Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've recently discovered AP and was instantly enthralled with the idea. I've talked my wife into trying it so now I just have to iron out the details....

Cost is going to be the first limiting factor for us. I'm allowed to try pretty much anything as long as I don't have to pay for it -- so I'm doing to have to work as cheaply as I can.

We live in Maine. It gets very cold, and everything freezes in the winter. Cost is a problem, so building and heating a greenhouse isn't going to cut it. However, our basement sits quite deep into the ground, and the air temperatures down there are always between 50F (as low as my thermostat goes) and 65F (peak of summer). I would assume water temps could be kept close to those temps fairly easily-- and would think trout would be a fairly good match for those temps.

I would plan to place the FT next to an exterior wall and pump the water up and outside to the grow beds. They would be on the South side of the house. I would expect to build small greenhouse-type of structure up against our house to offer minimal protection for winter, but would probably cover with plastic that could be removed in summer.

Problems I would have to address:

1. Water temps would be greatly affected while running through the growbeds. I'm thinking that somehow I could heat water after it is pumped out of the FT. In the winter, the warmed water would be a welcome relief ot the plants and would cool off before flowing back into the FT. I simply wouldn't heat it in the summer. Concern-- will summer temps (sometimes 90F) heat the water too much as it flows back into the FT? How do I cool it back off? drop ice cubes in the FT?

2. FT. I wanted to use a 275 gal IBC, but short of re-building the house have no way of getting it into the basement. I understand that 55 gal drums are too small to raise trout in... so do I buy a small above ground swimming pool?

Thanks for any advice in advance!

Welcome farmerwannabe! I would perhaps look into running the growbeds outside, only in the summer. In the winter use only indoor growbeds, and perhaps additional filtration to handle the waste from the trout. Indoor growbeds mean supplemental lighting, so that is a cost to factor in.