Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

i am trying too find out what is the best shade
cloth too use
i am running two under ground 1500 litre tanks
i have just finished 60 rainbow trout 2weeks ago
it was my first go and i am happy with that
i am now trying silver perch 50
my tanks are surrounded by concrete and the area
gets very hot
i need to cover the tank and grow beds
thanks for any ideas

are you talking about making lids or each tank for about making a shadehouse structure over the top of the tanks and the surrounding concrete ?

30% over GB's to protect plants seems to be the norm and 90% over FT's to minimise algae

Yeah, that works.

I tend to use living shade where I can, ie, plants thathandle the sun well, shading the plants that dont.

thanks for the info i covering grow beds and tank
i cant get any shade clothe under 65% wheat in colour
my tanks already are coverd in heavy plastic mesh
for safety so i should not need 90%
thanks guys darryl

The 90% for the fish tanks would be to keep light out to avoid algae growth.

If you can't get any lower % shade cloth for the grow beds, then you probably want to set it up so it only shades the grow beds for the part of the day that is scorching the seedlings and such and make it fairly easy to move/adjust so you can keep the plants happy. Too much shade and they can get leggy searching for sun but too much heat/sun and they can wilt, dry out or just die. A couple hours of shade in the hottest part of the afternoon might be all they need.

OBO, care to share which plants handle the sun well and can be used as living shades... don't know too much about plant before AP, learning slowly but any help would be great....

Sunny Plants:

Tomato, Corn, Capsicum, Melons, Pumpkins (Train them up over some trellis, its amazing how much wieght the pumpkins can self support), grapes etc.

Grow these over the top of the growbeds to protect your silverbeet, beans, carrots etc.

This was how it looked last summer: