Tank Size?

[JaxJags]

For those of you who read my intro, I am brand new to this! I would like to raise about 20-30 tilapia and a variety of warm loving veggies (Is it possible to do a tomato species?). I am in a cooler climate for winter months (Connecticut), so I know I will have to bury the tank to help with warmth and am getting an immersible heater. My ultimate questions are:

What size tank do I need for fish?
What size grow bed to make it balanced?
What size pump would be sufficient to pump the water up to the grow bed?

I would ultimately like a build a Constant Ebb and Flow system, having the water pump up to the grow bed and drain back into the fish tank through means of gravity. I am unclear of how to actually set up the pump and pipes as well. Any suggestions would be super appreciated! Please take this novice and mold her into a sufficient Aquaponics operator!

Thanks all
~Ashley

[keith_r]

so, if you want to have 30 tilapia grow out to about 1.5lbs or so, that would be.. umm.. 45lbs..

a "reasonable" rule of thumb is 100gallons of growbed (filtration) you can grow out 25lbs of fish..
so 200 gallons of growbed will be enough filtration.. a 200 gallon fishtank will give you a nice starting ratio of 1:1 (growbed to fishtank), but for better performance, you want 2x more gb then ft (2:1)

for your pump, you want to be able to circulate the volume of your fishtank at least once an hour. it's a good idea to oversize your pump, because you will want to expand, and in the meantime, you can divert a stream of water back into the ft to add aeration and still deliver a good flow to the gb's..
i'm not quite sure of what you mean when you say constant ebb and flow... maybe flood and drain? the "affnan siphon is the gb drain component..other approaches are "constant flood" where your standpipe in the growbed determines the water depth in the gb, or a timed flood and drain where a pump runs for so many minutes/hour and the gb drains via a standpipe with small holes in the bottom.. power cycles will probably shorten the life of a pump..

lots of ways to go about it, check what is available for your tanks and gb's and go from there.. i'm looking for "IBC Totes" to use, they usually come in 275gal or 330 gallon, basically a plastic tank with a metal cage on top of a pallet..
wood frames with epdm liners will work too..

[Oliver]

Welcome to the forum.

I want to invite you to read Aquaponics 101 here on this forum, as I believe it will help you in designing your system.

The URL is as follows:

viewforum.php?f=112

Oliver

[JCO]

As for your cool/cold weather tomatoes, check out these links:-

http://store.tomatofest.com/Tomato_V...mates_s/47.htm

http://www.tomatodirt.com/tomatoes-f...-climates.html

Be sure to let us know which one/s you choose and how the tomatoes fair and at what temperatures. OH yes and save us some seeds.

[davidstcldfl]

Hi Ashley...

[JaxJags]

Thanks so much for all the replies!

Keith - Ebb and Flow is just another name for Flood and Drain

Oliver - AMAZING Beginner's Manual! Thank you so much for 1. writing it and 2. linking me to it!!

JCO - Alacante and Beaverlodge (I just like the name hehe) it is! Do you typically start from seeds in the system or germinate and move later?

David - Hi!

[JCO]

I find that to germinate and move later is the best since I start mine indoors long before I am able to put them outside due to the cooler temp early in the year.