Posted: 6/9/2013 6:25:45 PM EDT
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Guys,
A short time ago, I learned about aquaponics. I thought it sounded great, but there was a lot of financial uncertainty in my life and I did not want to get started. Well, I think I'm ready now. For anyone involved in aquaponics, here's my question: What fish should I use? (I would like the option of eating them, so that rules out some choices.) I live on Long Island (New York). The summers get hot, the winters get cold. My plan is to put my aquaponics set up in this really cool "solar room" that was built on to the back of my house by the previous owner. The room is not heated. However, because the room has glass walls, it's always warmer in the room than it is outside. Really hot in the summer, and above freezing in the winter. Trout, Bass, and a couple of others would be great for the winter months, but I'd definitely have to cool the water in the summer. Thoughts? |
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Thoughts? I've learned a lot about it and, if you haven't done so already, check out my Official Backyard Aquaponics Thread that's on the top of page 2. I'm just going to throw out some comments, advice and questions: 1) Since the room does not freeze (you're sure of this?) then you have the luxury of running the system year-round. This is a huge advantage. That does not mean that you will be growing plants or feeding the fish year-round, but you can keep the water circulating in the system so the bacteria stay alive year-round and you don't have to go through the cycling process like I had to again this spring. Whatever fish you may decide to keep can in a sense "hibernate" through the winter. I used Brown Bullhead Catfish that I caught locally around here for my system last summer (2012) and was able to "hibernate" them in my near freezing garage but they were in a stand-alone stock tank with a bubbler/aerator. Now they are back outside for this summer. 2) Off the top of my head, I see two essential criteria the fish need to meet: A) The fish you will want to stock must be able to withstand the temperature swings you're going to be dealing with which I would imagine are going to be from around 33 F to well into the 80's. On the low end, you will not be able to keep Tilapia unless you heat the water as you point out above. That can get quite expensive. They will survive down to, say, 55 F. But they only grow when the temperature reaches 75 F. You're going well below 55 F. Heating water is expensive unless you have a free energy supply. I spoke to the president of the NH Aquaculture Society last year and she heats her greenhouse containing the aquaponics system using a wood boiler, but she gets the woods for free. Unless you have a set-up like that, it could get expensive. On the high temperature end, Trout is out IMHO. The problem is they need very well oxygenated water and that is only feasible if you can keep the temperatures low. The ideal temperature for growing Rainbow Trout is 64 F. That's going to be a difficult target in the summer even with a cooling system of some sort. You also have to remember that the bacteria species that oxidize the ammonia to nitrite (Nitrosomonas) and then to nitrate (Nitrobacter) like warm temperatures. The higher the temperature, the more efficiently they convert ammonia to nitrate. I don't know what their peak efficiency is at, but it's probably 80 to 85+ F. Conversely, their efficiency drops with a drop in temperature. For every 10 F drop in temperature, their efficiency at converting ammonia to nitrates drops by 50%. Ouch! 
B) The fish will need to be easily available and legal to keep. State law or Fish & Game regulations may keep certain fish out depending on the state. I wouldn't ask them about Snakeheads.  Your state may also require a non-commercial aquaculture license if you are going to catch and transport wild fish to stock into your system. I would find out what is available in your area in terms of wild fish that you can catch yourself. I am not readily familiar with what fish you have around there, but I would look into the following:
-Channel catfish -Brown or Black Bullhead catfish -Yellow Perch -White Perch (these can tolerate fresh and salt water) -White Bass (these can tolerate fresh and salt water) -Bluegill I only have personal experience with Bullhead catfish. I am going to try and catch some Yellow Perch and White Perch next weekend to stock in my system along with my Brown Bullhead catfish. Bullheads can sometimes be bullies with other fish in the system, especially other species. We'll see how it works out. All of the above fish should be able to tolerate the extremes of temperature. 3) Be careful of humidity issues ahead of time. The fish tank and grow bed give off a lot of moisture. Some pictures of my outdoor spring/summer/fall system. The fish tank is 550 gallons and is the one at the bottom of the picture for reference: 
If you have any specific questions, please post them. 
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Thank you.
