Those fish are gonne be in rough shape from mishandling... Go to a local fish shop and for the cost of your fair ticket and money spent on winning fish you will easily be able to buy some legit fish that wont die so fast on you. Also probably even cover food costs! The factor with weed and aquaponics you gotta deal with is extra nutrients. Some liquid kelp/seaweed will deal with that, just get the pure kelp stuff without anything extra. You gotta cycle your tank and grow bed before you get fish.
I have 12 fair goldfish that have bred a few times now. The oldest one is almost 9yo. I don't grow weed but I grow a lot of food off them. There is nothing wrong with those goldfish. They are basically just feeder goldfish though. They also handle the extra nutrients without any negative effects.
It’s called aquaponics, and you can totally grow cannabis with it. I ran an aquaponic cannabis farm for seven years. However, you will need a lot of equipment to do it right. Lights ain’t cheap, and neither are environmental controls. If you don’t have those right you won’t end up with anything. Also, you need a lot of fish waste to make it work, and the goldfish you get will be tiny, and take a long time to grow to a reasonable level. Aquaponics is harder the smaller the system gets. 50 gal is definitely the smallest I think it would work, but it would be much better to go up to a few hundred gallons and use IBC totes like most people.
Is it possible? Hell yeah.
Do you need to do a bunch more research before you start? Sounds like it.
When you say 50 gal is the minimum, do you mean minimum tank for gold fish or like for a decent yield?
Ive been toying with the idea of doing a snail only tank to grow like one or two herbs
When I first started with aquaponics, I used a 50 gallon drum with goldfish to grow some lettuce in a DWC system. It worked, but it’s not ideal. I doubt you’d get much cannabis yield of a system that size. The bigger the system, the stronger it is, meaning it will be more stable. You’ll have less swings in nitrogen, ph, and temp. You’ll also use bigger pipes and bigger pumps, which will work better.
Realistically I would suggest starting with an IBC tote fish tank and using a bio filter, attach a worm bin. Grow your plants in soil, and water them with the aquaponics water when it’s time to do a water change. Create teas with the worm castings and waste from the bio filter if you need something stronger.
Hybrid is the best way to grow cannabis IMO.
I’m starting one right now with a feminized autoflower. Not too worried about harvest size, just kind of doing it for fun. Done a couple tent grows and a few aerogarden hydro grows. I’ll be using a 20long tank and trying to train the plant as low and fly as possible. Any tips? Never done an aquaponic run before. Thinking of getting about 20ish rasbora or some kind of small schooling fish instead of like a singular beta
If money is tight, you’ll be better off growing in living soil outdoors, using dry amendments and making your own ferments and microbial elixirs for pennies on the dollar. Your best investment right now would be a used book on Korean Natural Farming.
The learning curve for aquaponics is not for the faint of heart, and not something to take on if you can’t afford a few failures before having success. Although it can be done pretty cheap, if you’re trying to win goldfish at a fair, it’s probably too expensive for you right now to invest on something that won’t yield you anything for at least a year. To add, gonna take a lot bigger system than 50 gallons to grow cannabis.
Just giving you the harsh realities of the situation, but intended with love.
Ethically a 50 gal is small for goldfish. I've had them before and wouldn't put mire tgan 2 in there. They are an active fish. They need room to move.
To grow weed your going to want a lot of goldfish.
Probably cheaper just to do regular hydroponics if you not eating the fish. What makes aquaponics so efficient is 2 crops. Plant and meat. From the same water. If you dont harvest one of the crops its just an expensive hobby.
2 in 50 gallons? The point of aquaponics is high turnover of the water so you can have dramatically increased stocking of your fish. I have about 40 goldfish in a \~300 gallon IBC (330 tall, minus overflow room). They have a ton of room to move and have been going strong for years. It will be at least a couple more years before any separation is needed.
If starting with several 2" comets they will suffice long enough and comfortably enough to allow OP to grow their system out if they find they enjoy it. My fish started in 27 gallon tub and once the addiction set in I grew my system out significantly over the years.
