfish, which are the big survivors. I'm looking at getting sunfish/bluegill, which are supposed to tolerate cold temperatures.
Love your channel have been watching you for years! Just an FYI in regards to propagation; tilapia reproduce like mad in captivity. Fantastic fish for hot climates. 😇
Learn about Aquaponics 🐟 🍓🍅 with my "Backyard Aquaponics for Beginners" Guide for only US$19.95. You can see the guide in action on my website, ► www.bitsouttheback.com/aquaponics-guide Or, buy directly here, ► bit.ly/AquaponicsBeginnersGuide Don't forget to click the subscribe button if you enjoyed the video, bit.ly/Subscribe2Rob & share the clip around if you think it may help others too.👍 Cheers all & have a top one. 🐟 🌱🍅 Rob
@@RobsAquaponics only dubia roaches though. They can't jump, are silent other than moving around, can't climb smooth plastic containers, and require very high humidity and warmth to breed and so are non invasive in most parts of north america. They are also more nutritious for reptiles than crickets. Some don't take them though, they don't have the eye catching erratic movement patterns of crickets to light up the hunting instinct.
In the UK the weather is pretty awful most of the year, so the choice of fish we can have isn't great. I had a pond before getting interested in aquaponics so it made sense to keep Koi. Aeration during any heatwave is essential and I've lost a few even with powerful air stones and a waterfall.
@@RobsAquaponics We do have a couple of grass carps that we got when we had a poor filter and problems with blanket weed. We did say that they could get harvested when we got them, but carps are very bony though . As it is they're not friendly, they're not pretty and they eat a lot... 😅
Just found your channel , as I’m looking at starting my own aquaponics, outstanding info. Very inspiring . Would you recommend starting off with something small? With ornamental fish? I plan on getting a large setup to harvest fish for meat also
I think it's just as easy to start off with the table fish. In some cases they work out cheaper as well. I would recommend that the system is fully cycled before you add any fish at all. Happy growing.
It can get as low as 9°C but it's a slow drop so the large Jades do OK. At the moment it's sitting at 17°C but I also have had a heater on for the past week at night.
An aquarium or small storage tote container would be best I think Jarrad. I'm on the lookout for a second-hand aquarium I can use to build for our deck here at the moment. There will be a video once it's all sorted. 😉😉
Thank you for all the wonderful information. Was wondering would it be possible to combine fish with table snails (escargot) in the same system, or should they be separated?
I think you could grow the snails in an aquaponics grow bed & would love to see someone set up a farm like that. 👍👍 I would also make sure that you include compost worms in the media beds to help break down the waste from the snails as well.
So with having fish to give the nutrients to the plants do you have to use any extra nutrients or do the fish do it all, its a hard one to think of in a newb wanting to give this a try either aquaponics or just hydroponics 👍👍
Calcium & potassium are generally required to be added on the side. Iron & magnesium as well in some systems. Calcium & potassium can be added as pH adjusters & common garden amendments for iron (DTPA chelated iron) & magnesium (Epsom salts) can be used to add those elements as required. Many will also add in a kelp/seaweed powder or liquid to make sure that any trace elements can also be provided. For me, I'm in it for the fish but if only wanted plants I'd stick with hydroponics. 😉 Hope that helps a little.
Hey, what is the best fish for algae control, looking for something to eat the alage of the sides of the tank. Heard plecos are good but not sure about their temperature range. Our system can get down to 10 degrees. Thanks
Not 100% sure sorry mate. This looks like a fairly recent post if that helps at all, aquariumfishcity.com/cold-water-algae-eaters/ Sorry it took so long to reply as well mate. Cheers.
Do you have any information on grow rates between different hydroponic techniques (DWC vs ebb n flow vs NFT, etc.)? I'm having a hard time finding studies or articles that aren't just ads for one pre-made system or another. I'm well aware that the different setups are more concerned with the type of crop you're intending to grow, but I'm still having a hard time finding solid information on growth rates.
