Koi in aquaponics? - Organic Hydro - International Cannagraphic Magazine Forums

captain.koons · 11-10-2009, 02:55 AM

Anyone use them? I picked up 7 Koi today and they're collectively around 10lbs... One is probably 3-3.5lbs and another is 2 or so those 2 are 6 years old.

I'm told by the guy I got these off of that they'll only want to eat around 15grams of food a day.

I assume that goldfish would be expected to eat far far more than that?

gardenlover · 12-02-2009, 02:21 AM

Hey there captain, I actually wrote this long as post and tryed to do a 3- D sketch for yo but I could not figure out how to do a 3-D sketch and my previous post got deleted cuz i waited too long. In short koi and gold fish are both diry fish an should be vary good for Aquaponics. just add more if you need more fertilizer or feed more. What kind of design were you going to do? I had a few ideas I never finished.

MrFista · 12-02-2009, 10:43 PM

Koi like it cleaner than goldfish, will work with an AP system with pre filter and decent sourced food (not the cheapest bulk crap, but do read up on koi sites for home made foodstuffs and the good stuff to buy).

This should keep the fish happy. to keep the plants happy the best way to run aquaponics is at 6.2 pH. At this pH things precipitate out of the water orders of magnitude less meaning they stay in solution for plants to uptake. The upshot of this is you can sustain a system for a very long time without cleanup.

I used to claim I never cleaned my systems, true, for several years, then they became very average.

So, recap, paraphrase, simplify...

Pre-filter - remove the solids, do not put them in your beds/dwc. If DWC this prefilter should be LARGE. If in beds they become part of the filtration, but remove the damn solids, or they WILL build up.

Good food - lot of mass produced food is crap, fish and plants, like us, do not perform well on a junk diet.

pH 6.2. Keep the system maximised for plant growth thus maximising nutrient uptake (water cleaning).

11-10-2009, 02:55 AM	#1
captain.koons Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 447	Koi in aquaponics? Anyone use them? I picked up 7 Koi today and they're collectively around 10lbs... One is probably 3-3.5lbs and another is 2 or so those 2 are 6 years old. I'm told by the guy I got these off of that they'll only want to eat around 15grams of food a day. I assume that goldfish would be expected to eat far far more than that?
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12-02-2009, 02:21 AM	#2
gardenlover Caregiver with a passion for the process and journey. Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: US Posts: 249	Hey there captain, I actually wrote this long as post and tryed to do a 3- D sketch for yo but I could not figure out how to do a 3-D sketch and my previous post got deleted cuz i waited too long. In short koi and gold fish are both diry fish an should be vary good for Aquaponics. just add more if you need more fertilizer or feed more. What kind of design were you going to do? I had a few ideas I never finished.
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12-02-2009, 10:43 PM	#3
MrFista Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 1,036	Koi like it cleaner than goldfish, will work with an AP system with pre filter and decent sourced food (not the cheapest bulk crap, but do read up on koi sites for home made foodstuffs and the good stuff to buy). This should keep the fish happy. to keep the plants happy the best way to run aquaponics is at 6.2 pH. At this pH things precipitate out of the water orders of magnitude less meaning they stay in solution for plants to uptake. The upshot of this is you can sustain a system for a very long time without cleanup. I used to claim I never cleaned my systems, true, for several years, then they became very average. So, recap, paraphrase, simplify... Pre-filter - remove the solids, do not put them in your beds/dwc. If DWC this prefilter should be LARGE. If in beds they become part of the filtration, but remove the damn solids, or they WILL build up. Good food - lot of mass produced food is crap, fish and plants, like us, do not perform well on a junk diet. pH 6.2. Keep the system maximised for plant growth thus maximising nutrient uptake (water cleaning). __________________ I'm in it for the tomatoes. I been growing tomatoes for a long long time. Sometimes I get to thinking I know everything about tomatoes. My tomatoes make me completely delusional.
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