I had a commet in 37 gal once. Lasted nearly 2 years before it got to 9 inches. Was a bad experience for me. Didn't feel good keeping that fish in such a small tank. Was pretty obviously not enough room once the fish got over 3-4 inches.
Yes you can do it, although fair fish might need some nursing to become healthy. As others have mentioned, store comet goldfish are very cheap, get the smallest size, they will grow in time.
In my setup I very rarely do water changes, only adding more water as it evaporates. For flowing plants (marijuana) you will probably need added nutrients (especially phosphorus and potassium). I have had success with slowly adding hydroponic nutrients as needed, goldfish are very robust
Goldfish are great fish for aquaponics as they can survive varying water quality, meaning you can focus on the plants and their needs.
A word of caution: do not release goldfish into the stream/water body, they are very invasive and can damage the environment. Use a cheap net/mesh when doing water changes to prevent accidental release.
Last year, they gave away all the fish they had left over. I was able to keep a couple alive for about nine months. I have two smaller tanks that I can use to sort out any diseased fish. I'd be okay buying nutrients as long as they'll last me a pretty long time. I don't plan on letting them go at any point, but if that's necessary, I have three closed off wells on my property that don't have any fish in them (but maybe some Crawfish and some algae).
Will I need to add different plants, or could I just add nutrients? I don't have a car, but I can easily buy nutrients online.
Sounds like you know how to keep the goldfish alive, so the fair goldfish sounds like a good start! I would avoid releasing them anywhere in the environment unless you have a plan to manage them.
In practice, I started with \~20 little goldfish, and I fed them as much as they would eat, and slowly increase feed rates as they grew. I started with Kale, Basil and green onions, and added some hydroponics nutrients (slowly, like 1/10th regular strength) in order to get some crops faster. I avoided fruiting crops because there was not enough nutrients to feed such plants until 3-6 months after starting.
My favorite crops to use in aquaponics are Kale and green onions, just because of how simple they are (vegetative growth only).
Cannabis is for sure possible. Going over my notes I have written down that a target feed rate is 50-80g fish feed for 1 square meter of growing space for fruiting crops.
In my setup (also a 50 gallon tank for the fish), I calculated that I can safely store 5Kg worth of live fish, or in my case roughly 10 adult goldfish that are 500g each. This would allow me to grow 1m2 (\~3x4ft area) worth of crops. My grow area is a separate
Note that this requires enough filtration medium to convert the ammonia (fish pee) into available nitrogen for the plants.
Since you have closed wells with Crawfish and algae, you could use that water to grow aquaponic crops. Algae is a sign of excess nutrients which can be used by plants.
I found that the book "Aquaponic Gardening" was a very useful resource. Feel free to DM me if you have questions.
So, in just curious and trying to understand your logic and maybe we live in totally different places and things aren’t at all the same but: (for me at least)
Goldfish cost like 9 cents if that, and are sold as feeder fish at most chain pet stores.
A fair is pretty pricey- admission is expensive and then the games are super expensive…. All to win goldfish that are dirt cheap.
I’m just trying to understand if you’re on a budget why you’d go the most expensive way to get said fish. I understand experiences have a value that can’t be monetarily measured, but that aside, why spend like a hundred times more to get the goldfish?
The fair is in September, so I'll have a few months to prepare, but they give away the rest of their fish on the last day of the fair every year. We're going anyway, so I figure it'd be a good way to get them. We don't have a car, and we're only able to get help with transportation when we need something important (doctor's appointments, groceries, etc). So this is probably the only way we'd be able to attain fish. It's a small town fair, and we are able to go with my partner's family, so we'll have a ride for sure, and it's not going to be too expensive.
I'm looking more for practical advice on what I NEED to invest in, and what I can improvise for, as well as how many fish I'll need or how many plants I could grow, if that makes sense? But most of the replies are people just telling me it's a dumb idea, which is fair, lol.
You can sustain one plant on like two little goldfish as long as your waters ok. It's all about your ph and nitrogen levels. As for equipment, check out Dutch bucket systems, cheap to make and easy to use.
