Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

YA - nice setup. I saw your video on youtube long before I found this forum. Yours was what inspired me to do AP in a greenhouse. I did a lot of reading of the members systems, and when I was like "hey - I know who he is!".

From what I have read so far Blankets and propane seem to be the cheapest ways to go, but as somebody has in thier signature: "1 test is worth 100 opinions". I'm also thinking foam panels might play into my design.

I'm still in the planning stage so all advice is appreciated. Sorry if I hijacked this thread.

Mark

Depending on the size of your GH you could run into problems with propane heat....it consumes a lot of oxygen and the sensor could shut off the heater. I know of a few people that lost their GH's in the winter because of this. Usually with a larger GH, there's enough air leaks where it's not a problem or the heater has it's own fresh air intake.

If you're in TX and have a fairly small GH, I bet you could get away with a small space heater on the nippy nights!

You are probably right to a point there. It will depend on what temperature constitutes "getting away with."
The space heater along with a few other tricks to keep the water temp up should be able to keep water above 50-55 F. To keep water above 70 to keep tilapia growing, that is gonna use lots of energy.

I'm fixing to put a small electric radiant heater in the building with my fish tank as the airators influx a lot of cold air into the tank. Using just aquarium water heaters as of now and when temps drop for a few days water temps drop also. Dipped into the low 60's once and the real cold hasn't got here yet.

Yep, my water temp dropped a while back with just the one night of possible frost warning. I expect I could keep the temps more stable if I left the beds constantly flooded overnight on cold nights.

Thanks to all those who responded with some great ideas.

After reading all this I think my best approach would be to either 1. cough up mthe extra dough to build an insulated solar greenhouse with the appropriate heat back up or 2. go with a ploy double lined greenhouse and shut it down in the the three cold months of the year.

I am going to start a new post and ask those in the north how they heat their greenhouse sufficiently to keep the fish going.

Perhaps have a read through the "Alaskan" aquaponics system thread...