talk to me about barrel fish... (fish raised in a barrel)

I'd love a new subforum on this as I've been considering this for some time. I figure its part of being independent from outside sources.

Pancho
Very nice set up. Good example of how aq plants can be grown very close together (way closer then soil grown).
You've definitely caught the fever.
For those that don't know, the aq water is prime water for soil plants.

Cindy -
Sorry I headed down the aquaponics trail.
Raising fish is easy if you Study and follow the basics.
More water makes less density for the fish which is easier on them and it makes problems happen a little slower which gives you time to detect and react.
Plastic barrels can be linked together with Uniseals and a piece of pvc.
Lots of aeration (you can't go overboard there).
Water quality- you have 2 choices replace a pretty good amount of water often or make a bio filter (In aquaponics the grow beds and plants are bio filters).
Fish can be raised indoor or outdoor so It depends on your grow zone.
Outdoor has temp parameters, indoor the water could be heated and extend the fish grow time out to its max.
If you can maintain a water temp then Tilipia are very good choice and they breed easy. Set up a breed tank on the side from your best fish and your investment goes down.
For raising fish you can harvest before maxed out or at maxed out or all at once your choice (I'm not talking aq , just fish in a tank).
Study the chemistry involved in raising fish. That's easy and free. Get a good test kit and know how to use it. And remember as the mass of your fish grow the water changes will grow also, that's why it's best not to overcrowd the fish (that's easy just get more barrels).
jim

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Thanks for the info. I don't mind learning a little about aquaponics too. =0) Is there an alternative fish to use if you can't keep the temps up to 70? I am not sure I want to heat it. That adds expense to it. Anything that will tolerate a little bit colder temps?

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There are confinement operations in traditional agriculture and you can go that direction with fish but you will need close careful management if you do.

The aquaponics works better in warm climates because there are some biochemical conversions in the biological filter which go too slow in cold conditions. Nitrogen in organic form must be converted to first nitrite and then nitrate. The plant can only use the nitrate form and the nitrite form is toxic to plants. The conversion from nitrite to nitrate is slow in cold conditions and can reach levels that will harm the plants. If you kill your plants then you have no way to remove the excess nutrients from the water .... and so it goes back into the fish tank..... to the detriment of the fish. Many of these systems get shut down over winter..... days are too short and heating is to expensive for growing profitably. There are exceptions though.

So, I would be able to do this only in the summer here, I think. And even then, I don't think I could keep the water up to 70 degrees without heat. The ambient temp of the air does get up into the 70s in the summer, but not much hotter than that. hmmm.... Wonder if I could find out how much it would cost to heat the water. This might not be a good fit for my climate.

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"Relish your reading. Make note of the melody of the phrases, the architecture of the page. Let the joy of discovery soak right down to your bones!" Dr. George Grant (paraphrased)

Check youtube under: Aquaponics

The first picture was taken last summer.
The sunflowers and corn are growing in a 10oz red solo cup.

The last picture was taken last week.

It is a suprise how much you can grow in a barrel. Makes digging in the ground
seem like such a waste of energy, money, and time.
I also plant in raised beds full of hay.
No weeding, no hoeing, just pick the vegetables.

The fish will grow slower in cold water. If you just do fish without the plants you can either change the water or use a filter .... similar to the way you do it in an aquarium in your house.

The aquaponics system never provides ideal growing conditions for the plants and plant growth from aquaponics will lag behind plants grown in conventional hydroponics where you have very good control of the nutrients. Also the nutrients for a conventional hydroponic system are not expensive .... which means the value of the fish excrement is really not worth that much to you anyway.

Yes look at youtube..... many of those projects have some fairly pathetic looking plants growing very slowly struggling for survival. Then some are getting a decent result. It will take experience and learning.

Pancho's look's pretty darn good .... but I doubt his corn will produce ears. Stalks looks starved of nutrition .....corn needs lots of nitrogen.

As interesting as I find aquaponics, I don't think it makes sense in my situation. I have lots of garden space. I would just want to do the fish, but keeping the temps up here might cost some cash.

K. FWIW,

Cindy

__________________
"Relish your reading. Make note of the melody of the phrases, the architecture of the page. Let the joy of discovery soak right down to your bones!" Dr. George Grant (paraphrased)

Trout like cold water

The corn produced ears but they weren't much. The corn was the Indian corn, the colored type. I was experimenting with the corn and sunflowers. I wanted to see if I could grow either plants in a 10oz cup.
Tomatos, pepper, squash, cucumbers, and all types of greens do great. They produce better than those planted in the ground.
I can grow plants year round.
I also have some wicking beds hooked up to my aquaponics system. They are real good for growing carrots, onions, turnips, and different root crops.

Yellow perch, bluegill, carp, can handle cold, cool, and warm water. They also don't need as much oxygen in the water as trout. Trout can't tolerate water that gets above 65 degrees.
Small scale recirc systems require close attention to detail, you have to keep in mind that you aren't raising fish in your system. You are really raising bacteria in the biofilter and the fish are a byproduct of the bacterial action.

You have corn in two locations .... the tasseled corn between the sunflowers looks very poor but the other looks decent. Nice project.

I'm no expert here ( I just know enough about this to be dangerous) .... But to me it would seem that the plants are the byproduct of bacterial action..... ?????

I have two cold springs both run a short distance before merging into a polluted stream. My cousin once had them tested for raising trout. I think he said one was good enough for Rainbow and the other one was cleaner and could raise another type of trout .... maybe Brown or Brookies ?

I would like to raise some small scale but have way too many Irons in the fire right now.

I would like to know more about the wicking beds.... also how long have you been doing this?

Thanks.
One bunch is in the 10oz cups. The one that looks bad. The other bunch is in a wicking bed. It looked decent then but didn't do anything either. I think the lack of poliniation was one reason. That and the fact that corn is just not very good in aquaponics. Aquaponics is better for a smaller plants that use a lot of water.

The tank holds 1000 gallons. I need a lot more plant beds. I will be building more this summer. During the winter I raise greens for my rabbits and birds.

In my opinion wicking beds are better than aquaponics.
Some of the half barrels have gravel in the bottom 1/3 and the rest is bedding soil. During the summer I can run one cycle of water through each day and grow any crop. When it rains I don't have to run any water through them. During the hot dry summer the crops grow much better than in the ground.

I started experimenting with different gardening types about 5 years ago when I got tire of tilling up the ground.
I like growing in hay bales also. Last year I planted one vine of louffa gourds in a hay bale. The vines went to the top of my house and down the other side. Grew up my antenna pole and cause it to fall. I picked hundreds of louffa sponges off the one vine.

Pancho thanks for clarifying. So you have a combination of many different methods of growing where you do not use real soil.

Which crops are aquaponics and are some hydroponics ?