Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

see AM's thread of Mulch as a heat source. He got a couple of weeks of 38 or 40 degree heat (from memory) before it all died off. I would say what you suggest would not be worth the effort IMHO

Monya,

WIll look the thread up thanks.

I was thinking along the lines of using the compost so as some was removed I'd fill the gap with new material. Would that not keep some heat going albeit at a lower temp?

yep, it would just need to be replenished regularly and also kept damp.

http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... eat+source

hereit is

Thanks monya.

Looks like it could be useful as a supplementary source of heat but it would require an awful lot of work to get it to provide a steady source of heat.

I will rather put effort into implementing the recommendations of the guys in the Indian study. Good solid wall (painted black) on the sunward side of the greenhouse and double walled plastic everywhere else.

Gravity draining into main tank means your tank has to be >grow bed volume, unless you instal an overflow.

Michael,

I have a 1000 litre tank and the volume of the towers that I am making up will not exceed 350 litres anytime soon - my hands will wear out from washing gravel long before that happens :-)

Given that the gravel will take up a fair bit of the volume of the towers do you think it would be advisable fill the tank to brimming and then begin running the water through the towers from dry and not bother with an overflow?

Or would it be better to have as much water in the system as it will hold and rely on an overflow in the event of a pump failure?

haha....that they will.



Yes that is safe, and given the 650 litre difference sans gravel volume you should have plenty water leftover to stock fish. However, go light on your stocking density.

BTW is that your double cab pictured? My wife and I own a 71 Bay Window...... "Too Slow, Too Bad."

Thanks for the advice. Always nice to have a bit of backup on an untested theory.

I intend starting with 20 x 50mm blue tilapia fingerlings and 20 x 50-60mm african catfish to cycle. Does that sound reasonable?

The bus is mine, its' a '59 double cab that I restored almost 10 years back. I also have a '63 standard kombi but that's not a runner. If you think your '71 is slow you should have a crack at a '59, downhills help :-)

haha....I think by '71 they had nearly doubled in horsepower that's for sure. It's okay, not many left around to tailgate. I think people are so amazed to see one they don't mind slowing down to admire, at least for the first 5 minutes. That's a great looking double cab.

Thanks Michael

At the risk of going even further off topic if you go to http://www.vintagebus.com and use "michael evans" to search the image gallery there are a few pics of it.

To drag it back to fish, do you think that 40 fingerlings will be a reasonable to start my system cycling?