I don't sorry. I do know that media beds are a great all-around method for the backyard grower as they look after bio & to a lesser extent solids filtration.
So I have a question about the possibility of having a aquaponics system that included ducks fish and prawns. The duck pond as a sump tank to pump into the fish tank then flow to the prawn tank then flow to a filter then flow from the filter into grow beds back to the duck pond so the fish can eat the the feed the ducks drop in the water and the prawns can eat the waste and left over feed that makes it to them. I am hoping that sutch a system could potentially provide duck eggs and meat along with fish prawns and vegetables, mostly if not completely off of the food that is being wasted by the ducks into the pond already. Also it would solve the problem of having to drain and clean the duck pond once a week.
Hey Taylor. Sorry for the delay in responding. Ducks really mess up the water so it wouldn't be clean enough to send to the fish tank for most species. I've seen tilapia feed on waste but I don't know a lot about it. I also don't know a lot about freshwater prawns either. I think you may be better looking into growing them separately first then trying to intergrade them into a larger system. I only know of one bloke that grows using prawns & he's in either the Philippines or Indonesia from memory. I have seen folks build "Quackponics/Duckponics" systems. Have a search on YT & a few vid's will pop up. Sorry I'm not much help.
I should try to find someone doing aquaponics in the States (where I am, so similar legal framework), but I wonder if you have any thoughts on brackish food animals (fish &/or crustacean). I went on an eattheweeds binge and would like to try my hand growing some of the beachside edible plants he mentions (he is based in FL; some California invasives [legal in my state because winter kills everything] like Mesembryanthemum crystallinum and Carpobrotus species would probably be easier to buy, though I am very interested in Batis and Salicornia, and in seakaleand Crithmum maritimum which I learned about elsewhere). Since these normally grow in saline beaches, I assume they would like brackish or even salt water in the critter tanks.
I haven't really looked into brackish water systems sorry Erik. There are a number of fish that could do OK in those systems but you'd have to look at what is locally available.
When raising table fish like jade perch or tilapia about how many days/months does it take for the fish to reach harvestable size? I live in a cold climate and wonder if I’d be able to raise a school during the warm summer months.
Tilapia can be as fast as 4-6 months depending on water temp & variety. It's probably best to ask at a local hatchery to see what's available for your climate. BTW, if you're in Australia, tilapia are a no go.
I would use the iki Jime method myself Jayson. www.ikijime.com/fish/tilapia/ I use the same method for our native species here. Hope that helps & happy fishing mate. 🎣
Lake Michigan yellow perch best tasting in world , walleye are next for taste. All the rest of world was hungry when they started eating carp and catfish species.
It can be on the commercial & backyard scale. I saw a bloke work out that his fish cost him between $14-20 a kg which was a bit more than he was paying for frozen fish at the stoopidmarket. The bonus was that he was also harvesting veg, had fresh fish on demand, knew what food it consumed & conditions it grew in.
Wait, so in Queensland, if you catch and kill tilapia, you can't take them home to eat or throw in the compost? Going by the sign @1:13, if you catch one, you have to release it, and then call to report it?
In the small print above the circled statement, it directs you to "...kill it humanely and dispose of it away from the water..." so I would assume that if you caught, killed, and reported, then disposing of it in your compost would qualify as "away from the water"
Just want to say that goldfish actually are quite big fish. They can grow to 40 cm and 2 kg/4 pounds. And unless you are going for a self-sufficient, survival setup I would recommend ornamental fish. If you can farm something that is popular in the aquarium hobby you'll get a much better price per pound. Small fish poop as much as big fish. You just need more of them. I'm going for small cyprinids and livebearers next year my self.
I'm thinking of building an aquaponic system for my mum because she loves her vege garden but we rarely eat fish here. I do like the idea of keeping fish and selling the excess fish to manage the number's to fish stores. The whole idea is currently percolating in my brain. I'm more than a little tempted to try building the system while she's away on holiday and surprising her when. She gets back
Some folks will include them in the setups but they don't produce as much waste per animal as table fish generally speaking. I know folks that have lights over their systems. Not something I've tried myself as of yet as I figure the fish need some darkness. Cheers Jim.
