Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Standard price for IBC's here in California. Sometimes you can get them for as low as $175 when they are real dirty and lots of residual syrup or leftover whatevers were used originally for.

What are you thinking of using the IBC's for?

doesn't sound very cheap, brand new here in Aus they are only $300 ($240US).... Hope the fishies arrive safely.

Fishies are here. they're spending the night in a 10gal aquarium while we're waiting for the silicone to dry on a repair in their intended home. All 11 arrived safely. They are beautiful!

Fantastic... You certainly have no issues with the tilapia escaping where you are ems, they won't survive for long in the wild... Good luck with the breeding, though I don't think luck has anything to do with it...

I've been thinking about population control for tilapia. And about possibilites for crayfish culture. Why couldn't "kill two birds with one stone?" I understand that crayfish are escape artists and can try to climb out of almost any tank or enclosure. Suppose I built a cage or series of crayfish cages that would rest on the bottom of my fish tank and provide an uninterrupted mesh bottom. That might discourage the Tilapia from trying to spawn and if any eggs were produced, they would fall through the mesh into the range of the crayfish.

Ems, just wondering what you use for home heating where you are??

Know a lot of folks in the US use heating oil, wondering if you use or can tap into Natural Gas where you are....

Link to some excellent step by step plans for a ... Natural Gas Heated Aquaponics Growbed Setup ....

Surely could be adapted to fuel oil if needed by those of our friends in the snow or above the arctic circle....

Just a thought before you get to far down the design/build stage for your system.

I have natural gas. After 20 years of heating with firewood... it didn't take long to adjust to the convenience.

Reckon that article was just made for ya then Ems

Plus bonus heating of water returned to tanks, means that Tilapia is probably within the realms of possibility

If I'm careful I can use the exhaust from the combustion of natural gas as CO2 enrichment. Just don't want CO


I've also thought about using a natural gas generator to produce electricity for lights and capturing the waste heat for wintertime.

I'm halfway through this article -- very informative, thanks Rupert. I'm wondering why the subsoil heating system instead of just heating the fish water? I suppose it might be more efficient, but it sure is a lot more complicated and expensive to have all those subsoil heaters!

Ems, main reason I see as twofold....

(1) Warms the actual grow media... some plants prefer a "warmer" "soil"... and thus grow better.... simulates/stimulates conditions like spring/summer

(2) Warms the water in the grow bed, rather than trying to heat the entire volume of the tank.... suspect more efficient.... less volume to heat at any one time....

Over time I'd expect the tank to be warmed considerably by this method

Think of it like a heated water bed....

I finished the article -- they said the grow bed heaters are kept at 80F and the water in the fish tank stays between 75 and 80F. In other words, not much variation between the water temperature and the gravel temp. That amount of water is an incredible thermal mass. The gravel is also a large thermal mass. The way I envision it in my mind, the GB temperature would drop to 75 (or the water temp) within seconds of the flood cycle starting. The water would return to the fish tank having been warmed a degree or two. Then the GBs would gradually warm back up to 80 again. Thus the GB's would average a few degrees warmer than the fish tank -- this could be an advantage for the plants and a minor advantage for aerating the fish tank (warmer water holds less oxygen). However, I doubt that a 5 degree difference would make a huge difference.

The disadvantage is the cost of all the subsoil mats, attendant piping and maintenance.... If one of the hoses buried in the GB's got punctured or kinked, it could ruin the whole system (especially if corrosion inhibitors, algicides, or glycol in the boiler water leaked into the fish water)

It seems to me that a simple natural gas hot water heater plumbed into the the irrigation or return piping could do a very similar job with less capital and less maintenance. If for some reason the hot water heater got ruined either by biofouling or corrosion, it would be a simple matter to replace it. I suppose the Zinc sacrificial anode might have to be removed -- I don't know what effect Zinc would have on fish...

Isn't all the piping inside normal gat hot water systems copper? Would that not have a detrimental effect on the fish?

The gas water heaters I'm thinking of are common here in the US -- they are a 40 or 50 gallon cylindrical tank with a 3" flue pipe running up the center. Usually they are made of steel and often glass or epoxy lined.

And If I am not mistaken, copper is not so much a problem for finfish as it is for invertibrates such as coral and crustaceans.