Need a practical design for a fish farm.

[GaryD]

Hi Pugo,

Have you established that you will have the market for your fish from this venture?

My guess is that, since you'll be on Mindanao, you won't have a niche market willing to pay extra for the clean, fresh fish that you'll be producing .....so that means you'll probably be competing with locally caught fish...... some of which will come from polluted rivers and ditches.....and will be priced accordingly.

If I was in your situation, I'd be building smaller (and less sophisticated) recirculating aquaculture system that would then be used to grow food plants (using wicking beds) for you and your wife.......and your quail, chickens, ducks (for meat and balut) and other suitable micro-livestock.

What are your thoughts on this?

Gary

[Pugo]

I would love to do more but space it at a premium on the land I already have, there really is no room for a pond. As I have it planned now. I really only have room for one quail barn that can house 20,000 quail and the fish tanks I am talking about now. My market is 17k away, In Gingoog city. The plan for this is to sell the fish from our own stall live from tanks. Where the rest of the fish mongers sell whole dead fish. secondary market is dried fish, which is also always good.

Most of the fish that come into the fish market come from the larger city 300K away. Local fish are nothing much more than sardines and flying fish. So we will not be competing with then at all.

I wanted to buy a hectare in Bacolod area near my brother. But my wife wanted to keep the house in Mindanao and the land we already have so this is what we are going to do as ever year it gets harder to work at the pace I do now. So I am forced to work with what I have. I hope I can buy the land next to mine if that is possible I could place ponds there, but then security would be an issue, as the locals would just help themselves to the fish in the pond when no on is looking. As they do it right by my house now, in the garden when things are almost ready to harvest come out the next day to pick the bloody vegetables are already gone nicked but the neighbors.

So to slow them down I will have to build a concrete wall around my land. This isn't going to be cheap either..So any ideas would be helpful Gary.. less sophisticated fish system will be nice, I did plan on a few growbeds but there is really little room for them.. That and the small bakery that I am planning I already have the store part build but need to build the working area for the bakery.

[Pugo]

Right now this is my layout, the House and store have been built, the gray area is where I will be expanding for a work area. The quail barn has not been built yet, nor the fish tanks, also have to put in a new well. As the other one works well but is a shallow well and I need a deep well. So any ideas would be of great help.. less sophisticated fish system will be nice I know I put ponds but I meant tanks. I need to make an income from my land. I will market most things in the small town near by..

[mopa]

hi Pugo , have you decided on how you are going to do the aereation for the tanks?? are they to be above ground or dug in?
the reason i ask is we have similar plots, solar energy min. use, tank size etc.., and i am still unsure how to go about it. i keep going back to the fact of making tanks wider, and less tall , to use my air supply more efficiently , as more is pumped at less depth ,same pump. dont know whether to do aereated bottom drains 1x 4 inch or 2x3 inch. what you will have to take into account is minimum depth for k1 boiling and falling ie rolling and in what shape container .
watch out for k1 in concrete tanks. i read a couple of times on koi forums , that people with concrete filter chambers found the k1 chewed up the concrete sides and the k1 wore away more quickly, also rubbed off sealants off tank walls . so i guess k1 in fibreglass or plastics better?
hehe i cant give you a number ,but 2000 l k1 will need a lot of air!!!
What airstones you got? I grabbed 2 of these for starters for my mbf filters. fine bubbles better supposedly at moving k1
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1806603269...84.m1497.l2648
also looking at the blue eco 250 w pump , electronic adjustable , expensive , but the 30w mode got me hooked .day time 30 w mode with solar trickle charge, night when generator is on, switch to full power mode to clean out gunk etc.. they do bigger pumps as well with electronic built in timer into control panel on the bigger models for your bigger pumping needs. regards

[mopa]

if you cant rely on local power supply, you need solar as backup. and a decent system at that, to run youre retirement project, its expensive, which is valuable and will need security, especially with youre neighbours lol.

[mopa]

hi, me again , read this good pp k1 info
http://www.dammastaren.se/data/archive/090316/1.pdf

[mopa]

but pp k1 seperately and rinse well , or you will end up with pp stones residue build up in pump , and breaks quick. also dont pp for too long as i undestand it eats away oil surface, then plastic surface , , great for increasing surface area as well as it dimples the plastic . but i woudnt leave the k1 in it for ages..
regards