We had snails in the water in our first system & they slowly disappeared. It was probably a good thing as we started to find them in the pipes & hoses which could have caused issues if their numbers increased. I think it was the slightly lower pH may have affected their shell development but could be wrong.
Eu não sabia disso, obrigado Ramone. Espero que esteja tudo bem com você companheiro. 😁👍👍 I didn't know that, thanks Ramone. Hope all is well with you mate.
Found this a whole 2 minutes after asking a "Hey what about fish" question. Im thankful and humbled by your spirit of patience with the audience who is learning! Ive been heirloom seed gardening for a long time and looking for something to take our urban homestead to a new level.
Nice one Steve.
I hope they grow well for you mate. 🌱🌱🌱🌱
Hi Rob Bob,
Love ya work.
Keep up the good work .
Thanks Mark.
Hope all's well with you mate.
EXCELLENT VIDEO! Thank you , Good on Ya!
Glad you enjoyed it Frank.
Have a top one.
Really good overview video for starters. Cheers!
Glad it was helpful Martin.
Have a top one.
Much love from Canada! Love the channel and get so happy getting the notification from your uploads!! Up here we like to raise rainbow trout in our systems, only fish that really tolerates the temp changes, especially since we either have to bring them in for the winter or start fresh in the spring!
Nice one Alex. Our cool season is a bit too short to grow them out here. 😕
Thank you for the info once again
No problem RuninCool.
Happy growing
Howdy Rob, g’day to you!
Excellent fish video. It’s a subject that needs research for one’s own specific environment. My choice was bluegill, which you introduced as a sunfish (which it is more generally). It’s got a range of tolerable temperatures in which I find myself, and it also is tolerant of a wider range of pH levels. A hardy fish, & have tested their temperature limits (~5-30C). They tend to not eat much below 10C.
They’re also picky about eating their pellets and will wait for flies, bugs, or worms. I’ve got a system for harvesting flies, supplemented with mealworms or composting red wigglers. I have to clean out the uneaten pellets in the morning from the previous evening feeding. Maybe the long cooler season we have here has made them grow slowly. They will be two years old by August/September and they are still well under 500g, or less than a pound. I need to get a submersible camera to adequately monitor them.
I have been taking some videos of my system for a video to show you. I’m working on a script. And trying to straighten out my messy garage which holds the fish tank and compost worm farm, oh, and my fly harvesting system.
(I’m also a world class procrastinator 😁).
[side note: ran into a poet at the tavern who identified my greenhouse as my atonement. My job before retirement was exploration for fossil fuels]
Cheers 🍻!
-Joe.
🤣 I edit out all the messy background shots from here. If you take notice of the camera angles I use, they're all very similar across all the videos.😉
Looking forward to sussing out the system but only if you want to share.
Cheers, 🍻🍻
Wish i could afford to pay you to fly to the states and help me start my farm. Most knowledgeable and explained that ive seen thus far
Would like to visit the US & hope to do so in a year or two all going well mate.
Cheers. 😁
😂I get splashed a lot too! those goldfish and koi really know how to splash😂. I call them my little footballs, they are such chunky fish. love the vids! thanks for the info on alternative(additional)food sources for the fish.
Glad you found it helpful Missy.😁😁
Guides awesome been using it about a month now just waiting for a power supply. 🤞 Why re-invent the wheel when we have a guru like Rob. You're knowledge is priceless. Thank you.
Thanks Thomas. 👍 Have you got cracking on the build yet?
House shopping next week! Step by step getting closer to my own system🥳
Hope it goes well for you Jennifer. 🤞
Wonderful vid
Thanks Michael. 😁👍 Still waiting on an email.
Finally getting to setting up a system. Using a drum with ornamental fish.
Hope it grows well for you Rogè. 👍👍
@@RobsAquaponics thank you for the week wishing. I hope it goes well. Hoping to turn it into a small income. With luck I be able to market the ornamental fish, and put food on the table.
