Koi Carp as Nutrient Replacement?

So I was wondering if I could chuck a bunch of koi or goldfish into my resevoir...cleaned out of course and use them as a replacement to bottled manufactured nutrients.

Of course we are talking aquaponics here but has anyone flowered out cannabis with aquaponics.

I wonder if I would need to add additional elements and how the fish would the fish deal with that.

I have seen many a fabulous fruit being ripened in aquaponics and can't see why i would not get a decent grown cannabis plant.

Anyone got an opinion good or bad can voice it here..

Um, how big is your res? I mean, you'd want a dirty big one to house the fish in. Otherwise they'd be like battery hens and unable to move.

Also you'd need to collect their waste from forming on the res' floor, which could be messy, even if it's nutrient rich.

Your main inputs would be feed for the koi, so you'd have to find a complete food for them.

Personally, I think aquaponics is great for salad type leafy vegetables, but I'm guessing the system would lack nutrient density for a more voracious type of crop lik MJ.

I don't know, maybe I'm being a negative nancy.

WestAussie said:

Um, how big is your res? I mean, you'd want a dirty big one to house the fish in. Otherwise they'd be like battery hens and unable to move.

Also you'd need to collect their waste from forming on the res' floor, which could be messy, even if it's nutrient rich.

Your main inputs would be feed for the koi, so you'd have to find a complete food for them.

Personally, I think aquaponics is great for salad type leafy vegetables, but I'm guessing the system would lack nutrient density for a more voracious type of crop lik MJ.

I don't know, maybe I'm being a negative nancy.

Click to expand...

Your input is most welcome, the thread was meant to inform and educate. As for resevoir, I have 125 litre black res's. I reckon thats big enough. As for the waste, from what I know it would only need to be filtered for solids and such. I am trying to research what the content of their shit will be. Yes high in Nitrogen but what about Phos + Potas..??

I am considering getting a fish tank and using the water from that to water and try to flower out a single plant in a controlled manner.

Thanks for your response though.

I gon't think it is worth the trouble. I grew Koi in an outside fiberglass 250 gallon pond.
You would end up with fish waste and maybe some OK water, but that is about it.

You will constantly feeding special food, battling the ammonia, nitrates,and possible parasite issues. If roots are exposed the Koi will eat them or even lay eggs in them.
In my opinion, it is a major... job not practical nor worth it.
Peace!

It can be done. However, there are a few things that you need to understand first.

1) The rule of thumb for the size of the tank to size of the grow bed ratio is 1:1. You can go lower, but the lower you go you increase the risk of 'dirty' water (easily fixed by changing a third of the water though if you have high levels of ammonia). This means that you can use the same volume of grow beds as you have fish tank. Depending on your watering system, you probably need a sump in place so that you don't drain the whole fish tank.
2) Another rule of thumb is that you need to cycle the entire volume of fish tank every hour. Easily done with an ebb and flow set up.
3) The aquaponics system takes months (usually 3) to become a 'mature' system, i.e. it takes time for the bacteria to get up to sufficient levels in the grow beds to convert the ammonia into nitrites, then into nitrates to high enough level to feed the plants.
4) Having a small system (small fish tank size) you will experience higher swings in temperature and pH. The larger the size of the tank the lower the chance of a major swing in pH or temp. It isn't as simple as testing the pH and then adding chemicals (no matter how safe they are) to compensate as you are dealing with a live fish that could potentially die from shock if you make a major change in the environment.

Hope that helps some.

Cheers