Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I came home today and took the shadecloth off my fish barrel...


i felt a fair bit of heat coming off it so i stuck my electric thermometer in there...

34.9 DEG C....

the Goldfish are still alive even being in that all day...

Tought little buggers...



There is no way i can get the temperature down, already flushed half of it with tap water...


the tap water is also around 30 degrees...

Welcome to my world

checked mine this arvo... a nice 19.4C

i have shade cloth over two thirds of the beds and also have the fish tank in a fair bit of shade...

My big system can hit over 30 regularly and I am too scared to measure the ibc system. I will in the next week and let you know because we are in for a warm week. Silvers and cats and cod have all survived
Big system has a shade hoophouse over the whole lot and a shaded lid on the fish tank

it was 42 here today 40 yesterday, and last nite didnt drop below 30deg...

guess thats the problem with a 200litre system with a couple of growbeds...the clay must get hot and then heat all the water..

need to plumb in another barrel to get a more stable temp with higher volume...

Recommend shade over the grow beds, during our heat wave with temps in the mid 40's the top of my GB's was over 55c. Yet to do my own shade, another day another job.

Questions when dealing with high water temps outside... Is it at all possible/effective to:

- run water through a radiator i.e. air conditioner or car, in order to dissipate heat?

- bury a sump and/or pipes 4-6 feet down to take advantage of geothermal cooling?

Grow beds and whole system is already under shade cloth.



True, run through radiators or underground but neither is an easy thing to do, i also rent and its in a paved patio so there wont be any digging



Actually my pond i have had 3 fish die in the last couple of days and that water isnt as hot...

need to test as im wondering if it because of nitrates etc...

My pump maintenance bloke does maintenance for some Hydroponic set ups in the district. He does a system for them which uses coil of 20/25 mm soft black irrigation poly in a chest freezer.

He works out the correct ratio required between pump, flow rate to achieve the correct temperature. And then just has the water running from the pump, through the pipe in the freezer and out to the hydroponic tubes and returning again.

May be you just need to experiment a bit.

I'm a newb.. So only in the planning stages right now. The summer temp is one thing I'm worried about here in southern gulf coast. Not sure what I'll do yet. I'm reading tons of posts and taking notes. I mean I love a good crayfish boil and fish fry as well as the next person.. But not in my AP hopefully.. I'll be watching closely what the answers are to dissipate heat.

Bakki showers or spray bars are another method to reduce water temp... minimal as it may be.

ive just covered the whole barrel with 100 Shade now to reduce the direct sun intake.

Ill see how it is when i get home again...

Assuming there was some way to isolate the dehumidifier, what about something like this for at least a sump chiller?

http://www.jonolavsakvarium.com/eng_diy ... iller.html

Those types of chillers would be fine in aquaria. The issue with AP is the temp loss/gain through the grow beds, piping, water surface etc etc.... unless your entire system is inside, in the shade... a chiller like that would make no temperature differences at all sorry.

Figured I'd take a whack at it, Charlie... I"m spoiled, though... Have my bed completely indoors... I have a harder time keeping things warm so far....Didn't know if you'd see any appreciable temp drop if you could at least significantly cool the sump water before sending it on it's way....