Modest investments mostly cast offs this person's old rain barrel, another's old pond pump.
Thank you!
Cheers Tim.
I am SO glad I found your channel!!!! Thank you for this wealth of information ❤
So glad the videos have helped in some way Rebekah.👍
Cheers & happy growing.
Good Day!
Hi there. 👍
Great clip on how to keep & feed fish..I have a small yard. Who knows in the future I might try goldfish & do a mini aquaponics, now that would fun :) 🐠 🐠🐠
Thanks Anna. Let me know if you need any pointers. 😁👍
@@RobsAquaponics You'll be at the top if happens..LOL!
Mealworms are really easy to raise at home. A 40L plastic storage container from bunnings, some let over veg and some oatmeal and you are good to go.
Thankyou for posting this. I was wondering how to raise them
@@angerainbow9200 do some googling but once you figure out the life cycle its super easy. Neglecting them for a week or 2 is one of the steps. Just keep the substrate dry.
@@angerainbow9200 TH-cam has some videos about the subject. It is really easy. You buy them alive once, and once you have it started and as long as you keep maintaining it you will have a never ending supply of Meal worms.
@@insAneTunA thankyou I shall go have a look at some. I have chickens aswell that will love them too.
@@angerainbow9200 They will absolutely love it. And if you have chickens, and you can get your hands on some cow manure, you should look into a thing that is called chicken composting.
All you have to do is to ad a pile of cow manure to their enclosure, and the chickens will absolutely love it, and they will start scratching the pile of manure in the hunt for bugs and worms, which will help to make you some excellent quality of compost. And while they are doing their thing they also ad nutrients with their own chicken manure.
Great video Rob.
Here in Indiana, USA, "the Mid- West", sunfish and blue gil work very well. However, we can only grow four about five months. So they don't always grow to full size. But it's fun to run the system and grow the plants!
Do they survive winter or just too cold for them?
@@RobsAquaponics
Just too cold. The tanks would freeze solid.
I have tried the barrel chop and flip. I had a several feeder goldfish live quite awhile and one that grew to the size of my hand.
Thinking about a solar-powered system in my backyard. Not quite like Building with Todd's setup, though.
Thanks again for all the videos and information.
Cheers Robert & hope the build goes well.
Our gold fish splash us to say they are hungry! Thanks Rob
Cheers Tayelor 👍👍
I live in the Netherlands and I am using ornamental fish for my aquaponics system. And instead of dedicated tanks that are situated on the land I buried my IBC tanks, and some other tanks and even barrels, and I connected them together below the water line so that the fish can swim around, and I made it look like a "regular" fish pond as much as possible with some rocks. I have a variety of gold fish. Regular goldfish, Sarasa, Wen, and some other varieties. Some were given to me, so I do not exactly know all the varieties that I have but they all fall under the category of goldfish. And I also think that they started to interbreed with each other. But I made sure that certain areas of my pond are buried at least 1 meter deep, and I also insulated the outside walls from certain areas of the pond with foam, as an extra protection against heavy frost, but also to give the walls some extra rigidity so that the walls do not buckle under the pressure from the surrounding soil. Without the foam a buried IBC container will buckle under the pressure from the surrounding soil, ask me how I know. But if the water is deep enough, and with sloping walls, the foam is not a necessity. I also have the fish that is called the Ide, a gold colored species, but they are much more sensitive for changing water (habitat) conditions so they are also a lot harder to keep in small systems or ponds, especially outdoors, and they grow fairly big fairly rapidly, so if you want to use ornamental fish for your system I would not recommend the Ide for a small pond or aquaponics system.
