Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So I was told today that people use "PolyCarbonite sheeting as an insulation on their tanks to keep heat in for Barra in winter, while using a 300 w heater. But looking it up, the stuff doesnt seem all that practical as its see through...

Been reading today an asked a friend whos a builder an he thinks it would be a complete failure.

Wood-vale aquaponics were pretty definite that it works. Anyone thought of it before?

are you thinking this stuff? No, I don't think that would be worth the hassle. What style of tank are you insulating? Round? Square? IBC? You can bury it some. Clad it with something found like rags and cover it with wood.

yer I agree, doesn't seem practical to me... it's a round tank the one I am getting...Not gonna worry about it. Was gonna ring Stratco today an ask them about it's proprieties for insulation but cant see the point now.

You could try corflute sheets, they would wrap around a round tank, a lot cheaper and maybe chop up the off cuts to use as media for bio filter.

Never heard of it, but ill have a look ta. Smarter people than me have tried Barra in Perth winters before but I am a glutton for punishment...

Corflute really has minimal insulation value. If you are serious about it, you'd use 15 or 20cm thick polypropylene blanket, with something like Aircell around the outside. However, you'd have to do the same with your GBs, otherwise it would be a waste of time.

Andrew, if your committed to running barra you can design your system to suit seasonal changes. This is what my next build will be arranged like.

Firstly, trout season is not far away so i would (at this time of year), focus on getting up and running for that. That will give you 4 months of cycling to prepare for the eating and pooing machines. During winter you will learn a lot about your system, make finer adjustments and then plan to expand/design for the barra.

My personal opinion is if you want barra all year round I would design so you can section of the system components to run RAS during the winter. Unless your happy to overwinter barra in a heated aquarium. Ive done this with catfish and it gave me a great head start for the summer but the aquarium was just another thing I had to monitor and maintain. So designing your system to disconnect a section to run RAS is really just a big aquarium but you will have the flexibility to replace water from the AP component to manage water parameters and temperatures.

The biggest thing you will find with backyard RAS is keeping nitrite and ammonia levels in check, this could be stressful to you and your fish. Some sound fish keeping experience is needed when designing and maintaining RAS.

Basically my next build will have 2 x FT's which will feed a series of media beds/raft beds and collect in a sump, this will pump back to the FT's via 2 x MBBR's and final polishers. Only the rafts and beds will be outside, the rest will be in a shed. The system will run with all components connected during the summer but in winter I will disconnect one FT from the outside beds and will recirculate to itself via 1 x MBBR, RFF and polisher and will be sole RAS. On warmer in winter (which we get in northern NSW) days I can circulate it through a media bed to manage nitrite/amm and nitrates.

Something like that anyways. Might give you food for thought.

I agree totally mate I am putting the Barra idea on shelf for a few an focusing on a trout and or perch season to learn a few things I need to learn. Reading only teaches you so much as our old skipper used to say. At soem point you need to go an just do it to really learn.

I could cover tank an put 3 500w heater sin there, but the power-bill would be nearly 2000$ a qtr