Aquaponics Fail Grow Not enough Fish Poop for good Yield.

So just for the hell of it I started an Aquaponics grow last year that failed miserably. Dont get me wrong the plants grew and budded but have a look for your self.... So yeah I think it was not having enough gold fish , only had 5 and they are 3x the size they were when i started the seeds.
Interesting potential though, this was done with a 26 watt led grow panel on top and a 100 watt cfl for side light. The poor lil stems couldn't even hold the weight of the leaves.
Still there is potential I think with a LOT MORE fish and real lights. Just though some people might find this interesting. Maybe someone who has grown at least 1 full harvest from seed to cure can do better. This is truly as organic as it gets though lol. water fish water pump to circulate and add air. If only I had known about Rollitup earlier I may have went and got more fish or MUCH more powerful lights, alas this grow was pure NEWBIE instinct.

I tried, I failed. Now soil atm maybe switch to ebbnflow who knows lol.

two nights ago I just bought five gold fish myself...

I plan to set up a 50 gal aquarium to use as my main water res. I wont depend on the fish, but just use the tank as a water storage so I always have good water.

What do you feed the fish? I raise black soldier flies and the larvae are great food, but I've read that goldfish do better on a vegetarian based diet. If I can keep the gld fsh alive, I'll probably start raising Oscar's then maybe Talapia (which you can eat).

jjfoo said:

two nights ago I just bought five gold fish myself...

I plan to set up a 50 gal aquarium to use as my main water res. I wont depend on the fish, but just use the tank as a water storage so I always have good water.

What do you feed the fish? I raise black soldier flies and the larvae are great food, but I've read that goldfish do better on a vegetarian based diet. If I can keep the gld fsh alive, I'll probably start raising Oscar's then maybe Talapia (which you can eat).

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Dried meal worms and crickets crushed between the fingers into small crumbs daily . A single slice of orange with inner pulp exposed or cut open, or shredded piece of lime once a week. Just my opinion but get more fish if your doing a 50g though. the more the better after failing I found successful growers use upwards of 1 fish per gallon. so 50 lil goldfish in your case. As long as you keep the SURFACE of the tank covered with floating plastic sheet or styrofoam algae wont be a prob at all even with light on the insides, I didnt have a single sucker fish and never had growth on my tank walls over the 3 month duration i didnt even use a filter, just a water pump through a broken filter to create a waterfall effect for Oxygen , could have just used a airstone and no pump. But ya MORE FISH the better. If a few die off just let them decompose in the tank and add a few new ones. You want all that grime and gross stuff =D Also spraying the water from the fish tank directly on the leaves seems to make them happy.

What were your nitrate ppm levels throughout the grow?

Right now currently I have a thousand gallon koi pond in my garage which I am currently growing lettuce, tomatoes, parsley and cilantro under. They are doing great and instead of growing my other girls in that, I am simply using the water from my fish pond to water them.

The thing right now is that even with 50+ goldfish and 4 koi I can't keep my nitrate above 20 ppm. I have been trying to figure out for a long time how hot of water I can feed the girls as well but no real answer.

The other thing that confused me is no matter where my nitrate ppm goes it doesn't change my TDS. This seems bizarre to me because everyone in hydroponics checks their TDS to give them an idea of how much fertilizer basically is in the water, but in my aquaponics setup their is no correlation between nitrate and TDS. very confusing stuff.

Also coming from the koi pond thing I know how to build really efficient bio filters and settlement tanks. Using these methods you can feed the fish ALOT more then you would be able to otherwise because all of you're waste collects in one place for easy removal. This allows you bio filter to work more efficiently because its not trying to break down all the waste in the water just the ammonia to nitrate. So basically in this method you can have tons of fish and still have completle control of you're water paramaters.

Sorry to ramble but I have been messing with this aquaponics things for a while and its nice to have somewhere to talk about it.

itsjustaplant said:

The other thing that confused me is no matter where my nitrate ppm goes it doesn't change my TDS. This seems bizarre to me because everyone in hydroponics checks their TDS to give them an idea of how much fertilizer basically is in the water, but in my aquaponics setup their is no correlation between nitrate and TDS. very confusing stuff.

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What type of meter are you using for TDS?

Many meters are commonly EC (electrical conductivity) meters and only measure salt concentrations. When I mix organic nutes it doesn't affect the EC very much. With ionic salts it does.

But, nitrate is a salt so I'd expect it to raise EC.

jjfoo said:

...read that goldfish do better on a vegetarian based diet. If I can keep the gld fsh alive, I'll probably start raising Oscar's then maybe Talapia (which you can eat).

