Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi All,

I have emerced myself in the different aquapoics websites and forums and my head is spinning. I basically want to find out the answers to a few questions that I cannot seem to get concrete answers to:

1. Since I live in NJ, I have 4 true seasons here including a winter with freezing temps and snow pretty much every year and Summers with temps in the 80-90 degreess F. Is there a way to keep an outdoor system or am I going to be restricted to using a greenhouse?

2. If I use a greenhouse, can keep the fish outside if I use a cold water fish and just keep the plants inside the greenhouse? If so, what types of fish have people had success with?

3. If I need to have everything contained in a greenhouse, will the water stay warm enough from the ambiant air of the greenhouse or do I need to worry about heating the fish tank water too?

4. Are there any people doing this on a hobby level in NJ or Eastern PA that would care to share their experience with me and/or let me come out and see their system?

5. How big of a system would I need to provide the majority of vegtables and fish to feed my family throughout the year? 3 adults and 2 kids (so far...)

6. Does heating the greenhouse become very expensive in the winter months?

7. What else do I need to consider?

Thanks in advance for any and all feedback!

Aaron
Edison,NJ
outsidethebox108@yahoo.com

Welcome Aaron!

1. It's difficult to keep things going when the water freezes (I'm in central PA). I've kept a system going in the basement during the Winter before, this year I'm finishing a little lean to cold frame and am very excited to keep things going. I've had gold fish that lived after a Winter under inches of ice before so goldfish, koi, bluegill, trout, yellow perch are fish options.

2. Yes you can use a cold-hardy fish and grow the plants outside during the Winter. My particular setup is a frame over an in ground pond, so the plants will live above the water.

Regarding heating and expense, you should try to keep the water warm enough for the bacteria to continue working, if they go dormant that will limit what the system can support. Choosing the right fish is hugely important to keeping heating expense as a small number. If you choose tilapia for example that will require heaters of multiple thousands of watts. Or a very substantial solar greenhouse to keep them alive in. If you choose a fish that can handle native temps then things are more sustainable, IMO. HTH!

Hey Dave,

Thanks for the reply! It seems like the only way to have a system that works consistantly is to have a heated system within a greenhouse or just have the whole system inside. Mind you, I am speaking just based on what I am reading, but it seems like even if you have cold weather fish, the plants don't respond well to the cold water on their roots...

Maybe the answer is 2 separate systems, a smaller one in doors for Oct-Apr where I can raise Tilapia fingerlings and then move them out to a larger system from Apr-Oct. Where they can grow into large harvestable fish during the summer. Maybe I will close off the system for the winter, but keep the water aerated and keep Koi and or canal catfish in there year round. Then maybe I can harvest the tilapia and catfish for food and sell the Koi as they grow large on ebay to help support the expense of running the power all winter long.

I've read a few things about people using compost to heat their greenhouses during the winter, but that seems a little too labor intensive for a hobbyist such as myself.

Any thoughts?

First thing, Go to the Home page and download the Free Book IBC's of Aquaponics. Lots of great info on all aspects of Aquaponics. Sizing and all sorts of things you need to know.

I really recommend setting up your system to be CHIEF PIST which is Constant Height In Fish Tank with Pump In Sump. You need to have Fish Tank, Grow Beds, and Sump.

I think you need a Green House of some sort that far north. There are some plants that can stand freezing and survive but most fish do not like to be frozen. As you will learn reading the download book, the part about the bacteria, it will die out at approximately freezing. You need to keep the bacterias alive to convert the ammonia to Nitrites and then to Nitrates. Ammonia is fish poo and left over uneaten food and any decaying stuff in the system. The Nitrates are the plant food.

Last point for now. Check with your county extension service for info. They should have info for fish and plants in the area you live in. If your lucky the agent will be very interested in what your doing and will help lots. Mine is very helpful. He and the county judge were discussing my system when I dropped in the other day. They are coming to visit one of these days to see what I have.

1. You could do outdoor part of the year. You could do greenhouse all year but there's more to it than just the greenhouse. You would need heat and lights to keep the plants growing when there isn't much sun. You would also need ventilation and air circulation fans (help with condensation in Winter so not just for Summer).
2. I'm going to say no to this (for your climate). I don't believe the bacteria will function well because the water coming through the system will be at or near freezing temp (even if it is flowing).
3. Just as an estimate - Air temp in a greenhouse will be roughly 10 degrees warmer on overcast days and will probably get to the 80's on sunny days in Winter. Not sure what you will have for the water temp but maybe someone else can give a good guess based on the air temps. Look at Web4Deb's data logging and it should give you some idea on this.
4.
5. - You can figure this out by looking at the systems on the BYAP systems page and what they estimate each system will be able to produce.
6. Yes but this varies depending on how the greenhouse and system are built. I would look at Web4Deb's system and Zsa Zsa's system in Hungary. One has already done some data logging on a small greenhouse system and the other is about to do this. Both climates are probably close to your's but possibly more extreme and will give you some idea of what to expect. Also look over DecalsbyJT's thread and see what he has done with building tanks and his greenhouse. There are a bunch of other good systems which you may have seen already.
7. You might be able to have the fish tank in a well insulated building attached to the greenhouse - part of the year it could be opened to the outside and part of the time to the greenhouse. This way you would have some control of the tank temperature.

Burying the tanks is also a way to control temperature if you want to grow cold water fish species.

I recommend a Constant Flood system using Chift Pist as a great way to go and very reliable.

Look forward to seeing what you come up with Aaron.

For a long time I have had on my list of things to do:
Geothermal heat pump.
Warms water in the winter, cools it in the summer.
Have no idea if it would/could work with AP, the actual heat exchanger might need to be infeasibly large.
Basically you bury a heat exchanger deep in the ground and pump water or blow air through it.
Could save lots of $'s for relatively small outlay (assuming you have the space and like digging deep holes...)

a guy i know in northern ohio did a system using ibc ft, and barrel growbeds in a gh.. i haven't heard from him in a while, but he set up a waste oil heater in his gh, and kept the temp near 50 and had decent plant growth and fish growth (bluegill and yellow perch) i think he had a system failure and lost most of his fish due to an extended power outage in late spring
my basement stays at least 60 in the winter, so i'm working down there with flourescent lights

My opinion is the best way to deal with Winter would be fish in the basement, plants in a greenhouse. I was able to get really good plant growth with a good-sized population of fish in the basement (say 50), and with the plants outside you don't have the electricity expense of lights. It drove me absolutely nuts to use a grow light on a clear February day!