Pond aquaculture?

[Joel_BC]

I posted this question yesterday in an ongoing thread about "aquaponics" - but I guess maybe that wasn't the right place, because I think aquaponics is more about raising fish in tanks, not ponds.

We've got a pond. Right now, we're not raising fish in it, although I originally thought I'd like to raise edible fish (probably tilapia or maybe catfish). The reason is the pond liner. We have sandy soil on a lot of our property. We dug the pond where there was a natural depression (big puddle) in a gully. Good location, because water was flowing in the gully, and the pond is nicely visible from the deck on our house. But our land's sandy soil meant we had to use a pond-lining material.

Clay as a lining material hadn't worked out very well on a neighbor's property, so we chose butyl (artificial rubber). The butyl material available locally is fairly thick and said to be very durable and resistant to punctures. After we had lined the pond and done a lot of finishing work, I was talking with a local guy who displayed some confidence in matters related to raising edible fish. I was told that butyl is a substance that would give off molecules that the fish would absorb into their bodies, making the flesh undesirable for human consumption.

So we are just raising decorative aquatic plants in the pond (no toxicity problems... the plants all thrive).

Does anyone here know anything about butyl and using it to contain the water environment for food fish?

 

[elijahboy]

everything you wrote is exactley what i could write word for word in about a year

The Polyethylene farm pond liner (a thermoplastic) is similar to the EPDM liner in many ways. These liners release no toxins that are dangerous to the plants or fish. The Polyethylene liner is highly flexible and will stay so in temperatures down to -70 Fahrenheit. It is resistant to the UV rays of the sun and to tears and punctures. This farm pond liner is even recommended for potable water applications. The disadvantage of Polyethylene is that it only has a shorter lifespan up to 5 years

comes from this website

http://www.pond-o-mania.com/farmpondliners.html

 

[Joel_BC]

everything you wrote is exactley what i could write word for word in about a year

The Polyethylene farm pond liner (a thermoplastic) is similar to the EPDM liner in many ways. These liners release no toxins that are dangerous to the plants or fish. The Polyethylene liner is highly flexible and will stay so in temperatures down to -70 Fahrenheit. It is resistant to the UV rays of the sun and to tears and punctures. This farm pond liner is even recommended for potable water applications. The disadvantage of Polyethylene is that it only has a shorter lifespan up to 5 years

Thanks, elijahboy. So you are now building a pond? ...or in the planning stage?

Yeah, I think I should have used the term EPDM - though when we were inquiring about and looking for liner material, people used the 'informal' term "butyl".

The thought of having to re-do the pond's liner in five years is depressing... even without fish (in a pond that is mainly decorative, but could be used to draw water for a pumper truck in case of a fire), I can say that we would really not want to disrupt the little ecosystem that develops in there, and change liners!!

 

[elijahboy]

The other type of farm pond liner described here is the UltraGuard (a polymeric alloy). This is just one brand name of this type of liner. The best advantage of this liner is that it has the highest resistance to UV rays and will resist cracking to temperatures of -65 Fahrenheit. UltraGuard also has been tested safe for fish and plants, it is highly flexible and resists tears and punctures. The lifespan of this farm pond liner will last 20 years and more.

yes im in the planning stages hopefully it will take place around july

the pond i want will be about 14' x 10' and is right outside of the back door/porch where there is already a depression

my idea is slightly different....the pond will be between the porch and a row of banana trees...so from the door you cant see beyond the banana trees... i will attempt a diagram

door //////// about 20 ft of yard /////// pond ///////banana trees.....end of yard

i plan to have a "hydroponics" system set up behind the banana trees with a table of plastic bins and selected plants that thrive on aquaponics with 2 pumps ....one leading away from the pond to the table and vise versa

the edge of the pond will only be about 4ft from the table that will be located behind the banana trees


i also plan to set up a 10 gall aquarium aquaponics system in the house for more delicate plants and the tank will hold guppies...i chose guppies because i read that tilapia eat fish that are smaller than they are and hopefully i can feed the tilapia the guppies when there is no duckweed growing in a wading pool...if the guppy idea doesnt work i will switch to another smaller type of fish..but i chose guppies because of the rate they reproduce.

 

[elijahboy]

i CAN NOT believe i said banana tree as much as i correct people when they say it

and not ONCE but 5 frickin times

its BANANA PLANTS barbara, you know this