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

If your talking about aquaponics- fish make solids and ammonia. Solids can be filtered out easy. 2 beneficial bacteria develop in everything the water touches, plumbing, side of the tank and real good in grow beds. The 2 bacteria convert ammonia into Nitrite and Nitrate plants eat the N's plus other thing in the water. Just like in Mom Natures pond.
jim

__________________
If an elected official is in charge of a budget and that budget is not balanced, the elected official is not eligible for re-election until the budget is balanced.
Be a leader not a follower

The reason I say this is fish eat the food and the excrement is broken down by microbes.... the elements in the excrement will then be disolved in the water to be absorbed by the plants roots. So the plants are fed as a result of microbial action .... therefore plants are a byproduct of microbial action on fish excrement.

I explained this conversion thing about the urea to nitrate problem in cold conditions

I know nothing about biological filters but I do know soil chemistry and I assumed it must work the same way. When fertilizing crops growing in cold soil it is better to pick a fertilizer with more of the nitrogen in the nitrate form because urea/ammonia converts to nitrite (a form toxic to plants) and then from nitrite to nitrate .... but in cool soils the nitrite to nitrate conversion is slower than the conversion to nitrite so you can get a build up of toxic nitrites.

So I was winging it when I assumed the biological filter worked in the same manner

.... but so far no one challenged me !!!

I don't use hydroponics. I don't like to buy the chemicals, test, and mix them. It is a lot easier to throw a few fish in a tank and forget about it.

I grow just about the same thing in aquaponics that I do in the hay bales and raise beds. The corn and sunflowers do better in the raised beds.
Tomatos taste better grown in aquaponics. The plants seem to produce more and produce longer in the aquaponics.
All the ways are much easier than planting in the ground but aquaponics is the easiest. Just remember to feed the fish.

Are you using the output from your biological filter to water the plants in the different systems that you use? If so ............ thats very interesting

I don't use a filter.
Never saw the need of having one.

I do use the water for potted plants also.

Hmmmmmmmmm .....please tell me exactly what you do with the water that comes out of the fish tank ?????????

You probably have a biological filter but don't know it

There is a pump in the bottom of my fish tank.
It is on a timer and runs 15 minutes each hour.
From the pump the water goes straight to the beds, filters through, then returns to the fish tank. The plant beds are the filter.

Nice set up pancho.
yup beds will function as the Bio-filter.
Johnny only waste you should get out of you Bio should be Nitrates/Nitrites.
only time you should disturb it is if it is clogged but solids should be removed prior to you bio to lessen that chance.
Cyclone filters are the most common choice. though a mechanical filter is sometimes use after.

I need to study up on this more.... esp about biological filtration.

See Pancho you had a filter and did not know it. I though for a moment you were watering the plants but not returning the drainage back to the fish tank (which would not be aquaponics)

Would one of the stock tank heaters keep the water at the right temp.

pancho, will you post more detailed links/pics of your setup? id love to know as much as possible about your aquaponics, maybe pm me? i have lots of aquriums set up

NO PM ..... he just cobbled this thing together with whatever he could find and his experiment is working

Inquiring minds want to know more

Details please Pancho

yes please!

__________________
He who thinks he knows, doesn't. He who knows he doesn't know, knows.~ Joseph Campbell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeMrK...AE7062ADE5A19C

It is really pretty simple.
I did some research on aquaponics. Then I set up a small system to see if it would really work. It worked great.
I built a larger system then an even larger one.
I kept the idea of aquaponics but skipped quite a bit of the extra stuff some people add on to make it look a lot harder than it is.

All it takes is a container to hold the water and the fish.
More containers are filled with, gravel in my case, something to hold a plant upright.
Put a pump in the fish tank. Add piping to the grow tanks and a return line to the fish tank.
Turn it on. Feed the fish and pick the vegetables.

Its so simple even a caveman can do it

( remember those Geico Insurance commercials on TV)


So Pancho .... you water container plants with it ..... just like you would use manure tea or Miracle Grow ?.... actually this stuff is manure tea .... fish manure tea!

Yes, I have the roof drain from my house running into the fish tank. It keeps it filled just about all of the time. Once a week I water all container plants from my fish tank. Even put some on my raised beds.

If you really want container plants to grow just get a few ducks and put in a small 150 gallon pond for them. You will have all of the manure tea you could want to water plants.
I used to do that. Had some muscovey ducks. I had to change the water anyway so put it on my raised beds. Finally got so over run with ducks I had to get rid of them.

http://www.fastonline.org/content/view/15/29/

This guy actually has some brilliant ideas to raising fish in a barrel. Your not going to raise 10k pounds that way(lot of barrels), but you could certainly raise enough for an occasionally meal. I have also seen people raise them after the fry stage in kiddie swimming pools. Being in N Florida, that is going to be the route I try this year.
http://tilapiasource.com/
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/pu...le_55832.shtml
http://www.tilapiafarmingathome.com/Pages/default.aspx

Those r some of the sites I have been scouring and a lot of videos on youtube are really great too.

Amber, what are your plans for the cold spells we have here in FL? I know that it doesnt get cold compared to alot of places, but it seems that the water temo might still get too cold. A buddy of mine had ice a couple of inches thick in his rain barrels year before last.

Goldfish grow to their surroundings, but other fish do not necessarily. Some fish grow so big they break their tank. If you wanted to grow goldfish to pan size, you would need to give them a large tank and let them have no winter or a short winter. Often times you will see an outside pond full of small goldfish because they have winter, and there isn't enough food for all of them to grow.

A better fish than goldfish may be koi. They are simply bigger and will be pan size in a couple of years if they have enough to eat, I know ours were and we had a nearly 7 month winter.

__________________
Nothing is as strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength - St. Francis de Sales