Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I live in Ballarat Vic. where the winters are cold and the summers can be hot. I'm building a 7 x 10 meter green house for my aquaponics system and want to make the right choice on the grade of polycarb sheeting. The range is:- Clear has 90% transmitted light & 86% heat transfer, opal has 45% trans light & 46% heat trans others go down to 20% light & 32% heat. As I will need to grow veg through winter I will need max light & heat but will it be too much in summer? I will have to put in shade mesh over the fish tank, perhaps I will need to extend it over the growbeds in summer. Has anyone had experience with this kinda thing.

Use the lightest stuff you can get, and place shadecloth over the top in summer - best of both worlds.

Ditto

Hi BB,
Outback has the answer....use the lightest for winter and cover with shade cloth in summer.
That works well in Adelaide and we have hotter summers than you.

thanks guys. I was sorta heading that way. I guess ventilation during the hot days will be my problem as the greenhouse is fully enclosed. I intend to run a wormfarm and a couple of bearded dragon or waterdragon lizards as pest control.

One of the laserlight opaques is at 56%.

when you guys say lightest, are you talking weight or light transmission?????..........I was looking at an "opal" or opaque (white) just like the white painted glasshouses you sometimes see..........the white "illuminates" for want of a better word and seems to light up better even on an overcast day........could anyone suggest a specific colour from the laserlite range as that seems to be the more readily available brand

Light Transmission.

You want fully clear sheeting.

ok cool, I was really trying to avoid that so my sticky beak neighbours cant see whats inside my gh, we have really low fences here
and I treasure my privacy, is why I thought the opaque would rock coz they're popular with the glasshouses

BK link http://www.laserlite.com.au/residential ... te2000.asp

In WA would probably go the opal. Although light transmission is 56% it is a pleasant diffused light and plants seem to grow well under it. Not sure about Vic though. Easiest is to look at what the commercial growers are using in your area.

Hi Ballarat. Nice to see someone from this neck of the woods. I am in Geelong and work takes me to Ballarat one day most weeks, must catch up.
With my 7m by 5m greenhouse, I have Redpath's Duratough over the hoops and shadecloth either end. It gives a bit of ventilation to relieve the worst of the summer heat. At this time of year it is still a bit warmer in the gh than outside, but my water temp has been between 12-16C after that late heat we had end of March.
What fish are you planning? Are you going to have ur fish in the gh? It would give you more options, but might cut back on ur growing area. Ballarat Trout are available as fry around Melbourne Cup week. Last year's fingerlings are basically gone now unless you are picking them up in the next week or two.
Jim has a nice setup at Buninyong and I am sure would be happy to show you his setup and offer some helpful hints.
Keep us posted and as I am sure you know, we love pics!

Hi twintragics2. I think I'll try silver perch first. I would like redfin because of their hi tolerance to water temp and they are great eating but they are carnivorous and I'm led to believe hard to train to dry food (also unwanted by fisheries)(info from Jim Vagg who has tried them at Buninyong). Another one that was a favourite as a kid fishing the local creeks was black fish but again they would be hard to train to dry food. The guys at the trout farm tell me that I would have trouble with trout, they die at water temps at 28 deg C which can happen in Ballarat. They have bore water at 16 Deg that is why the trout farm can operate during summer. Also trout shut down their growth during summer just when you need fish activity. It seems as though clear is the best choice for the polycarb sheet because you can always add a screen or shade mesh when needed. My GH is fully enclosed so that I can have control over bugs ETC. I will be using a couple of bearded dragon or water dragon lizards also for my pest control.

Hi Ballarat Bertie IMHO;-
We live in suburban Perth and our temperatue range here is -5degrees to + 45degrees in Summer. I wanted an outdoor area that I could garden all year round and not get wet in winter, my aim was to achieve maximum light and to harvest rain water as well, also to keep out gum leaves. We set up berfore winter and filled a 4500l tank with rainwater in 2 weeks. I consider that if summer was too hot we would add a shadecloth covering for the summer, the system was well established by then and the plants did not seem to suffer from the heat to the point where I decided not to bother with shadecloth. The sides are open and have been for a year now, the laserlite is clear and I am very happy with the results. There is no right or wrong just consider what you want to achieve and do your homework. The benefit of open sides is that humidity does not build up and there is good circulation of air, the benefit of fully enclosed is that you can probably maintain higher temperatures which may allow you to grow warm season crops longer eg. tomatoes in winter.

Would like to see if there's a difference in heat loss overnight in winter between opaque and clear.

been driving around, all the igloo's use translucent materials(but I already knew that), gunna go the opal, I cant see it being any different to the translucent material the market gardeners are using....or the translucent woven stuff that someone started a thread on in the old forum( the same stuff I used on my old hothouse)....and alot of commercial/ hobby glasshouses I have seen have been painted white.