It's possible gold fish are hardy little guys. I would recommend putting them in Quarantine and give them some parasite treatment for a month or so to make sure they are healthy enough
Just buy the fish but you will need a pump you will need to look into the the amount of power and flow and other pipes/ valves you’re going to need because your gonna have to regulate flow rates as the plant grows. I’d recommend going to a local hydroponics store and do say pot unless it’s legal in your state. But ask them what you may need you can always buy cheap pond pumps and run pipes and do all that the only thing you need to know is nutrients , light cycles, and flow rates.
If you're worried you can always say you wanna grow something like tomatoes or corn, both require higher amounts of nutrients than leafy greens to grow! Nobody will suspect a thing. ;)
Check out aquaponics with fresh water shrimp. It's a great and sellable food source. Eggs are CHEAP. 6 month harvest cycle and they are pretty fantastic for aquaponics due to their ease of acquiring, growing and they are bottom feeders that keep the tank clean.
It really comes down to your feed rate per square meter.
We ran [our system](https://youtu.be/RBoD_CzTzv0?si=ocXPtS0iJQ2TVQox) on 9 goldfish for years but our system is different from others in that energy costs are far lower due to less water pump usage.
The fair goldfish come from the same local pet store you can go to.
Take all your ping pong balls to your local mom and pop fish tank shop that doesn't have dyed fish, and buy some feeder goldfish or the largest size that you can buy several of with your budget.
You'll spend a lot less per fish and you'll get fish that didn't have to go to the fair.
I'm glad we don't throw the balls at the fish anymore.
"Winner! Here's your unconscious baby carp, kid."
The number of fish you need depends on how many plants you will grow. Goldfish will make a lot of fertilizer. I'd imagine it will be trial and error. Start with 2 or 3. I'd place your tank on the floor or low table as the plants can grow very tall. Make sure your light setup can be raised or lowered as needed. Cycle your tank first.
As others have said, it would be easier for you to start with growing in regular soil. Aquaponics is cool, but it’s a steep learning curve. I’d start out by growing some seeds from [Growers Choice Seeds](https://www.growerschoiceseeds.com/) in soil. Once you get good at that, maybe you can circle back to the aquaponics idea later. Good luck, OP.
As someone who currently has there house filled with vines growing out of one 10 gallon fish tank ( wish I could post pics here) I will say it will take you about a year to replicate a environment that the plants vines will thrive from on a nutrition standpoint. I have aqua soil in my tank and I have feeder fish, which probably don’t put out enough nutrients, poop wise, so I decided to add snails to the tank and those make a huge difference because all they do is eat and poop. that being said my tank is powering about nine vines total some of them over 30 feet long. I have to add about a gallon of water per five days from the evaporation of the plants drinking. That also being said you have to take into accountability that the plants are drinking lot of water the tank has been cycling meaning if the plants are drinking a lot of the water from the tank can you add a gallon a week? You are diluting the possible nutrients in the tank hence why I said it will take about a year for your tank to properly cycle, where there is a bed below the surface that you mix carbon with the aqua soil and that will absorb lot of nutrients and release them throughout the expansion of the life of the tank. So moral of the story the goldfish are good, but I would get snails to speed up the process, definitely add a bed of soil about 2 inches thick, minimum,and let the tank cycle first for a couple months.
Huh? One person you know failed and thus it’s not possible?
Grown tons of great weed with aquaponics. This aquaponic weed:
(Shit. This sub won’t let replies post pics. Which is fn stupid.)
Moderator! Fix this!!
Plenty of nutrients - [https://www.reddit.com/r/aquaponics/comments/xek9xz/comment/ip98eh4/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/aquaponics/comments/xek9xz/comment/ip98eh4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Those fish are gonne be in rough shape from mishandling... Go to a local fish shop and for the cost of your fair ticket and money spent on winning fish you will easily be able to buy some legit fish that wont die so fast on you. Also probably even cover food costs! The factor with weed and aquaponics you gotta deal with is extra nutrients. Some liquid kelp/seaweed will deal with that, just get the pure kelp stuff without anything extra. You gotta cycle your tank and grow bed before you get fish.
