The truth about the Aquaponics Gardening Course

Here is a review of the course that I had taken this winter. Its a nice and easy course, yet very informative.  I would like to take further in depth training at one of these facilities to have hands on training.  This lecture gives all the basics that one should know before getting into the aquaponics. I think aquaponics is very rewarding at the end of the day when you sit back and see what you have done and how a well tuned your system is and can be.

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here is the link

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Raising crayfish in Aquaponics

     My experience with using crawfish (or cray fish depending where your from) has mixed feelings.
Now I dont for some reason have any pictures of my set up but let me explain my pros and cons about raising Crawfish.

I was doing an experimental set up with a flood and drain system with a small deep well attached.

 not wanting to use any fish because of the cooler temps in NW Arkansas that time of year I decided on local creek cawfish. First lets just note that when catching these quick lil buggers it would help if you had a net. But caught about 20 small to medium crawfish and also a few tadpoles (different story) and one of those bottom sucker fish, and also 3 snails.
  
    I placed all in a small styrofoam cooler without a lid and placed them in the back seat of the truck. That was mistake number one, when I got home, half of the crawfish had escaped and were all over the truck. Took about an hour to find them.

   My patio is inclosed with a pool dug into the ground. I built everything the same level an currently pouring concrete around the pool.  Everything is closed in.

    Now to the point. Once placing the crawfish in the aquaponics. I built a wire box from old chicken wire so that they can climb on and also cut some pvc to place on the bottom for privacy.

   The next day, I discovered 2 crawfish in my pool, now remeber it is cool out, so off I go with snorkle gear and catch the 2 and place them back in the 75 gallon tank.
I thought well that was odd couldnt really see how they could climb out.
Next day same thing, but 4 this time. back with the snorkel gear to chase the crawfish down.

    So I watched them for a while noticed that when the water drains from the grow bed and the water table rises that its only 3 inches from the top, so I took out a few gallons until it was 6 inches thinking maybe that would do.

   Next morning nothing was in the pool, I was happy, until the next morning, 3 more were in the pool and was on its way. starting to almost enjoy the cold water swim now, but not quite.

    I realized then that they were climbing up the folded part of the liner. after a month of all this and modifications I gave up and brought them back to the creek, it was time to use my pool and didnt need them in it.

    But to the good part of it all. The natural habitat worked very well. I even dipped up duck weed from a local pond. The water stayed clear and I fed the crawfish fish pellets and they really loved the sweet feed that I still had from when I had a pig. I enjoyed having them and watching the lil habitat work. The plants seem to well too, the basil grew tall and had some cabbage taking off.
I think I would like to do this again but with a tank that has slick sides.
   The nutriets from the habitat looked to be balanced even though I never took any test.

So if you see a few crawfish in the creek and have a container that will hold them, do grab some, very beneficial, But if you have a pool close by and they can escape, well its best to just leave them where they are, lol

Oh! and about the tad poles, well they do grow! and it is so awesome to watch them get their legs and

see them change their heads and then next you see them sitting on the side of the tank and jumping, and then..... well then you see them under your lawn furniture are taking a dip in your pool. So maybe not the best idea, but it was fun.

If you have had any experience of raising craw-fish in aquaponics, please leave a comment, I would like to know how to do it without sharing my swimming pool.

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Aquaponics Ratio Simplified

Once you have your system up and running the key question on everything is how much?
how much feed  for my fish, how much fish for my system, how much ph, how much nitrates and so on.

Well lets just make it simple for you shall we?

    Lets start with feeding your fish since the feed is the start of it all.
Normally with adult fish they will eat about 1 - 2 percent of their body weight.
While young fish as in fry and fingerlings will eat about 6 to 8 percent of their body weight.
Now since most everyone is using the popular Tilapia, that is what we will base or numbers on, other fish may eat a lil more or a lil less, you will just have to test it for yourself. Easy way to do this is to start off with a 1/4 cup of food depending on how many fish you have. sprinkle that on the top of your fish tank and see if they eat that up within 15 minutes. Wasted food will hurt your system, so this should important to figure out. 

   Next we will learn the stocking density of your system. Based on  media or hybrid base system,
we will stock 1 pound of fish per 5 to 10 pounds of water in your tank, so if you have a 300 gallon stock tank, then up to 30 pounds of fish can be added, or if they are fingerlings or fry in a new system, just add 1 fish per every 5 to 10 gallons of water since usually they get upwards of a pound a piece.
Now! That being said studies are being made and stocking density can actually be made with less, basically unless you are aiming for high fish yields you can probably get by with half the fish, and still produce the same amount of nutrients needed for the plants and have a cleaner system.

   Your Oxygen level should be above 3ppm but would be better if it was 6 ppm, basically you can not really have to much oxygen.
Certain fish can withstand less oxygen like the tilapia as in raising trout, you need lots more, and dont forget the cooler the water the better the oxygen count will be.

   We want to target the PH level between 6.8 and 7 in your aquaponic system, this seems to work best for both fish and plants and should be checked weekly or more.. 


   Nitrite and Ammonia levels should not exceed .75.

If you see Ammonia levels rise suddenly, you may have a dead fish in

your tank. If you see Nitrite levels rise you may have damaged the bacteria

environment.

If either of the above circumstances occur, stop feeding

until the levels stabilize, and at the worse, do a 1/3 water

exchange to dilute the solution

   Nitrates can rise as high as 150 ppm without causing a problem, but much

more and  you should consider harvesting some fish and/or adding

additional plants  to your system

   Nothing is solid information and this should be used as a guide line,  everything can change the out put to your system like the type of fish, the water temperature (75 to 80) the type of plant you use, but it is imortant to start yourself a journal so that when you do find what works keep that info for the next system or the next grow bed, of if your father in law wants to build one you can come off knowing how it all works ( yes that is important too)

Please leave comments and questions down below and if you need test strips, look at amazon, or ebay or shop from the aquaponic source ( link above)

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Urbanspace Aquaponics Vancouver

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