Aquaponics

[Breadfruit Bill]

Hydroponics fused with aquaculture = Aquaponics! Animals and plants fueled by the sun, I think that was kinda the original plan...

As if I had the space for more stuff in the shadehouse!

I have finally got my water levels cooled out and am going to plant seeds in the top tray today. I've got Tilapia fingerlings in the pool on the bottom (they eat the duckweed on the water's surface), the water is circulated from the kiddie pool into the big blue barrel full of bioballs, gravity takes the water into the middle shelf where I have some non-native crayfish that should each yield 3 oz tails (assuming they don't kill each other off by then) and the the water flows back into the kiddie pool. There is a second pump on a timer that pumps nitrogenous fish waste up to the hydroponic bed on top of this whole contraption. I've got some heat resistance lettuces, hot peppers, herbs and cherry tomatoes in rockwool waiting to be set in the grow bed.

3 months from now, I'll have fresh salads and another 3-6 months beyond there and I'm gonna have 40 lbs of fresh tilapia to harvest!

[Kathryn]

What? Tilapia, duckweed, kiddie pool with barrel full of bioballs, crawfish, nitrogenous fish waste, hydroponic bed, heat resistant veggies? This is crazy talk.

[Palmə häl′ik]

snook candy

[MattyB]

I think William should get in the kiddie pool and take a picture with a fiddle in one hand and a Natural Ice in the other. And black out a tooth would ya, to make the whole piece come together.