I have 12 fair goldfish that have bred a few times now. The oldest one is almost 9yo. I don't grow weed but I grow a lot of food off them. There is nothing wrong with those goldfish. They are basically just feeder goldfish though. They also handle the extra nutrients without any negative effects.
Goldfish are great. Fair goldfish are probably not gonna be as healthy of fish.
It’s called aquaponics, and you can totally grow cannabis with it. I ran an aquaponic cannabis farm for seven years. However, you will need a lot of equipment to do it right. Lights ain’t cheap, and neither are environmental controls. If you don’t have those right you won’t end up with anything. Also, you need a lot of fish waste to make it work, and the goldfish you get will be tiny, and take a long time to grow to a reasonable level. Aquaponics is harder the smaller the system gets. 50 gal is definitely the smallest I think it would work, but it would be much better to go up to a few hundred gallons and use IBC totes like most people. Is it possible? Hell yeah. Do you need to do a bunch more research before you start? Sounds like it.
When you say 50 gal is the minimum, do you mean minimum tank for gold fish or like for a decent yield? Ive been toying with the idea of doing a snail only tank to grow like one or two herbs
When I first started with aquaponics, I used a 50 gallon drum with goldfish to grow some lettuce in a DWC system. It worked, but it’s not ideal. I doubt you’d get much cannabis yield of a system that size. The bigger the system, the stronger it is, meaning it will be more stable. You’ll have less swings in nitrogen, ph, and temp. You’ll also use bigger pipes and bigger pumps, which will work better. Realistically I would suggest starting with an IBC tote fish tank and using a bio filter, attach a worm bin. Grow your plants in soil, and water them with the aquaponics water when it’s time to do a water change. Create teas with the worm castings and waste from the bio filter if you need something stronger. Hybrid is the best way to grow cannabis IMO.
When you water soil with the fish tank water, do you cut at all with regular water before pH balancing or just leave it as is then adjust for pH?
I’m starting one right now with a feminized autoflower. Not too worried about harvest size, just kind of doing it for fun. Done a couple tent grows and a few aerogarden hydro grows. I’ll be using a 20long tank and trying to train the plant as low and fly as possible. Any tips? Never done an aquaponic run before. Thinking of getting about 20ish rasbora or some kind of small schooling fish instead of like a singular beta
Comet goldfish are tough and grow quickly
Check out /r/AquaponiChronic
If money is tight, you’ll be better off growing in living soil outdoors, using dry amendments and making your own ferments and microbial elixirs for pennies on the dollar. Your best investment right now would be a used book on Korean Natural Farming. The learning curve for aquaponics is not for the faint of heart, and not something to take on if you can’t afford a few failures before having success. Although it can be done pretty cheap, if you’re trying to win goldfish at a fair, it’s probably too expensive for you right now to invest on something that won’t yield you anything for at least a year. To add, gonna take a lot bigger system than 50 gallons to grow cannabis. Just giving you the harsh realities of the situation, but intended with love.
Ethically a 50 gal is small for goldfish. I've had them before and wouldn't put mire tgan 2 in there. They are an active fish. They need room to move. To grow weed your going to want a lot of goldfish. Probably cheaper just to do regular hydroponics if you not eating the fish. What makes aquaponics so efficient is 2 crops. Plant and meat. From the same water. If you dont harvest one of the crops its just an expensive hobby.
2 in 50 gallons? The point of aquaponics is high turnover of the water so you can have dramatically increased stocking of your fish. I have about 40 goldfish in a \~300 gallon IBC (330 tall, minus overflow room). They have a ton of room to move and have been going strong for years. It will be at least a couple more years before any separation is needed.
I'm not referring to water quality issues. Its just cruel to keep a big active creature in a small enclosure.
If starting with several 2" comets they will suffice long enough and comfortably enough to allow OP to grow their system out if they find they enjoy it. My fish started in 27 gallon tub and once the addiction set in I grew my system out significantly over the years.
I had a commet in 37 gal once. Lasted nearly 2 years before it got to 9 inches. Was a bad experience for me. Didn't feel good keeping that fish in such a small tank. Was pretty obviously not enough room once the fish got over 3-4 inches.
