Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

so i have been thinking about building a medium sized system outside when spring comes and i was thinking about using some koi and some goldfish for the system, the only thing is what will i do with the fish in the winter ? if i have a large amount of fish i wont really have a place to keep them inside

I'm assuming your ponds freeze over in Winter?

A small greenhouse could be erected over the pond. I don't know about Koi but goldfish will survive ice - so long as it's not frozen over solid. A hole in the ice - for air exchange...

They will stop feeding which shouldn't matter so much as I'd suspect plants stop growing too, a natural buffer of sorts.

I'm thinking a sharply angled A-frame of plastic over the pond. Polycarbonate would be stronger to take the weight of snow, but more expensive.

yea its like 0 and snowing outside right now. i don't know if just a peice of plastic would keep it from freezing i was thinking about putting it above ground so i would think the thing would freez solid like that, but maby if i bury it the ground could act like an insolator, and i could put in a bubbler , or small heater

I have both my IBC's burried with a heater in too... during summer it will slowly heat the soil around it, which helps it maintain a warmer, even temp in winter...
You would need to build a structure over your ponds/tanks, and I would definately go with burrying them... floating styrafoam on the water futher insulates it too, but then the bubbler is a MUST.

Some pond owners here abouts leave the fish in and just keep running the fountain to keep the water running you maybe able to get away with just letting em winter over in the cool water.

My goldfish usually spend the winter sleeping under the ice. (They're inside this winter, pooping for the glory of the new system.) Koi will winter over, too, I'm told. I keep my waterfall running all winter to keep a hole in the ice. Bubbler or small heater would work too, but the heater may be expensive to run. Don't feed after the water temperature drops below 50F, and start feeding again in the spring after water is above 50F.

Check how deep your ground freezes, and make the pond deeper than that. I do fine with about 2 feet deep here (zone 7). You might need to go to 2.5 or 3 feet.

I've wintered the pond many years now. The only time I had a problem was the one winter I didn't run the waterfall. All the frogs died. The fish made it.