I did insulate every pipe that is open to the surface, and I protected everything else that sticks above the ground that is connected with the pond and the flood and drain beds against heavy frost or extreme warm weather. Here in the Netherlands we can have it both. I try to minimize sudden temperature changes as much as I can. It is not only good for the fish, but what is far more important is that it is very good for the micro organisms. The micro organisms do not like sudden changes in their habitat, in any sense of the word. And they usually stick to all the surfaces in your system, including the inner walls from the pipes in your system, and if those surfaces are subjected to extreme warm or cold conditions the micro organisms will only have a very small window during the season where they can thrive in the most optimal conditions. By minimizing the temperature changes as much as possible in the entire system you can extend that window of optimal conditions.
But imagine this, your fish tank water has a certain temperature, regardless if your fish tank is buried or not. But when you pump that water through a pipe that is baking in the sun or that is subjected to freezing temperatures, the micro organisms go from one temperature to a much higher or lower temperature in a very short amount of time, and that is not what micro organisms like. A good percentage of the micro organisms that you pump through that pipe will shut down, and that is not preferable. And the same story goes for very cold weather. And since you pump water through those pipes 24 hours a day we are talking about a substantial loss of potential capacity from the micro organisms if you do not do something to prevent those sudden temperature changes. I used regular insulation that is used for insulating the pipes from regular heating systems where it would fit. I mean, it does not fit 100%, but it fits good enough. And I tied it with zip ties.
At the end of the day it is all about keeping the micro organisms happy. If you succeed in doing that your fish and your plants will do well as well.
Seeing your setup would be very interesting.
@@vaazig Yeah, one of these days I might do a video about my setup. I should write a script first, because although it is not the largest setup in the world, there is a lot to talk about.
I'd like to see it too if you ever post it.
Sounds like an interesting system.
Cheers.
@@RobsAquaponics Reply here if you do. I'm intrigued.
@@RobsAquaponics Yesterday I posted a new video with a tour of my setup :-)
carp is the best one for mexico, low maintenance, sold everywhere as baby fish for like 0.50 usd and need just some easy to get food and an air pump (they get stressed so use an air pump stone thing)
Are they just common European carp Miles?
@@RobsAquaponics almost all kind of carp are like this but the carps found in mexico where introduced by spanish people
Here in the desert southwest of USA, my koi pond is thriving, but I'm finding it hard to resist breaking out into aquaponics on the side.
Appreciate your videos, thanks.
No problem SP. 👍
I hope the build goes smoothly when the time comes.
Way way back when I first started looking at alternative fish foods I found that:
1. alternative fish foods were worth more than commercial fish foods. Eg worms can sell for more than fish per kg.
2. fish nutrition is really really complicated and really specific for each type of fish.
3. Feeding alternative fish foods can harm your fish. Eg trout can handle really high protein diets but feed them too many black soldier fly larvae and the fat kills them. Whereas gold fish can't handle any where near the same amounts of protein and if you try their kidneys pack in.
Thanks for that Stuart. I had anothe Aqua designer tell me it would take around 3 hours a day to make the food for his fish due to the number he had. It wasn't feasible as a labour cost or due to the dedicated space required.
@@RobsAquaponics Yeah economies of scale bite fast in pretty much every aspect of aquaculture.
This is a good thing to know especially if raising fish for (live) resale.
We have cold temperature issues here. We have tried channel catfish and tilapia with mixed results. We currently have goldfish, which are the big survivors. I'm looking at getting sunfish/bluegill, which are supposed to tolerate cold temperatures.
Nice one JH. 👍 Are trout an option there?
@@RobsAquaponics Maybe, but trout are heat sensitive and sometimes we get spikes. Can't win, right?
Love your channel have been watching you for years! Just an FYI in regards to propagation; tilapia reproduce like mad in captivity. Fantastic fish for hot climates. 😇
Have seen a few folks find them pop up in filters, sumps & grow beds. 😥
Cheers mate.
Learn about Aquaponics 🐟 🍓🍅 with my "Backyard Aquaponics for Beginners" Guide for only US$19.95.
You can see the guide in action on my website,
► www.bitsouttheback.com/aquaponics-guide
Or, buy directly here,
► bit.ly/AquaponicsBeginnersGuide
Don't forget to click the subscribe button if you enjoyed the video,
bit.ly/Subscribe2Rob
& share the clip around if you think it may help others too.👍
Cheers all & have a top one. 🐟 🌱🍅
Rob
I used the Catfish shark from the pet store, they are the same thing as the Swai you find in the frozen fish section.