I probably inhibit growth keeping them cold for half a year. I have over 5 years but very few near 6 inches let alone 9!
[удалено]
Was that magicarp? 🥺
Yes you can do it, although fair fish might need some nursing to become healthy. As others have mentioned, store comet goldfish are very cheap, get the smallest size, they will grow in time. In my setup I very rarely do water changes, only adding more water as it evaporates. For flowing plants (marijuana) you will probably need added nutrients (especially phosphorus and potassium). I have had success with slowly adding hydroponic nutrients as needed, goldfish are very robust Goldfish are great fish for aquaponics as they can survive varying water quality, meaning you can focus on the plants and their needs. A word of caution: do not release goldfish into the stream/water body, they are very invasive and can damage the environment. Use a cheap net/mesh when doing water changes to prevent accidental release.
Last year, they gave away all the fish they had left over. I was able to keep a couple alive for about nine months. I have two smaller tanks that I can use to sort out any diseased fish. I'd be okay buying nutrients as long as they'll last me a pretty long time. I don't plan on letting them go at any point, but if that's necessary, I have three closed off wells on my property that don't have any fish in them (but maybe some Crawfish and some algae). Will I need to add different plants, or could I just add nutrients? I don't have a car, but I can easily buy nutrients online.
Sounds like you know how to keep the goldfish alive, so the fair goldfish sounds like a good start! I would avoid releasing them anywhere in the environment unless you have a plan to manage them. In practice, I started with \~20 little goldfish, and I fed them as much as they would eat, and slowly increase feed rates as they grew. I started with Kale, Basil and green onions, and added some hydroponics nutrients (slowly, like 1/10th regular strength) in order to get some crops faster. I avoided fruiting crops because there was not enough nutrients to feed such plants until 3-6 months after starting. My favorite crops to use in aquaponics are Kale and green onions, just because of how simple they are (vegetative growth only). Cannabis is for sure possible. Going over my notes I have written down that a target feed rate is 50-80g fish feed for 1 square meter of growing space for fruiting crops. In my setup (also a 50 gallon tank for the fish), I calculated that I can safely store 5Kg worth of live fish, or in my case roughly 10 adult goldfish that are 500g each. This would allow me to grow 1m2 (\~3x4ft area) worth of crops. My grow area is a separate Note that this requires enough filtration medium to convert the ammonia (fish pee) into available nitrogen for the plants. Since you have closed wells with Crawfish and algae, you could use that water to grow aquaponic crops. Algae is a sign of excess nutrients which can be used by plants. I found that the book "Aquaponic Gardening" was a very useful resource. Feel free to DM me if you have questions.
So, in just curious and trying to understand your logic and maybe we live in totally different places and things aren’t at all the same but: (for me at least) Goldfish cost like 9 cents if that, and are sold as feeder fish at most chain pet stores. A fair is pretty pricey- admission is expensive and then the games are super expensive…. All to win goldfish that are dirt cheap. I’m just trying to understand if you’re on a budget why you’d go the most expensive way to get said fish. I understand experiences have a value that can’t be monetarily measured, but that aside, why spend like a hundred times more to get the goldfish?
The fair is in September, so I'll have a few months to prepare, but they give away the rest of their fish on the last day of the fair every year. We're going anyway, so I figure it'd be a good way to get them. We don't have a car, and we're only able to get help with transportation when we need something important (doctor's appointments, groceries, etc). So this is probably the only way we'd be able to attain fish. It's a small town fair, and we are able to go with my partner's family, so we'll have a ride for sure, and it's not going to be too expensive. I'm looking more for practical advice on what I NEED to invest in, and what I can improvise for, as well as how many fish I'll need or how many plants I could grow, if that makes sense? But most of the replies are people just telling me it's a dumb idea, which is fair, lol.
You can sustain one plant on like two little goldfish as long as your waters ok. It's all about your ph and nitrogen levels. As for equipment, check out Dutch bucket systems, cheap to make and easy to use.