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Oscar are also very good eating. I've caught many in the Everglades.

this is a cool project . i grew some tomatoes on a raft i built frome fallen logs about 6" diameter. with some promix on it to get things started planted my starts and tied it off in the middle of the pond at the vocational school where i took horticulture. they grew grate! when we pulled it in in the fall the root mass was crazy like probly to the bottom of the pond or real close to it. iv often day dreamed of repeating the process with weed but never went for it mainly cause i dont own a pond but props to u guys that have done this as its pretty cool

I think you need a filter and better light. I have an aquaponics setup for veggies, just growing lettuce now. The filter is the most important part, its where the food for the plants is produced.

quietguy420 said:

So just for the hell of it I started an Aquaponics grow last year that failed miserably. Dont get me wrong the plants grew and budded but have a look for your self.... So yeah I think it was not having enough gold fish , only had 5 and they are 3x the size they were when i started the seeds.
Interesting potential though, this was done with a 26 watt led grow panel on top and a 100 watt cfl for side light. The poor lil stems couldn't even hold the weight of the leaves.
Still there is potential I think with a LOT MORE fish and real lights. Just though some people might find this interesting. Maybe someone who has grown at least 1 full harvest from seed to cure can do better. This is truly as organic as it gets though lol. water fish water pump to circulate and add air. If only I had known about Rollitup earlier I may have went and got more fish or MUCH more powerful lights, alas this grow was pure NEWBIE instinct.

Click to expand...

I was pretty skeptical when I started reading, but the pictures actually changed my mind. Your plants don't look unhealthy, just under-illuminated. The stems and leaves are green, buds did manage to form...I think you should add more fish, get yourself an HID (hps or switchable hps/mh if you're running one room) and keep trying this!

Don't give up on it quite yet...

Jerry Garcia said:

I was pretty skeptical when I started reading, but the pictures actually changed my mind. Your plants don't look unhealthy, just under-illuminated. The stems and leaves are green, buds did manage to form...I think you should add more fish, get yourself an HID (hps or switchable hps/mh if you're running one room) and keep trying this!

Don't give up on it quite yet...

Click to expand...

Howdy,

I plan to sustain motherplants under aquaponics. I think it's good to start mothers in aquaponics because they arguably don't need the same growth you would expect from crop plants. Also you are building up plant mass while bacterium can build up. I'm either going to do a piss fed setup where instead of a trip system I have constant fed through spaghetti hose or a r-DWC.

I'm moving quite far from where I am now and am likely going to rebuild a larger aquarium as soon as I settle into my new place in upcoming months.

Cheers,
captain.koons

quietguy420 said:

Dried meal worms and crickets crushed between the fingers into small crumbs daily . A single slice of orange with inner pulp exposed or cut open, or shredded piece of lime once a week. Just my opinion but get more fish if your doing a 50g though. the more the better after failing I found successful growers use upwards of 1 fish per gallon. so 50 lil goldfish in your case. As long as you keep the SURFACE of the tank covered with floating plastic sheet or styrofoam algae wont be a prob at all even with light on the insides, I didnt have a single sucker fish and never had growth on my tank walls over the 3 month duration i didnt even use a filter, just a water pump through a broken filter to create a waterfall effect for Oxygen , could have just used a airstone and no pump. But ya MORE FISH the better. If a few die off just let them decompose in the tank and add a few new ones. You want all that grime and gross stuff =D Also spraying the water from the fish tank directly on the leaves seems to make them happy.

Click to expand...

Do not give advise to let a dead fish rot in a fish tank this is a vector for disease to spread which could be lethal to the crop. In commercial aquaponics any fish showing signs of illness are immediately removed and either killed or quarantined.

It would be hard to maintain both a waterfall and cover the surface of the water to prevent algae. If you were to do this your goal would be to block out light. Some fish thrive in low light but most do not. I'd keep a couple plecos or other fish that will eat algae. A half dozen baby bristlenose plecos are enough to keep a 50gal aquarium clean of algae probably less to maintain it. A filter is not needed but large amounts of oxygen are I would suggest more than the normal amount used in either an aquarium supporting the amount of fish you have and the root mass you are tending to because both use oxygen.

The fish counts can far exceed 5" per 1gal of water in aquaponics, you want to push the fish counts because that's your source of food.

Goldfish are not the way to go. Try catfish or tilapia or something.

I did research on this and saw a picture of a commercial operation in Florida. They only grew leafy greens as the fish poop is very low in P and K. And flowering plants, didn't. Lettuce did very well. And it was an organic crop. And making $$$. It is very high in N. Had a friend get decent buds using a 26 watt glow-panel which he gifted me. Nothing to brag about in size he said..But the buds did serve their intended function. Read up on it. That is why I didn't try it. It does purify the water to keep the fish health.

I did research on this and saw a picture of a commercial operation in Florida. They only grew leafy greens as the fish poop is very low in P and K. And flowering plants, didn't. Lettuce did very well. And it was an organic crop. And making $$$. It is very high in N. Had a friend get decent buds using a 26 watt glow-panel which he gifted me. Nothing to brag about in size he said..But the buds did serve their intended function. Read up on it. That is why I didn't try it. It does purify the water to keep the fish health.

Talapia are good eating and is what I planning to use.

big fish / big poop. Like BG said catfish or tilapia or salmon, or pike, or trout. Any fresh water fish you can raise and then grill up. Too bad mahi mahi and halibut are saltwater fish. Unless you are grwoing kelp lol. You could even live off the set up. Eat the fish, grow and eat some veggies, and smoke some fish poop grown buds.

what you can grow depends on what you can feed them.