One of our members, stroker, asked a question a week or so back. It was a simple question. Has anyone here raised fish for food? It's something I've done before in a roundabout way. My father and uncles, with the help of SCDNR, raised shrimp for several years in a 3-acre saltwater impoundment at the family farm when I was in my late teens. It was fairly large scale and a lot of work, but it was sure nice to have 1000s of pounds of shrimp and fish in the family freezers. The project fell by the wayside due to busy schedules and a general loss of interest. The impoundment is still there and still has some monster size fish in it.
Stroker's question set my brain on fire. I have had multiple aquariums over the last 50 years starting with jars full of minnows and tadpoles when I was a kid to large saltwater aquariums full of expensive fish. I like the plumbing, the water, the fish, the building, and the science of it. The thought of combining all of that with walking outside, scooping a fish out of a tank, and having dinner sounds like my kind of fun. On a small to medium scale, it might also make a good retirement business. I'm about 10 years out from retirement and I'm going to need something to occupy my days.
With that in mind, I've done a pile of research over the last week. My initial thought was aquaculture, growing just fish. More digging brought up aquaponics. Growing fish and vegetables in a balance. The fish make dirty water, the plants clean the water, and round and round it goes.
Well, 25 years ago, I tried my hand at hydroponics and was fairly successful at it. At the time it cost more than dirt planting and my yard was too shaded and my wallet was too poor to make it work on more than a minute scale.
With all of that information, I've come up with a plan. That plan is going to be aquaculture with a small-scale aquaponics system alongside it. The aquaponics part of the system will be expanded as time goes by.
The fish tank is going to be a 300-gallon Rubbermaid stock tank from Tractor Supply. They had them in stock and I picked one up yesterday. The moving bed biofilter is going to be made out of a 60-gallon plastic pickle drum. I picked up 5 of them last week. I have ordered 6 cubic feet of plastic bio media for the filter system. I will also be building a radial flow filter out of a pickle barrel to separate the solid fish waste out so it doesn't clog up the biofilter and the aquaponics grow beds.
Today I spent a fair amount of time planning where to put everything. I have a small area where an above-ground pool was set up. It gets 6-8 hours of sun per day which should be plenty. I have set the tank next to a deck I had built for the pool but I'm not sure it's going to stay there. I may move it adjacent to my shop wall so I can put a greenhouse enclosure around it for next winter and keep it in operation year-round.
I have 4 months to get this figured out and get the tanks and biofilter seasoned so they will be ready for fish by April or May.
More to come as the parts show up and the system gets built.
Any suggestions are welcome.