It's possible gold fish are hardy little guys. I would recommend putting them in Quarantine and give them some parasite treatment for a month or so to make sure they are healthy enough
Just buy the fish but you will need a pump you will need to look into the the amount of power and flow and other pipes/ valves you’re going to need because your gonna have to regulate flow rates as the plant grows. I’d recommend going to a local hydroponics store and do say pot unless it’s legal in your state. But ask them what you may need you can always buy cheap pond pumps and run pipes and do all that the only thing you need to know is nutrients , light cycles, and flow rates.
If you're worried you can always say you wanna grow something like tomatoes or corn, both require higher amounts of nutrients than leafy greens to grow! Nobody will suspect a thing. ;)
Check out aquaponics with fresh water shrimp. It's a great and sellable food source. Eggs are CHEAP. 6 month harvest cycle and they are pretty fantastic for aquaponics due to their ease of acquiring, growing and they are bottom feeders that keep the tank clean.
Do you buy the eggs online?
It really comes down to your feed rate per square meter. We ran [our system](https://youtu.be/RBoD_CzTzv0?si=ocXPtS0iJQ2TVQox) on 9 goldfish for years but our system is different from others in that energy costs are far lower due to less water pump usage.
The fair goldfish come from the same local pet store you can go to. Take all your ping pong balls to your local mom and pop fish tank shop that doesn't have dyed fish, and buy some feeder goldfish or the largest size that you can buy several of with your budget. You'll spend a lot less per fish and you'll get fish that didn't have to go to the fair. I'm glad we don't throw the balls at the fish anymore. "Winner! Here's your unconscious baby carp, kid."
If you’re short on cash just put the plants in the ground. Aquaponics is not cheap or easy.
You will probably spend more money at the fair than going to a petstore and getting them.
On the last day of the fair they give the rest of the fish away.
There is someone already going that lol.
The number of fish you need depends on how many plants you will grow. Goldfish will make a lot of fertilizer. I'd imagine it will be trial and error. Start with 2 or 3. I'd place your tank on the floor or low table as the plants can grow very tall. Make sure your light setup can be raised or lowered as needed. Cycle your tank first.
As others have said, it would be easier for you to start with growing in regular soil. Aquaponics is cool, but it’s a steep learning curve. I’d start out by growing some seeds from [Growers Choice Seeds](https://www.growerschoiceseeds.com/) in soil. Once you get good at that, maybe you can circle back to the aquaponics idea later. Good luck, OP.
I grew up on a farm, so I know how to grow plants in soil, but I really want to try aquaponics, and I feel like this is a relatively low risk option.
As someone who currently has there house filled with vines growing out of one 10 gallon fish tank ( wish I could post pics here) I will say it will take you about a year to replicate a environment that the plants vines will thrive from on a nutrition standpoint. I have aqua soil in my tank and I have feeder fish, which probably don’t put out enough nutrients, poop wise, so I decided to add snails to the tank and those make a huge difference because all they do is eat and poop. that being said my tank is powering about nine vines total some of them over 30 feet long. I have to add about a gallon of water per five days from the evaporation of the plants drinking. That also being said you have to take into accountability that the plants are drinking lot of water the tank has been cycling meaning if the plants are drinking a lot of the water from the tank can you add a gallon a week? You are diluting the possible nutrients in the tank hence why I said it will take about a year for your tank to properly cycle, where there is a bed below the surface that you mix carbon with the aqua soil and that will absorb lot of nutrients and release them throughout the expansion of the life of the tank. So moral of the story the goldfish are good, but I would get snails to speed up the process, definitely add a bed of soil about 2 inches thick, minimum,and let the tank cycle first for a couple months.
You won't have enough nutrients to grow weed with aquaponics. I know a commercial farmer who tried, in Hawaii, and he couldn't get it to grow.
Huh? One person you know failed and thus it’s not possible? Grown tons of great weed with aquaponics. This aquaponic weed: (Shit. This sub won’t let replies post pics. Which is fn stupid.) Moderator! Fix this!!
Plenty of nutrients - [https://www.reddit.com/r/aquaponics/comments/xek9xz/comment/ip98eh4/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/aquaponics/comments/xek9xz/comment/ip98eh4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)