Yes, I saw your thread and I was hoping you see this one and jump in. There are windows on both sides of my solar room and a screen door at one end. I plan on opening them to let out some of the summer heat. This may help the humidity in the summer. How does the humidity issue manifest? How do people deal with the humidity issue? Also... There's no growing anything in the winter? Nothing's hearty enough to do well? |
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There are windows on both sides of my solar room and a screen door at one end. I plan on opening them to let out some of the summer heat. This may help the humidity in the summer. How does the humidity issue manifest? How do people deal with the humidity issue? Also... There's no growing anything in the winter? Nothing's hearty enough to do well? How big is the room? Any pictures without violating PERSEC? Is it south facing? The moisture is a problem if it condenses on the windows and there is a lot of wood or sheet rock that it drips onto. I'm thinking of mold and algae. What is the floor made of? As far as growing in the colder months, part of the issue is slow growth in cold weather. You could do well with many green leafy vegetables such as lettuce, Swiss Chard, etc., but even they won't grow below a certain temperature. It's one thing if the daytime is warm and it gets cold at night, but they would do poorly if it's always cold. So I guess it all depends on how warm it will get during the day. I just googled the average temperatures for Long Island to get an idea. You definitely will not have a freezing problem with your system and except for maybe the 2 coldest months, you could likely grow lettuce the rest of the time. If you could keep it from freezing, tomatoes are perennials and you could possibly keep them going through the winter. It would be a very interesting experiment. I have a friend with a greenhouse and he grows the tomatoes through the winter but I'm not sure about fruit. It is a huge benefit not to have to deal with re-starting the system every year. A system stabilizes the longer it's around and it can handle any kind of shock to it much better than a newer system. Forgetting about the plants for a second, my bigger concern with cold is the bacterial efficiency as I've noted. I can't emphasize this enough. The loss of bacterial activity is also asymmetric. The Nitrosomonas bacteria stay more active than the Nitrobacter. Since the Nitrosomonas convert ammonia to nitrite, you get a 'bottle-necking' of nitrite in your system. Nitrite is considerably more toxic than ammonia. So the net effect of the loss of bacterial activity as the temperature drops is a a danger of nitrite spike and a big fish kill. I killed my trout in part with nitrite poisoning last summer, although it was while cycling the system.  You can protect fish by salting your water to between 1 to 3 ppt (parts per thousand) but not all plants like salt.
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Dude, you're scaring me!
The floor of the room is tile. The ceiling is wood. The walls are covered with huge glass windows that pretty much go floor to ceiling (about 18 inches of wood below the windows) I can control the humidity in the warmer months by opening some windows. Would I have a problem in the winter? |
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Dude, you're scaring me! The floor of the room is tile. The ceiling is wood. The walls are covered with huge glass windows that pretty much go floor to ceiling (about 18 inches of wood below the windows) I can control the humidity in the warmer months by opening some windows. Would I have a problem in the winter? The water will be cool enough that I don't think it will be a problem in the winter. My parents have a sun room with a jacuzzi which is why I was concerned about humidity. But they have fans in side windows that can allow good air flow when they use the jacuzzi in the summer. I don't want to overstate the humidity issue, just that it's something to keep in mind. Plants release/perspire a lot of moisture, which is more pronounced in an aquaponics or hydroponics system since they have a constant source of water. Tile is perfect for the floor. Many people on Backyard Aquaponics have indoor systems in their basement. I have the luxury of not having to worry about humidity at all, but my system is also completely at the whim of the weather. ETA: Do you fish in your area? |
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I do not fish in my area.
