Fish

[Tomthumb]

What would be the least number of fish I could put in my system and have it run correctly. The fish tanks are a total of 450 gallons. There are 10 growbeds with plants just being put in. Tom

[Rob]

I'm still a newbie Tomthumb, but many people run the system off a small number of goldfish and the like. That's quite a good sized system though, so i expect some of the more knowledgable members here will say start with 20 fingerlings or something similar.

You can of course run no fish (or a small number) and supplement with Seasol or equivalent.

Rob

[Tomthumb]

Thanks Rob. I have used some maxicorp but the plants don't seemed to be doing any better. They grew then stopped for some reason. They look healthy. Just waiting for the next spurt.

[Rob]

Is your PH ok, and do you have plenty of sun?

I assume your summer over there should be providing plenty...

Pics would help others diagnose any potential issues, as well as a description of pump rate, flood and drain/constant flood, etc etc. Plus we all love looking at pics!

Rob

[Tomthumb]

The Ph isn't great 8.2. Lots of sun. Very hot, 100 plus degrees, every day for most of July and Aug. I buried the sump pumps in the ground and was suprise how hot the water got. The media in the grow beds heat the water up quite a bit. The fish tanks are above ground and are not as hot. 8 of the grow beds are flood and drain and 2 are constant flood. The pump is a Laguana max-flo 1500 gallons an hour. Figuring on how to sent photo's at the moment.

[Walks-In-Storms]

While I've been all through that, made changes that have now held temperatures in the fish tank here in South Texas (as high, thus far this summer, as 115 degrees F - 46 Celsius) at 80 degrees (F - 26 Celsius), everything I would say would have to do with sacrilegiously hateful mathematical calculations (Fourier Analysis), physics, and the odious like.

Even worse, my "common sense," seems to vary widely from that of gentlemen like Rupert, Murray, Yabbies, and others - Redneck, I'm told, can't count to ten.... such that I really wouldn't know which of scientific terms like "glug," "slurp," "a handful," and even "too much" and "careful" to use. You - I, anyway - have to have some idea of "how much" - my "common sense" always has to do with K.I.C.C ("Keep It Complicated, Cutey") measure and measurement, things like weight, volume, length, width, circumference, diameter, and all that stodgy stuff. I have to know where I've started in order to determine where I am, in other words. Not much help here.

Whatever you do, though, K.I.S.S. - and use "commons sense."

Who knows, you could become a "bloke?"

Just kidding, guys - no offense, now.....

[Tomthumb]

I don't take offense with anything anyone says. Who knows what goes on in the minds of people who have knowing producitve to say. My goal is to gather useful information about aquaponics and interact with other who are also interested in the same. Keep up the good work.

[llewelynj]

size of GB?
size of system?
age of system?
what are you feeding plants?
have you put fish in?
how is system going at moment
how often do you test PH etc