Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi everyone.
I have enjoyed reading through this forum.Have gained great insight into Auqaponics.
I live on the west coast of Canada just north of Vancouver on the Sunshine coast(not the Aussie version)
I have raised Rainbow Trout in ponds and it has been both a source of great fun and frustration.
My biggest headache has been Heron's and river otters,they both have,over time cleaned me out of fish.The Otters are the worst offenders.
I'm now going to switch my interests to indoor.I have several tanks(500,260 & an old hottub)which I'm going to use to build a system.
My biggest hurdle is to get the right kind of fish for the system.I trying to get Tilapia,but they are considered an invasive species here(even though they couldn't live in our cold waters)If I remain noncommercial It will be alot easier(I hope)to import a breeding pair.What I don't get is they allow the importation of live Tilapia to markets here,but make it hard for the little guy to bring in a dozen fish.
Enough on that.
I haven't decided on what type of system to use,I'm leaning towards a simple ebb & flow system.
Will keep you posted

Thanks Brian

Hay there and welcome!!!!!

I suppose they don't like to let private citizens bring in exotic pets because way too many places people get board of their pets and just let them go. The everglades here in FL have a major problem with such exotics being let loose. Granted up in your climate they wouldn't fair too well but who knows what people might be able to breed up in their bathtubs I guess.

Anyway, if you think you can easily keep water up above 75 F without having major humidity/mold problems indoors, then I'd say go for it. I noticed that in our house (even though the indoor air temp is pretty warm) the aquarium aquaponics system settled at about 73 F when the indoor air temp is about 78 F and we run a dehumidifier all the time. If ya want the water temp higher than about 5 F cooler than the air temp, then you will need supplemental heating and it is going to drive the humidity up as well. Just a warning. Most tilapia don't get good growth until the water temp is well above 70 F day and night.
Might cost less to go with a fish that you don't have to heat because at cooler temperatures, tilapia don't really grow any faster than other potential aquaponic fish.

Welcome and hope to hear more about your plans. Post pictures, we love em. Even if it is just pics of your proposed fish room and tanks. Read up on the Basic info and useful info sections to get the basics down and help you to ask even tougher questions.
sorry, there is no cure, you've got aquaponics for life now.

Thanks for the reply
As far as the humidity is concerned,I have a plastic tank that is shaped like a ball,which means that the area of water exposed is quite small for the size of tank.I'm hoping this will reduce the humidity somewhat.If anyone has any thoughts on this please speak up.
I plan on using a minimum of 1 1000watt light possibly 2.Where I live is not as cold as the rest of Canada so venting isn't as big of of an issue.
I had a small greenhouse that I ran lights in an I painted all the wood with latex paint that I added an antifungicide to it.It seem to make a difference.

Thanks Brian

Don't try to seal up fish tanks too much, you still need good air exchange to keep things healthy.

So are you planing on doing the Aquaponics in this greenhouse? Do you know what kind of overnight air temperatures you can maintain in there over winter?

I'm not going to use the greenhouse.
I plan on insulating a building for this and use the heat from the lighting to keep things at the right temperature.
I know people who have done this with hydroponics and it seems to have worked out.
An exhaust fan will keep it from over heating.
Some kind of thermal mass other than water can be used to help maintain a more even overnight temp.

Brian

Heck, water makes a really easy thermal mass to deal with though. It doesn't all have to be part of the system water either. Many people fill barrels and buckets with water and seal them up as thermal mass in greenhouses. There is a member down in Washington I think that has 5 gallon buckets painted black, filled with water and stacked up against the north wall of the greenhouse. I think they may be managing to keep tilapia though I don't know how much supplemental heat they need to use over winter.

[Hands up] as the one with plastic buckets filled with water in Vancouver, WA. They do help to modify the temperature but certainly don't keep the greenhouse warm enough for tilapia. Before we converted to an aquaponics system, they did keep the greenhouse from freezing but that seemed to be the limit.

We did keep tilapia over the winter last year and will again this year. Our target temperature was to keep the system above 65F (18C). We arrived at that number as a value where the fish could remain healthy and maybe grow a bit. It also gave us ~ 10 degrees (F) for the water to drop in a power failure before HSM. To maintain the 65F (18C), we did the following:
1. Minimized the space in our greenhouse needing heat. The greenhouse is a solar design so has a 14 foot (4.25 meter) peak. We placed a layer of polycarbonate across the support beams that are at about 8.5 feet (2.5 meter) above the floor level.
2. Built a solar chimney from the peak, down through the polycarbonate layer and aimed the air at the buckets filled with water that are under the griwbeds. The fan kicks on at 72F (22C)
3. Put in a "solar heat collector". (Thanks to TC's comments on the Soleflex polyethylene tubing) We have about 180 feet (55 meters)of tubing looped around above the polycarbonate and a pump that turns on when the temp goes above a set temp (70 (21C) in winter, 78 (25C) in summer) to run water through the tubing. This definitely cuts the power bill on any day with sunshine.
4. Covered the fish tanks. There is a hole in each tank for the feeder to feed the fish so there is some air exchange. It does make it fairly dark in the tanks but didn't seem to bother the fish any.
5. Used 5 400 watt heaters set at 65F (18C) to provide heating as needed.
6. Setup an oil filled heater in the greenhouse that also kicks on when the temp drops below 65F in the greenhouse

We estimated it cost us about US$120 of electricity to run the system from October to March. Considering we had 90 tilapia in the system, that didn't seem like a bad tradeoff.

We did have issues with humidity and were thankful for the large tomato plant already growing in the system as it was about the only plant to tolerate the moderate temp, high humidity and low sun levels we get in December & January.

Thanks for the info
I think lighting is needed to make a system work here.
I've been thinking about having an indoor and outdoor system
The winter system being an inside system well insulated,using a humidistat to control moisture levels.Lighting will supply the heat.I have lots of small barrels for thermal mass,even plastic milk jugs work.I also have a wood fired boiler if the weather get real cold.As stated before I have an old hot tub that I plan on using for the fish tank.Its already plumbed and insulated,it even has an air bubbler system plumbed in.
The outdoor will be a greenhouse designed for this climate,again thermal mass plays a role in moderating the inside temp.
The winter system is first since I have a building already and most of the lighting etc.

Brian