Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks TC, thought about that after I posted. WHat do you suggest, bubble wrap or foam?

I'm not sure which I would suggest. It depends on lots of factors. What is the goal? What would you rather work with, what is most easily available? What exactly are you going to do with it and how. And is it protected from the sun or will it be exposed. stuff like that.

Spray foam tends to be really costly but effective if you get the right kind with the good sprayers.
Ridgid foam like blue or pink board can be good for making something like a box shape.
Bubble wrap type insulation can be more easily wrapped around a lumpy object if spray foam is out of the question and will probably take up less space than ridged sheets of foam but may give you less R value.

I like the foam idea. My thought was to "stuff" the foam in between the tank covering (which will be bamboo fencing - cheap and doesn't look too bad) It will be covered from the sun by this, and maybe a layer of shade cloth (have heaps laying around).

Will see what I have in my shed and then work something out.

Quachy

As TCL said what is the goal If you want to keep trout all the year you will have to spend dollars and cool the system and realy your setup one pump running all the water through all the beds ,as soom as the water has been through the beds 4 times [remember the ideal system fish tank water should go through the grow bed at least once an hour ]all the water will nearly be ambient temp any how so for alll the good insulating will do [besides the dollars ] you may as well go and pee in the ocean to help with evaporation as in climate change
In our area run trout from end of jan to december and silvers all the year providing you can get yearling ones
Getting small ones now they probley wont make it through next winter
unless you get small ones now and over winter them in a heated tank
Seeing your system you could easley grow out 100 trout in a summer [50 in each ibc ]
If you had your silvers in a heated tank in the shed you could grow out 150 trout

I agree with F&F on that one.

Good call F&F, I will re-think my tank design. Will definitely be covering them at least with shade cloth to stop UV as much as possible hence prolonging the life of the tanks.

I'm thinking 50 silvers, 50 trout and 50 murray cod (if I can get a hold of some!) and in my current system, 30 or so mixed, trout/silvers.

I agree too, insulating the fish tanks will only help if you can control the air temp around the grow beds too. Flood and drain grow beds are just way efficient at bringing the water closer to ambient air temps.

I differ. (and please don't say "and in oh so many ways...." *grin*)

Water tends toward the dewpoint. Where we live, that is about 50degF (about 10degC) in summer, even though air temps are often near 90degF. If the growbeds are shaded by lots of plants, the sides/bottom are insulated, and the fishtank is shaded the temps can stay under 70degF (20degC) all year. Fans in the night would help to drop the thermal water temperature. My less-shaded fishtank has stayed between 70degF and 75degF all summer, through highs of 103degF (~20degC, ~23degC, ~40degC).

This ONLY works if you have very low humidity (so your dewpoint is far lower than your air temperature). Lowing temps without a low dewpoint requires heat pumps or other power suckers.

If I wanted to lower my summertime water temps, I would run water through the pool heaters on the roof at night instead of during the day. This could act as radiant coolers though they would probably only bring the water temp down a touch.
In my climate, it is generally quite humid and the dew here falls with a decided thud being that the dew point is generally only a few degrees below the daytime temperature.

I suppose the talk of insulating really needs to know the goal of the insulation to know if it would be of any use or not.

Sorry for the hijack.

Hi All,
Just a general comment; I insulated my Fish Tank with 75mm thick Steel faced EPS (Expanded PolyStyrene) panel, 4 sides and base as well as my small Duck Weed tank (130 Litre) 4 sides and base. This was not to try in any way to "Heat or Cool" the water in those tanks but to "even" out the temperature Fluctuations that we experience here in the outer suburbs of Brisbane. We can get pre-dawn temps of -C degrees up to 30 odd during the same day. Temperature swings of this magnitude may have devastating effects on fish, so insulation provides a 'buffer' to even out the highs and lows. The FT and DWT are aslo under cover and receive no direct sun. GBs are above FT (on a small deck) and will also be under a Membrane roof cover when I can build it.
So, Insulation is just that, it is not a heat exchanger in any way shape or form, just a barrier from extremes. To heat and/or cool the water in a system to overcome unwanted variations, a specific heating or cooling mechanism must be employed. Any mechanism of this type is energy using, be it solar or Electrical/Mechanical etc. More passive types could make use of the Earth's thermo-coupling, Evaporative cooling, Solar heating and so on. Insulation is none of these; it is a purely passive means of temperature/sound attenuation to compliment whatever system of heating and/or cooling is employed as an energy saving device.

Cheers IanK

Just to clarify, the insulation is to achieve what Ian has done and that is to reduce temp fluctuations. I don't want to heat or cool the tanks, just try to keep them as stable as possible. I guess though with temperatures forecasted to be the same extremes if not worse than last summer, it will do very little good for my trout anyway but the silvers will go off like a frog in a sock!

Anyone in Vic used these guys for native fish?
http://users.netwit.net.au/~wnfc/
My tubs arrive this week, so I should be able to get the growbeds up by the weekend. Maybe get the plumbing done as well, ready to wash gravel by Sunday.
Will cycle with some water from current system and some gravel from that system too. Should give it a good kick along. Will also put a handful of goldfish in as my testers and cyclers.

Quachy

Not sure if "Wartook" is still operating.... very hard to contact them... and they were having problems with water allocation last summer...

I noticed in another thread that you have fish for sale with more to come shortly. Do you ship to Vic at all? What is the process?

Quachy

Possibly... depending what you're after... would probably be cheaper to source stock locally...