Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

hello to all... you all can call me aaron... i am from Canada Bc i am thinking of doing a System 1/2 of the yr be case it is cold up here...

Hay there and welcome!!!

We have some other members from cold climates, it can be done.

I highly recommend reading the Basic Info and Useful Info sections of the forum to help you figure out what questions to ask.
Then pick a few big long member system threads to read through. It might be good to see if you can find some of the members in cold climates so you can read how they have done things.

Good Luck and welcome!!!!

Hi Kamrail,

You might want to read emsjoflo's thread, that makes interesting reading as he is in Alaska.... .

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1378&hilit=alaska

Welcome Aaron... I heard it's actually quite warm over there in Vancouver...

Welcome, Aaron.

I don't have any cold weather experience, but in researching to build my greenhouse I found a good bit about how to build a greenhouse with solar thermal storage in the ground beneath. Seems it has worked very well in COLD climates... Here's one link that you may be interested in: http://www.sunnyjohn.com/indexpages/shcs.htm A wealth of info on that site, though the layout is kind of difficult to wade through....

CB

thanks for all your help


can i use sand? because i have a ton of it

thanks
aaron

i mean... can i use sand in w/ the plants? and not gravel?

Nope Aaron... the sand is far to fine... would both transfer to fish tanks, growbeds, pumps etc... and over time get clogged by solids wastes... and become anaerobic...

You need a free draining media about 15mm minimum...

ok then can i use fish tank gravel?
aaron

Aaron - you can use sand as part of your aquaponics system - but in a drain to waste style with trickle irrigation. Not very popular in Australia but it was one of the very first hydroponic methods until recirculating systems became more the norm. http://www.hydroponics.com.au/php/viewtopic.php?t=5 You will still need gravel beds to do the job of nitrification and cleaning of the recirculating fish tank water
Used in a wicking bed style it would be very water efficient and great to grow root vegetables and others that some have trouble with in flood and drain systems. It would be fairly simple to design a float valve level control for the feed to the wicking bed that would do away with the blocking troubles of trickle systems with water with a high nutrient load. The beds would have to be raised or on sloping land so the feed pipes could be periodically flushed out and a plumbers snake run through them to clean out the solids.

John

hey there aaron from where in bc are you from we are from kamloops and ar just setting up our system for april 1st no foolin i would love to compare notes and let you know what kinda hurdles i ve been jumpin thru jason 250 377 3985

cool i live in kamloops to
aaron 250 573-2492

hahahaha.... Well there you go, now you can share experiences, suppliers etc...

This could well be our first Canadian AP meet.... pictures are required...

hey aaron that is just great would love to have ya over we live downtown 935 13 th ave if i'm home my little mini truck will be here jg