If you can get dubia roches in Aus it may be worth a go. Non invasive and easier to handle than crickets in my reptile hobby
I have seen some folks grow roaches but more for other animal feeds. Will have a look though.
Cheers Mate.
@@RobsAquaponics only dubia roaches though. They can't jump, are silent other than moving around, can't climb smooth plastic containers, and require very high humidity and warmth to breed and so are non invasive in most parts of north america. They are also more nutritious for reptiles than crickets. Some don't take them though, they don't have the eye catching erratic movement patterns of crickets to light up the hunting instinct.
Garden Gandalf, what's your subscriber demo? Seems a lot of your instructions are for the States... 🇺🇸
Over 50% are from the US with only about 10% coming from here in Australia.
India, UK, Canada, Philipines are next in line.
In the UK the weather is pretty awful most of the year, so the choice of fish we can have isn't great.
I had a pond before getting interested in aquaponics so it made sense to keep Koi. Aeration during any heatwave is essential and I've lost a few even with powerful air stones and a waterfall.
I have seen a few grow carp for the table there Alex. Would that interest you or too boney?
@@RobsAquaponics We do have a couple of grass carps that we got when we had a poor filter and problems with blanket weed. We did say that they could get harvested when we got them, but carps are very bony though .
As it is they're not friendly, they're not pretty and they eat a lot... 😅
Bluegill are delicious. I never raised them, but fished them out of the lake I lived on.
Just found your channel , as I’m looking at starting my own aquaponics, outstanding info. Very inspiring . Would you recommend starting off with something small? With ornamental fish? I plan on getting a large setup to harvest fish for meat also
I think it's just as easy to start off with the table fish. In some cases they work out cheaper as well. I would recommend that the system is fully cycled before you add any fish at all.
Happy growing.
Hey bob , how low in temp does your water get too . Mine here in Toowoomba is at 10 c already . Lucky I only have gold fish in my experiment system .
It can get as low as 9°C but it's a slow drop so the large Jades do OK. At the moment it's sitting at 17°C but I also have had a heater on for the past week at night.
link to the north east usa channel you mentioned?
He's a supporter Jak & sent me the video to use as B roll.
Sorry to get your hopes up.
@@RobsAquaponics aaawwwwww dam
@@RobsAquaponics swear, the north keeps it like secrets
What would be a good setup for a balcony
An aquarium or small storage tote container would be best I think Jarrad. I'm on the lookout for a second-hand aquarium I can use to build for our deck here at the moment. There will be a video once it's all sorted. 😉😉
Thank you for all the wonderful information. Was wondering would it be possible to combine fish with table snails (escargot) in the same system, or should they be separated?
I think you could grow the snails in an aquaponics grow bed & would love to see someone set up a farm like that. 👍👍 I would also make sure that you include compost worms in the media beds to help break down the waste from the snails as well.
Greetings from US, Phoenix az!
Hi There Richard. Just had an Ex Arizonian over for afternoon tea yesterday. 😉👍
So with having fish to give the nutrients to the plants do you have to use any extra nutrients or do the fish do it all, its a hard one to think of in a newb wanting to give this a try either aquaponics or just hydroponics 👍👍
Calcium & potassium are generally required to be added on the side. Iron & magnesium as well in some systems. Calcium & potassium can be added as pH adjusters & common garden amendments for iron (DTPA chelated iron) & magnesium (Epsom salts) can be used to add those elements as required.
Many will also add in a kelp/seaweed powder or liquid to make sure that any trace elements can also be provided.
For me, I'm in it for the fish but if only wanted plants I'd stick with hydroponics. 😉
Hope that helps a little.
