Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey folks.Greetings from the Ottawa Valley, Canada. Very excited today. Got my trout tank installed. Just in time for winter. Had -12 temp last night. So my system includes a 7' steel tank with a liner. I have a 1" line running from my 1 acre pond delivering a continuous flow of 12 degree water. I've set up as a test for this winter with no fish. I'll stock it next spring with fingerlings. Not sure how many.

Welcome to the forum Fallingbrook. Great project, I'll be interested to hear how it comes out. I don't know if you have electricity available but you might want to consider running a heating cable along the line in case it completely freezes. I'm not sure you'll have that problem with continuous flow but I've encountered it with intermittent pumping through a water sampling line during cold weather (even using the foam insulation - especially where two pieces join).

Welcome to the group. Looks like a hardy system you built. Is the inside steel with the liner? If so what makes it look like two tone plastic on the outside? Is that insulated cladding?

So my background is fisheries. I studies fisheries at University of Toronto and worked in the field for a while. As a kid I had a room filled with aquariums. I ended up leaving the field for a better paying job in teaching. That is by way of explaining why the trout tank.

I bought my property for the water. I live on 80 acres just outside Renfrew, Ontario and about an hour from Ottawa. It has a great stream and a spring fed ravine which I dammed to create this pond. Always I had the dream of raising fish....in this case trout.

So the tank is part of a steel silo I cut off from. There is a custom vinyl liner. The blue is Tremclad paint. I like it to look pretty . I run water from the pond by gravity. There is no electricity. Once I get fish in it...next spring I hope to have a solar bulk fish feeder installed. Until then I am running the tank through the winter to test for cold endurance. I'm still not sure how the system will handle -30 temperature.