Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi I would appreciate any info on hydroponicing in cold weather Bombala where I live ranges from -7 in winter to bloody hot in summer. I have been vege gardening for a while not much grows here in winter. Would the tanks heat an area being black poly ? Would I need to heat the water
Any Ideas??
Cheers marc

Marc,

where exactly is bombala?

I haven't have experience growing in cold weather (as in sub zero) but i assume you will be growing in a greenhouse type structure?

I do know that one way people use to keep their green houses warm naturally is to place 44 gallon drums filled with water and painted black inside the green house. During the day they collect solar energy and warm up and at night they re-radiate the heat back out to the greenhouse, taking the "edges" off the temperature swings. Water holds an incredible amount of heat engergy per degree.

You may be able to improve on this idea by running black poly tube coils inside the greenhouse and circulating the water from the drums through the black poly tubes 24/7.

i have water piped around my backyard through about 30 Metres of black poly tube, and i know that the water sitting in it on even a 22 degree day heats to over 45 degrees. its the general basis for solar hot water.
Just make sure the poly tube is INSIDE the greenhouse and in direct sunlight if u can.

I have some info somewhere on this sort of stuff, i'll try and dig it up.

Steve

Marc,

I've placed a link in the "links" section of the forum with some info on heat storage for greenhouses.

Just to give you an idea of how much heat water stores compared to other materials, the website i mentioned states 2 gallons of water **OR** 80 pounds of rocks! (per squre foot)

Steve

The Speranios who live in the US have aquaponic systems in a greenhouse and during the winter they have 1-2 feet of snow on the ground. Yet inside the greenhouse they grow Tilapia (a tropical fish) year round without any heating.. As Steve suggested, it's all to do with design and orientation, they use a double skinned greenhouse with all of their black fish tanks along the back solid wall of their greenhouse.

Only in winter time when the sun is at a lower angle does the sun hit the fish tanks and warm them. While in the summer time the sun is high in the sky, and the roof section directly above the tanks is solid. Then with some lower vents and upper vents you can control the heat reasonably well.

Appreciate the ideas.I dont have a system yet but have ordered the dvd and book and will most definately have one growing next year.Im planning a covered or partly covered area, winter and summer maybe.
and will try out trout and eels which are easy to get localy.Bombala is 1.5 hrs from jindabyne and 1.5hrs from the south coast. Ive been wanting to grow fish for a long time and this is definately the way to do it.
Cheers Marc