I like Rainbow trout , but I am a Rainbow so I am biased lol
🤣👍👍
Fair enough Ange. 😁
Hey, what is the best fish for algae control, looking for something to eat the alage of the sides of the tank. Heard plecos are good but not sure about their temperature range. Our system can get down to 10 degrees. Thanks
Not 100% sure sorry mate.
This looks like a fairly recent post if that helps at all,
aquariumfishcity.com/cold-water-algae-eaters/
Sorry it took so long to reply as well mate.
Cheers.
Do you have any information on grow rates between different hydroponic techniques (DWC vs ebb n flow vs NFT, etc.)? I'm having a hard time finding studies or articles that aren't just ads for one pre-made system or another. I'm well aware that the different setups are more concerned with the type of crop you're intending to grow, but I'm still having a hard time finding solid information on growth rates.
I don't sorry. I do know that media beds are a great all-around method for the backyard grower as they look after bio & to a lesser extent solids filtration.
So I have a question about the possibility of having a aquaponics system that included ducks fish and prawns. The duck pond as a sump tank to pump into the fish tank then flow to the prawn tank then flow to a filter then flow from the filter into grow beds back to the duck pond so the fish can eat the the feed the ducks drop in the water and the prawns can eat the waste and left over feed that makes it to them. I am hoping that sutch a system could potentially provide duck eggs and meat along with fish prawns and vegetables, mostly if not completely off of the food that is being wasted by the ducks into the pond already. Also it would solve the problem of having to drain and clean the duck pond once a week.
Hey Taylor. Sorry for the delay in responding.
Ducks really mess up the water so it wouldn't be clean enough to send to the fish tank for most species. I've seen tilapia feed on waste but I don't know a lot about it. I also don't know a lot about freshwater prawns either. I think you may be better looking into growing them separately first then trying to intergrade them into a larger system. I only know of one bloke that grows using prawns & he's in either the Philippines or Indonesia from memory.
I have seen folks build "Quackponics/Duckponics" systems. Have a search on YT & a few vid's will pop up.
Sorry I'm not much help.
I should try to find someone doing aquaponics in the States (where I am, so similar legal framework), but I wonder if you have any thoughts on brackish food animals (fish &/or crustacean). I went on an eattheweeds binge and would like to try my hand growing some of the beachside edible plants he mentions (he is based in FL; some California invasives [legal in my state because winter kills everything] like Mesembryanthemum crystallinum and Carpobrotus species would probably be easier to buy, though I am very interested in Batis and Salicornia, and in seakaleand Crithmum maritimum which I learned about elsewhere). Since these normally grow in saline beaches, I assume they would like brackish or even salt water in the critter tanks.
I haven't really looked into brackish water systems sorry Erik. There are a number of fish that could do OK in those systems but you'd have to look at what is locally available.
When raising table fish like jade perch or tilapia about how many days/months does it take for the fish to reach harvestable size? I live in a cold climate and wonder if I’d be able to raise a school during the warm summer months.
Tilapia can be as fast as 4-6 months depending on water temp & variety. It's probably best to ask at a local hatchery to see what's available for your climate.
BTW, if you're in Australia, tilapia are a no go.
Currently here in New Zealand, we can only have Goldfish in our aquaponics. So frustrating as I would love to have something we could eat!
I've spoken to a number of folks over there that feel the same mate. One went to ornamentals & made a bit of coin by selling the fish.
Just curious, what is the proper way to dispose of a tilapia fish if you were to catch a wild one?
I would use the iki Jime method myself Jayson.
www.ikijime.com/fish/tilapia/
I use the same method for our native species here.
Hope that helps & happy fishing mate. 🎣
Lake Michigan yellow perch best tasting in world , walleye are next for taste.
All the rest of world was hungry when they started eating carp and catfish species.
My fish got stuck in the air thingy for a few hours and its back is broken. Will it make it or will I have to flush it to end its misery?
Sorry to hear that KR & sorry I didn't see your post as well.
What happened to the fish in the end?
Could you please make a video on quackpoincs? I think it would be just ducky.
We do plan on getting ducks so might play around with a quackponics system down the road yet, not until we get a farm though.