I was just reading up on the subject of aquaponics last night.....and I came up with a new question. Since only one of this room's three glass walls faces south, my grow beds will get only a bit of direct sunlight. Some parts of some grow beds will get indirect sunlight only. Is this crucial for the bacteria growth? If it is, I may have to quit before I start. |
| The bacteria doesn't need light to grow. Since we are in the Northern hemisphere, during the winter time the sun will be lower in the sky and the light will come primarily from the southern exposure. Plant short stuff on the South side of your grow beds and the taller stuff on the North side to avoid shading plants out. Does this room have any kind of over head transparency to let light in through the roof? I ask because in the summer time the sun will be closer to directly over head, meaning less direct sunlight will be able to penetrate the South facing window. |
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The bacteria doesn't need light to grow. Since we are in the Northern hemisphere, during the winter time the sun will be lower in the sky and the light will come primarily from the southern exposure. Plant short stuff on the South side of your grow beds and the taller stuff on the North side to avoid shading plants out. Does this room have any kind of over head transparency to let light in through the roof? I ask because in the summer time the sun will be closer to directly over head, meaning less direct sunlight will be able to penetrate the South facing window. +1 Roger that. In fact, the bacteria prefer darkness. Veracity, as you know, every organism must 'oxidize' something to produce energy. By oxidize, I mean taking electrons in the chemical sense. There are many different sources of energy including the more traditional oxidation of carbon based energy sources such as carbohydrates and fats that most people are familiar with. Humans use oxygen to take electrons from carbohydrates and fats to produce carbon dioxide and water. But not all organisms use carbon-based fuels. The Nitrosomonas bacteria oxidize ammonia to nitrite and then the Nitrobacter take the nitrite and oxidize the nitrite to nitrate. These bacteria derive their energy by "burning" ammonia and nitrite with oxygen to more oxidized compounds. They have no need whatsoever for light energy. They do not derive energy from photosynthesis like plants or certain bacteria (cyanobacteria) do. This is a very important point and explains why they do not need light as an energy source. Other organisms at the bottom of the ocean, for instance, can oxidize hydrogen sulfide as an energy source, so it's not limited to carbon-based fuels. In the case of aquaponics, the ammonia is oxidized to nitrate and that provides the energy to the bacteria which is why they do not need any sunlight. You do not need plants in the system. The main purpose of the plants is to remove the nitrate product, but this could also be removed using water changes. This is more "wasteful" of water resources so most people will put plants in the system to take care of the nitrates in the water. |
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Ok, great. How can I avoid that nitrite spike you wrote about? When the temp drops, should I do water changes? As an ultra noob to aquaponics, I have no idea what to expect. I will go over 3 different situations in setting up a system. This is to better understand what is happening and the interactions between the various parts. It's not complicated once you understand and you will know why you need to cycle your system without fish in it to avoid killing them. Situation A: With fish and plants but no bacteria 1) When you first start circulating the water, you will have no bacteria in the gravel or whatever media you would normally use to host the bacteria. Having fish in the system creates ammonia as waste in the water. Since there is no bacteria, you get no conversion of ammonia to nitrite or nitrate. The ammonia level will continue to rise as you keep feeding the fish. 2) What is the source of the ammonia? You may remember from biology that the liver can cleave ammonia (NH3) from amino acids. An example is cleaving ammonia from glutamine to form glutamic acid. What is the source of amino acids? Proteins. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. What is the source of proteins? The fish feed has, depending on the feed, about 24% protein content. Some are higher. Some of the protein is incorporated into the fish's muscle, but some of the protein is "burned" as an energy source and the ammonia is taken off first by the liver. Neither fish nor terrestrial vertebrates can oxidize ammonia to nitrite or nitrate. They must dispose of ammonia by excreting it into their environment. Ammonia can be transformed into urea, but this is also disposed of eventually by fish. This ammonia must be disposed of or it reaches toxic levels and eventually causes death. Ammonia is highly toxic. 3) Fish dispose of the ammonia in two ways. The first is directly into the water by diffusion from the gills. With some exceptions, freshwater fish dispose of 90%+ of ammonia waste as ammonia directly into the water. This is a passive process and occurs because the ammonia level in the blood is higher than the surrounding water and the ammonia simply passes through the gill membranes into the water. The second process is through urine. There is an extra step, though. Two ammonia molecules are combined by the liver with one carbon dioxide molecule to form urea. The urea is then filtered by the fish's kidney and emptied into the bladder. From the bladder, it goes into the water surrounding the fish. If you have ever cleaned fish, you will notice that they have a bladder near the anus. Many marine/saltwater fish actually instead concentrate urea in their blood to act as an osmotic buffer with the surrounding seawater. But freshwater fish generally produce little urea as it does require energy to produce and the passive diffusion of ammonia into the water does not require any energy. 