Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

It is freezing here in Canberra at the moment, yesterday the temp was -5 to 5 degrees. The frosts this year are heaps worse than last, my vege garden is looking very sad, whereas last year everything was fine.

What sort of system am I going to have to build? I'm thinking fully enclosed and maybe heated as well?

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..........

Stella,

If even the veggies are suffering then i'd say build a plastic greenhouse and put the lot (fish tank included) inside.

AS far as i know, and have experienced,
Silver perch don't do too well under 10C water temp
Jade perch don't do too well under 15C water temp
Golden perch are apparently able to go much lower, i read somewhere 5C water temp, but are more agressive and not omnivores

Go as large a water volume as you can and build it in a green house

stella,
in adelaide we have had really cold mornings and super frosts for the last week except today. Have ordered all the steel and fittings to make a greenhouse tunnel attached to the end of the shed with the tank in it. Seems like the only way to go

Some ways I have considered to beat the Cold

- Stock your tank with cold water species
- Bury your fish tank in the ground (like steve and EB's)
- Insulate the fish tank if above ground
- Use active devices like electric heater, heat exchangers, rooftop solar heat collector.
- Build a greenhouse over the system to prevent windchill help to keep heat in
- Use a bigger water mass (bigger tank to help store the heat gained)

Any other ideas??

LB

WIll be very interested to see how your greenhouse goes up Monya. I see a greenhouse as being one of the most important thing. Trapped air insulates against heat loss...

am freaking out a bit. Work is crashing around me. Boss wabnts to know where my mind keeps wandering to Took the day off yesterday ordered the steel, sent it to the pipe benders with the plans, found someone who will sell me 10 metres of extruded poly for only $10 a metre 7.5 metres wide, then spent the day today looking for grow beds. Would love some of murray's, they are definately the nicest I have seen that would do the job, but freight is prohibitive. It's coming together, now I just need a working bee to put it all up. (and holidays!!)

Sounds like you are doing something similar to what I want to do - re buying your tube and getting it bent to your design. Did it cost much to get it bent - I have not made inquiries yet. Would love to see a markup of your plan.

P.S. Tell me more about the extruded poly. I was just going to buy greenhouse/hothouse clear film.

am in trouble with the boss ...supposed to be changing my 2 year olds wet clothes after he decided to wash the dishes... back in a couple of hours...

Hi VB

here is a really dodgy drawing of my plan. Greenhouse is 6.5 long (1.7 spacings of arches. by 3.6or 3.7 wide, depending on how far the pipe has to go into the machine before the bend will start.
Bending 6 lengths then cutting them in half so I can transport them will set me back about $250- to be determined after they have finished. They seem like pretty decent blokes but it always scares me when someone says 'don't worry,we will look after you'. Will report back with price at the end of next week so you have something to compare with.

As for extruded poly. I'm not sure of the actual difference to clear plastic. (I am not very technical) It is kind of opaque and really thick/sturdy feeling and is supposed to have a half life of a million years. Best bit is it's wide enough that no joins are required.

Should have it up within a couple of weeks- have organised a working bee for next sat. If I get anywhere, will post photos.

Monya

This looks great - its fantastic to see stuff lie this - it provess that there are bigger adicts out there than me!

Good one Monya - similar to what I have been thinking of doing, except that the greenhouse will not connect to my roller door - just to a solid wall. Its a shame that the lengths have to be cut after bending, but transporting an arch of that size would be no easy task. I had considerred trying to do the bending myself at home by using a pipe bender - doing very small bends all along the pipe to achieve the overall arch shape. Don't know whether this is realistic or possible - might try it on a smaller scale to see if it is possible. The other thing I want to do is build mine in a way that I can have two skins - therefore having air in between for insualtion purposes. May bend reo bar into arches that sit 10 or so centimeters to the inside of the gal pipe. One lot of plastic would be attached to outside of gal pipe and the other to the reo.

I dont think I will ever need that sorta system in Cairns... The coldest it has got here in 4 years is around 14... which is good for me as I grew up in an area where it snows for winter - so bring it on (these people in Cairns know not what a true winter is)

i reckon that second skin would complete the project perfectly. bit like double glazing; works a treat.

Something has to be cut to join it all up neatly with the crosses and tee's so I reckon cutting the arches is the go. Strength will be achieved by bolting the first arch to the shed face, concreting in all the feet seperately and having a continuous length uncut spanning the 6.5 metres across the top. Wish I had a pipe bender, i reckon it's worth a go, even if you went with more like a shed shape construction with less bends .

Yes Monya - I think you are right, i would be better off going for that sort of shape. Easier for both the gal pipe and the reo bending. I don't have a pipe bender. I will hire one for the weekend.