Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,

I have just commenced building a barrelponics system from Travis Hugheys manual with my children. My thinking is to see if i can get it to work before trying on a larger scale. My questions at the moment

1. Our temperature ranges from 3 Degrees in the winter (at night) to 48 Degress in the middle of a summers day, is such a big range a problem.
2. Is it necessary to have a cover over the system (greenhouse etc)
3. How much can you plant in the grow beds or will the plants let you know by dying off.

Any help would be much appreciated and i look forward to being an active member of the aquaponics forum.

Cheers
m2f

Your temperature range is going to make things difficult for you M2F... in terms of what fish you can stock... and unless you can house your system in a greenhouse, may also limit just what vegetables you can grow through the winter months.

In terms of fish stock, you're probably limited to hardy natives such as Silver Perch, Australian Bass or Murray Cod... and even those may struggle through winter unless a certain size... Silver Perch are probably the most bullet proof option...

Your other option is to split your system and fish stock and work with your natural conditions...

In this respect, you'd need a fast growing fish that can handle and prefers high summer temps... and a similar fast growing fish that can handle and prefers low water temps...

Luckily Barramundi & Jade Perch fit these requirements for summer... and trout for winter...

It's the cross-over periods of spring and autumn where water temperatures may be outside the preferred range of temperature for either of those species that could present some problems... but they're not imsurmountable...

When do temperatures begin to climb in spring out your way and how high are they likely to get... and similarly when do temps begin to fall in autumn??

Welcome, by the way...

Rupe ,, Jade perch NSW ,, arn't they on the banned list?
Sorry to hi-jack but I want Jades and recently changed to gold-perch because Jades whewre on THE list of not for NSW.

Hi M2F and welcome to the madhouse of aquaponics

we all ( in NSW ) seem to have a similar range of tempretures
we also seem to have a different solution to the probelm too

Rupe will give you very good advice and it is a good thing to follow
but if you have some ideas then let us know what they are and we will let you know what we think of them

Thankyou for the replies, i have been looking for a cheap green house to put up but so far nothing has come up. Worse comes to worse i'll put up a frame and some green shade cloth.

My temperatures here stay fairly warm see below for the last financial year, from reading through the forum i had decided to have go eventually with barra & trout as i expanded my system.


Temps

Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Night average 3.9 3.8 8.9 13.7 16.2 18.7 21.9 20.7 17.1 13.5 8.9 7.4
Day average 17.1 17.5 23.9 29.2 28.9 33.6 36.3 33.2 31.3 24.7 21.2 16.8

Max temps in Jan & Feb hit 42 + and lowest in Jul 7 Aug were 0 & -0.3

So the warm period is fairly long its only for a few months that it gets quite cold, would a year round fish be a better choice than seasonals?

Anyway i'll keep reading up while i am building my system and i'll post my progress.

Cheers,

M2F

Green house / hot house film ,, not shade cloth for winter. About $11 per metre ( 4 metre wide)

I think Barra may be out of the question without heating , from what I read they HATE getting under 20C.

Trout will be no problem at all , even when air temps begin to warm ,, soil temps are low. Buried tank and beds placed in a area that is a bit shady in late spring/early summer and trout will be no probs.

With a greenhouse... you might pull Barramundi off... you're going to be pretty hot in mid summer though...

Remember that they're average temps Chappo.. peaking to around 48 in summer... definitely need shade cloth if you're in a greenhouse... and I think just too hot for trout all year...

Might be OK for Silver Perch all year round though... but those short cold winter nights are going to be a question mark... even with a greenhouse..

Yep rupe ,, was suggesting coul;d keep trout until early summer with shade and tank/grow beds buried,,, ground temp probably still around 18-21C at that time.
Barra with nights down to 3.8C ,, can't see it without supplementary heat ..... Even here in Gods Shire I'm worried about Barra even with a double polycarbonate glass-house.
I thought Barra started dieing at 14 odd????

From my limited knowledge I'd suggest golden perch ..... good down to 2C and good up to around 32C.

Two problems with Golden Perch in tanks though Chappo.... very slow growing... and notoriously difficult to keep on a pellet...

Even fingerlings sold as being on a pellet... 10% tend to go off the pellet in the first couple of weeks and die... about another 20-40% will go off the pellet at some stage of their life... and die... about another 20% will be eaten by the bigger Golden Perch...

Toss a 100 in a dam... and forget about them for 2-3 years... and you'll probably pull ten big ones out...

Well that kills my Jade Perc h replacement ,, AHHHHHHH,
<<< OOPS thread hi-jacker

well chappo thats ok cause im interested in the same thing
and im sure that M2F wont mind as he will need to take this into consideration too
i have been hoping to replace the trout at the begining of summer with something that will get through winter
and hopefully wont need me to turn the pumping off at night to hold the temp in the tank

Definately the more info the better, i have tried to read all the different threads in the forum for direction. It is as you all say a hobby that turns into a passion, i seem to be doing nothing else at the moment.

I have expanded my original plan and now have a 1000L ibc as my fish tank and 6 half 205L barrels as grow beds and a sump that will hold approx 300L. Now the fun begins with putting it all together. I will hold off on worrying about the fish until i get it built ha ha with my skills that could be a while and a few first aid treatments from my better half.

M2F

Hi M2F and welcome.

Not sure how you are intending to do your water flow but you may need a bigger sump.

6*205 grow beds =1230 litres.

Grow beds at full flood usually hold about 40% of their volume of water so:

40% of 1230 = 400 litres (approx). Sump might be a bit light on.

Suggestion is usually to have a sump as big as the fish tank.

Edit: Just re-read and I think you are actually doing 6x100 grow beds, so the sump may be OK. However bigger is still better to allow for expansion.

Hi Fishfodder,

I just got my hands on another IBC so my sump and FT will be the same size, also got some old pavers from work so i'll start my base this weekend so i have a sturdy platform for my system.

I have similar temps to you M2F and is cold right now, trout are growing great guns and I think they will go til the end of November and then barra to end of April, that's the plan anyhow, as for the Hot House plastic $11 per mt 7.5mt wide on Ebay, I have my system in an old carport with 2 open sides, I will go that path next year and design so I can roll up in summer, mainly for the veggies sake, not the fish