4) If you continue to feed the fish, the ammonia will eventually reach a toxic level and you have a big fish kill. If all the fish are of the same species, they will actually die within a very short time of each other, usually within hours to 24 hours. It's like clockwork. Since ammonia is colorless, you don't seen anything happening until it's too late. Once one fish dies, the process of decay can actually cause the ammonia to spike very fast which probably accounts for why the rest of the fish die within 24 hours. As you probably read from my system, that is part of the reason I do not have anything in my fish tank that can hide a dead fish. I want to be able to remove the dead fish immediately and my system is checked at least twice a day for dead fish. Once the system is well cycled, though, it's not really necessary. 5) Even though you may have plants in the system, their roots absorb ammonia very poorly compared to nitrate. The presence of plants therefore has a very negligible effect on reducing the ammonia toxicity. The ammonia levels that will kill fish are essentially harmless to plants. Situation B: With fish and plants and bacteria 1) If you add bacteria to the system, they will naturally colonize every surface of the system. They actually do not like light (interesting article on light's effect on these bacteria) and will colonize the gravel or other media you will use. There will be bacteria in the water of your system and if you know someone who has an aquarium, you can ask them for either water from it or if they can give you the used filter sponges. The filter sponges are loaded with Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter bacteria and you can bury the sponges in your gravel or squeeze them out as a source of bacteria. I have a friend with a 90 gallon fish tank and I got some used filter sponges from him. I think that also helped jump-start my system. 2) The bacteria will be happy because the fish ammonia waste will provide an ample supply of food for them. This is where things get a little tricky. The two species of bacteria actually don't reproduce and colonize the gravel at the same rate. This results in the following usually fatal situation: As the Nitrosomonas bacteria continue to grow and reproduce, further colonizing the gravel, they take ammonia and oxidize it to nitrite. Since they can do this faster than Nitrobacter can take nitrite and oxidize it to Nitrate, and since Nitrosomonas grow significantly faster than Nitrobacter, you get a build-up of nitrite in your system. The problem is fish have hemoglobin based blood like we do. Nitrite is a potent oxidizer of hemoglobin and transforms it to methemoglobin. Methemoglobin cannot carry oxygen. For this reason, nitrite is extremely toxic to fish (or any organism using hemoglobin) because it prevents the blood from carrying oxygen. The fish become oxygen-deprived and suffocate. As with ammonia toxicity, the fish die within a very short period of time of each other. Once the first fish dies, the rest can go within a few hours and up to 24 hours. 3) Can you do anything to protect the fish against nitrite poisoning? Yes, you can! The chloride ion (Cl-) competes with the nitrite ion (NO[sub]2/[sub]-) in being absorbed by the fish. If you salt your water, the absorption of nitrite can be prevented to some extent. However, it's a very dangerous game and most people either have a very high % of fish kill or lose their fish entirely on their way to getting sufficient bacteria in their system. Some fish are more tolerant to nitrite poisoning such as catfish. Other fish are very sensitive to nitrite poisoning such as trout. Also, not all fish can tolerate salting of the water. I lost two entire batches of trout last summer (2012) trying to cycle my large system with fish. I highly recommend against it. One thing I noticed is that goldfish are probably the toughest bastard fish alive! If you insist on trying to cycle your system with fish, I would recommend goldfish or a Bullhead species of catfish. I cycled my small system last summer with goldfish and Bullhead catfish and none of them died, but the Channel catfish did die. Channel catfish actually have a higher oxygen requirement than Bullhead catfish. I would also keep the salt concentration in your system at 3 ppt (parts per thousand) and pray to the Aquaponics Cycling Gods that no one dies. 
Situation C: Without fish and plants, and with bacteria 1) In this situation, you have no fish to worry about as there aren't any in your system. This is a very relaxing way to get your bacterial population up and running. 
2) What I did this season was to use ammonium sulfate as my source of ammonia. Since the pH of my well water is 8.0, some of the ammonium ion is present as ammonia. If you look at my aquaponics thread, it is explained pretty well. I kept measuring nitrite levels until it would appear which would let me know that Nitrosomonas bacteria were present in sufficient quantity to convert enough of the ammonia to give a positive nitrite test. What happened in my system, though, is that the population of bacteria increased quickly over days to the point that all of the ammonia was converted to nitrite and then quickly to nitrate by Nitrobacter. I had 'stored' onion bags of gravel from my system from last summer in the stream out back. The bacteria overwintered in the ice-cold water and then were put back into the system. While I only put about 15 gallons of bacteria-covered gravel into my 200 gallons of gravel system, it gave me a jump start. It still took about 1 month for my system to get fully cycled. 3) Once I saw that the bacteria were able to convert all that ammonia into nitrate, I knew my system was "cycle" and I connected the fish to it. Now the source of ammonia became the fish waste rather than ammonium sulfate. An important point to remember about the bacteria in the system is the oxidation rate of ammonia and nitrite is heavily dependent on the water temperature. The higher the water temperature, the faster the conversion rate. There are tables in my thread on determining how much feed to give the catfish by weight based on the water temperature. In this way, you don't allow the fish to get more feed than the bacteria can break down in terms of ammonia waste. If you have questions, let me know. I think you have your hands full getting the system together and the actual cycling part should be easy if you do it without fish.