I’m thinking of trout for Denmark, Western Australia. What do you think?
IU just had a look at the climate data & it looks like they would do well there PMcB 👍
Rob, is Aquaponics cost effective?
It can be on the commercial & backyard scale. I saw a bloke work out that his fish cost him between $14-20 a kg which was a bit more than he was paying for frozen fish at the stoopidmarket. The bonus was that he was also harvesting veg, had fresh fish on demand, knew what food it consumed & conditions it grew in.
Wait, so in Queensland, if you catch and kill tilapia, you can't take them home to eat or throw in the compost? Going by the sign @1:13, if you catch one, you have to release it, and then call to report it?
In the small print above the circled statement, it directs you to "...kill it humanely and dispose of it away from the water..." so I would assume that if you caught, killed, and reported, then disposing of it in your compost would qualify as "away from the water"
@@robertthompson5527 "kill it humanely;" I'd love to see PETA's reaction to that.
@@thomasbecker9676 I think I'd try to drown it all the way home... 🤪
@@robertthompson5527 I'm more bothered by the fact that they won't let you eat it. Talk about food waste.
@@thomasbecker9676 I think I'd try to "dispose" of it right to my table.
👍 Thanks
No problem 👍
Have you ever tried crab or prawns in one?
does it smell out the neighbors / Can you have cray fish too
Hi Linda. It smells the same as a pond really.
Just want to say that goldfish actually are quite big fish. They can grow to 40 cm and 2 kg/4 pounds. And unless you are going for a self-sufficient, survival setup I would recommend ornamental fish. If you can farm something that is popular in the aquarium hobby you'll get a much better price per pound. Small fish poop as much as big fish. You just need more of them. I'm going for small cyprinids and livebearers next year my self.
I'm thinking of building an aquaponic system for my mum because she loves her vege garden but we rarely eat fish here. I do like the idea of keeping fish and selling the excess fish to manage the number's to fish stores. The whole idea is currently percolating in my brain. I'm more than a little tempted to try building the system while she's away on holiday and surprising her when. She gets back
In New Zealand we can only legally have Goldfish - nothing for the table sadly.
How about ells? I saw a chap saying he was going to try them.
Wow beautiful
Cheers mate. 😁👍
Does anyone use crustaceans successfully, like yabbies, in aquaponics? Also, a light above the fish tank attracts insects which fall in and are eaten.
Some folks will include them in the setups but they don't produce as much waste per animal as table fish generally speaking.
I know folks that have lights over their systems. Not something I've tried myself as of yet as I figure the fish need some darkness.
Cheers Jim.
Best to keep fish that native to the area you live in.
Very true!
what about mosquitoes do you get swarms of them?
No mozzies as they generally won't breed in running water + the fish would knock off any larvae in the tanks.
Hope those answers help some.
can you get solar pump?
Some folks will hun theirs off solar pumps. 18 or 24v would be best for a system the size of ours. 👍
When are they going to make tilapia legal as endemic .
I'd say they may in time.
No snails used?
We had snails in the water in our first system & they slowly disappeared. It was probably a good thing as we started to find them in the pipes & hoses which could have caused issues if their numbers increased.
I think it was the slightly lower pH may have affected their shell development but could be wrong.
How about fresh water prawn ? have variety rather than everyday eat fish.... haha
I have seen folks use them but no one that has grown them out to a table size prawn StK. Have seen a lot of the smaller ones used as filter cleaners.
Quackponics 🤣
😁😁🦆🦆
Aqui só é proibida a criação de tilapias na região norte onde fica a amazonia, no restante do pais a criação comercial de tilapias e legalizada.
Eu não sabia disso, obrigado Ramone.
Espero que esteja tudo bem com você companheiro. 😁👍👍
I didn't know that, thanks Ramone.
Hope all is well with you mate.
❤🎉
😁👍
😂Quackponics!😂
Way off topic.... You should braid that massive beard or cuff it. It would look awesome
🤣 B does braid it often but I think only once for a video.