Since our farm is missing the old corn crib that once rested on a 16′ diameter concrete circle next to our big grain bin, we had an opportunity. The concrete foundation is right by the garden and is also on higher ground by a foot or two. A perfect place for a 4000 gallon 15′ above ground pool that I found on Craigslist for $50.

The idea is to provide some fish as well as fertile water to be used in the garden. I eventually want to find a grain bin to be placed on the concrete foundation, but until that time it mes well be put to a good use.

Late last summer I setup the pool on the slab and hauled water in a 300 gallon tank that fit perfectly in the back of my small truck. When full it was everything my little truck wanted, but I wasn’t hauling water very far. I have a 2″ gas pump that I purchased at Jacob’s Cave and used that pump to fill the tank from the pond at the sawmill. That pond was chosen because it has very good water quality and is easy to access. It took several loads of water to finally fill the pool, but once full rainfall has maintained the level, and actually overflowed it a couple of times. I need to put a screen over the water filter inlet that is my overflow outlet currently to prevent loosing fish.

Once the pool was filled it was inoculated with duckweed. I did loose the majority of the duckweed when the pool was filled to overflowing by rainwater. In the future I want to add a floating cage with a screened bottom to keep the duckweed in the pool as well as to protect it from the tilapia. I can then move the duckweed out of the floating cage as needed, supplementing the diet of the tilapia.

I decided on going with blue tilapia and found the best deal on Ebay. I ordered 50 fish to begin and let them have free range of the pool. I decided to go ahead and purchase additional tilapia and ordered 200 more, unfortunately I killed these fish by accident. I left them floating in the pool too long as I got sidetracked working on something else. I called it good enough for last year, and will restock this spring.

I plan on harvesting the fish at the end of each year. Tilapia cannot survive cold weather, so I will need to keep breeding stock in a more protected area to restock with every year. While we have plenty of fish from the ponds on the farm, and there are easier ways to have more fish this was a project that I was curious about and wanted to give it a try.

What am I going to feed these fish? Well that is the gross part, coturnix quail droppings will be their main fair as well as feed the quail kick out of their cage. In order to accomplish this task I built a 2’x8′ quail run that is set on top of the pool on one end. The bottom frame was built of treated 2×4’s and the back half of the cage had to have extensions added to span the length of the pool. A four gallon bucket was added to the top of the quail run with lines coming down into the cage to provide water.

How did it work? It worked well, although some tweaks are needed. The eight quail kept in the cage provided too much feed for the fish, and I will increase the population when I restock. The fish grew well and I see no reason it wouldn’t be a pretty easy to maintain system. Once I am better setup here I plan on watering the garden with the fertilized water and replenishing that water with cistern water if needed.

Last year I was planning on putting the tilapia in the greenhouse for the winter. I have an IBC tote for that purpose, but didn’t finish the greenhouse and ended up freezing my fish. They however didn’t go to waste, they floated to the top and were fed to the Muscovy ducks who considered them a delicacy. I plan on getting some more blue tilapia for this year, unfortunately they are more expensive at this time. I aslo plan on adding some minnows this year as well.