ETA: To answer your two specific questions more directly and without going into detail: 1) How can I avoid that nitrite spike you wrote about? You can't. It is the nature of the two types of bacteria that you will get a bottle-necking of nitrite. If you have no fish in your system, it won't matter though. 2) When the temp drops, should I do water changes? Water changes are not necessary at all if you, A) Cycle your system without fish. B) Have enough plants in your system to soak up all the nitrate. C) Reduce your feeding of the fish as the temperature drops. |
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I've got a lot to learn. I've got to learn what it means to "cycle your system". It just means that the bacteria have completely covered the gravel (or whatever media you will be using) in the grow bed ie. where the plants are. Once you get an inch or so below the gravel, there is essentially no light and the bacteria thrive there. Since the bacteria are an integral part of the system, once they are fully covering the gravel you say that the system is "fully cycled". This is the exact same thing that occurs in an aquarium that has a filter. The only difference is the filter, while completely covered in bacteria, is not used to grow any plants. The water plants are in the aquarium itself and remove the nitrate from the water. The expression is also used by people who keep aquariums ie. "My aquarium is fully cycled." Keep asking questions. I will answer them! |
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I've had plenty of time to read this explore the other thread too. Thanks.
Like Veracity, I have a lot to learn. There's no way I logistically have in mind or can do the size projects here. I like the idea of hydro-ponic growing because on a smallish scale if done well it has duplicatable results with almost certainty. It's pretty easy to grow any number of good veggies and greens in a small, easy to control environment. Even a portable garden is plenty of salad for a couple. I already have a pretty good handle on hydro stuff. So when I first heard of Aqua-ponics I immediately pictured a "table-top" sized system, or a hobby type of aquarium sized project. It's just what my mind immediately gravitated to. Something like the size of http://www.coloradoaquaponics.com/aquaponics-systems. The "Space Saver system is the kind of thing I was thinking of. A harvestable food fish wouldn't even be the #1 priority. But it seems it's doable even in the small systems. Added bonus the way I see it. They put on seminars at that place too. I'm not at all ready for a project yet with my housing situation. But I'm going to explore this more. It seems like a natural marriage to an interest in self-contained small hydro salad greens gardens. This is the kinda stuff that's going to help us colonize Mars next. Just sayin  Thanks for the good stuff here.
Cheers! -JC |
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So when I first heard of Aqua-ponics I immediately pictured a "table-top" sized system, or a hobby type of aquarium sized project. It's just what my mind immediately gravitated to. Something like the size of http://www.coloradoaquaponics.com/aquaponics-systems. The "Space Saver system is the kind of thing I was thinking of. You're absolutely right that the system is completely scalable. I've seen pictures of huge systems with hundreds of tilapia all the way down to people using a 10 gallon aquarium to house fish and grow lettuce above it. I was gifted the cylindrical 550 gallon HDPE tank that was food/fish safe so I went ahead and designed my system around it. I did configure my original small system around a 55 gallon barrel for the fish and made sure I could get the plumbing and pump correct before going to the bigger system. But this is at likely the higher end of the hobby scale and it can be scaled down to a small table-top one.
