Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello! I am researching everything to possibly setup an AP system this spring. It's chilly here, so I'm looking at trout or perch. I have a 375 gallon IBC, a small greenhouse, and want to set up some kind of DIY grow beds with sump tank to drain them into and pump back up to the IBC fish tank. Ideally, I want a 2:1 system, so that's around 72 square feet of growbed space, 1 ft deep. I think the sump tank needs to be at least 220 gallons. I don't want anything below ground, so I'll probably have a combination of smaller tanks under the grow beds. My ultimate goal is to get a good crop of fish for the table each year, that's what led me to aquaponics. I'll start small and see how it goes. (Fresh Greens & Veggies are great, too.) It should be fun and think of all the learning for the kids!

I am thinking of running the system only in three seasons and pulling the plug and draining everything each winter. I haven't read anything about that, is it reasonable? My winters are quite cold, with several days (weeks it seems like) below zero degrees F. It wouldn't be feasible for me to heat the small greenhouse--10x20 ft. Anyway, that's what I'm thinking for now.

Cheers!

I don't know enough about cold climate and AP but i would imagine Trout would be fine but their metabolism would be so slow that you could just run the system to keep the fish alive not feeding them.
I'm sure there would be some sort of plant you could have planted to use up any minute nutrients created??
Not sure??

Thanks for the info! I wouldn't be able to keep anything running in the winter without heat. It would be frozen solid in winter. Maybe it is another research project how to heat an AP system the best way to keep it running, but that is another project altogether, and I don't have the funds for that! I was just wondering if it is totally unheard of to shut down a system over the winter and restart it each spring. I know you wouldn't get the benefits of a mature system, though...

Yeah like i said not experienced with it but am pretty sure i have read about guys shutting them down over winter and re-stocking in spring. Thing is you need a fast growing fish like trout to benefit from a fish harvest. As for a syscled system i would imagine if you left some water in the GB's the bacteria would lay dormant during the freeze over so little effort would be required to restart it in spring but i am really only speculating here.

Yes, I am thinking trout. That is a good point about the nitrifying bacteria. I will look into it if they survive freezing temperatures. If not, I could always bring some buckets full of water and media into the house and run a mini-system with grow lights over the winter. Maybe not much of a jump start to the big system in spring, but anything helps. Thanks for the comments, great ideas!