ETA: That's an excellent point about the priority. I am doing it more for the fish, but some do it more for the vegetables, and the last group do it for both. |
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I've got a lot to learn. I've got to learn what it means to "cycle your system". It just means that the bacteria have completely covered the gravel (or whatever media you will be using) in the grow bed ie. where the plants are. Once you get an inch or so below the gravel, there is essentially no light and the bacteria thrive there. Since the bacteria are an integral part of the system, once they are fully covering the gravel you say that the system is "fully cycled". This is the exact same thing that occurs in an aquarium that has a filter. The only difference is the filter, while completely covered in bacteria, is not used to grow any plants. The water plants are in the aquarium itself and remove the nitrate from the water. The expression is also used by people who keep aquariums ie. "My aquarium is fully cycled." Keep asking questions. I will answer them! The truth is, I do not know enough yet to ask the right questions. You've addressed my biggest concern so far, which is how to handle the water balance in the cold months. The next serious item on the list is to figure out which fish to get. I will need to do some research and perhaps get in touch with others in my immediate area and find out which fish they're using. |
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Excellent info. I couldn't readily find what species of fish have greater ammonia tolerance/forgivenes. Any recommedations? Anyone try alternative to fish, like mollusks or others? Good question about alternatives. I did have crayfish/crawfish/mudbugs or whatever people in your area in my system last year. A few issues I ran into with them: 1) They are cannibalistic. 2) They like to have lots of cover and I specifically do not put anything in my tank because I want to observe any uneaten food, dead fish, etc. Unfortunately, this means that the crayfish have no way to hide from each other which makes #1 more likely, especially when there is any disparity in size. 3) Many parasites use crustaceans (and mollusks) as intermediate hosts. The Brown Bullhead catfish I keep love to eat crayfish, even the largest ones I could find. Every few days, there was evidence at the bottom of the tank of what I think were the catfish having ripped apart a crayfish to get to the nice meat and innards. Despite the parasite issue, I may break down and feeds some to the white perch I caught yesterday to add to my system. The mollusks can still act as intermediate hosts even if they are kept in a separate part of the system as the parasites will often leave the mollusk host to infect fish. The other method of transmission is having the fish eat the mollusk. Although mollusks would be a very interesting idea since you could use them as a filter of sorts, and you could probably leave part of the fish tank or sump tank uncovered to encourage some algae growth which would then feed the mollusks. The algae would feed on fish waste and therefore it would be another method to remove nitrate ie. ammonia, nitrate, other waste from fish---->feeds algae---->feeds mollusks---->feeds you. I am sure there are freshwater mollusks that are both edible and available somewhere, but the only ones I have access to are the freshwater mussels and I've told that they don't taste good. However, I do not have any firsthand experience eating them. I know there are freshwater oysters and that would be an interesting marriage ie. growing fish and oysters! But I haven't researched where you would even get freshwater oysters. As far as fish and ammonia tolerance, if your system is cycled well then you should not have any measurable ammonia or nitrite. This is because the ammonia produced by the fish is very rapidly, almost instantly converted by the bacteria in the gravel bed. You should go into this endeavor with the idea that you will have a fully cycled system ie. large bacterial population to take care of any ammonia produced. But, from my limited experience, the Brown Bullhead catfish and goldfish seem to tolerate it the best. Since goldfish are essentially carp, I have no doubt that carp would be very tolerant. I killed lots of trout and channel catfish last year in my system so I would not go with those unless you have a lot of experience. From all my readings, tilapia is also very tolerant of ammonia and other waste products. In fact, tilapia are often kept with carp and will eat the carp's poop! |
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My nephew and I were looking at Wikipedia to see what water temps fresh water fish like. If I remember correctly, Carp and White Bass and maybe Bluegill are all okay with temp extremes. It will be months till I pick a fish, but it was fun looking them up. I grew up on the Saint Lawrence River in Canada. We had most species of freshwater fish that live in the upper half of the United States. We didn't have White Perch, White Bass or Striped Bass where I lived, but there were a ton of Carp and Bluegill. Most of the wild fish in your area will have no problem dealing with the temperature extremes. BTW, White Perch, White Bass and Striped Bass are all in the same family. I updated my thread since I caught some White Perch and Yellow Perch yesterday. White Perch and White Bass look remarkably similar. Carp, while great in an aquaponics system, may or may not be palatable for you. If raised in clean water on a lean, high protein diet their meat actually tastes very good, though you do have to fillet them correctly to keep the bones out. It will be interesting to see what fish (or fishes!) you end up picking. |
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C-4, I see you're using a Rubbermaid tub for your grow bed, but where did you get that fish tank? Veracity, I saw your posts this morning but didn't have time to answer. 
I can't remember the question you had on the first page, but as far as the fish tank, I got that from a friend who used it to grow tropical plants in a large greenhouse. It's a HDPE (high density polyethylene) brine tank. This is where I think he got it. The fish tank can be considerably smaller as what really matters is the amount of filtration media you have. I only went with the 500 gallon tank because that is what I had and it was free! IM also sent. |
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Thanks. My first question answered itself when I took the time to read your aquaponics thread. I'm reading Sylvia Bernstein's Aquaponic Gardening and I'm getting pumped. IM me if you have any direct questions or if you post them in this thread. If you prefer email, let me know.
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