Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Gnash, setup a couple pedestal fans to blow air over the tanks. Better yet get some clear tubing, attach it to the grill of the fan in a spiral and pump water through it with the air blowing on it. Should work, unless the air blowing on it is really hot air.

in which case you wrap it in wet cloth... by filling a tub with water and hanging one end of the cloth which has been wrapped around the tube in the tub of water and then passing a fan over the wet cloth should cool the pipes - but that also depends on how humid it is as to how well it will work.

An old trick is to use canvas bags for water, the water soaks the bags, then the evaporation cools the water. (Works well in dry climates).

If you need to drop a few degrees, take a tarp or cloth, and divert a small amount of water from your pump to it, let it run back into your tank, and have a fan blow on it. You'll lose water to evaporation, but each gram of water lost drops a liter of water by 1/2 degree. (technically .5625 degrees).

Specific Heat of water is 4.18kJ/kgK, the heat of evaporation is 2270kJ/kg, so to cool 1liter by 1 degree C, you would need to remove 4180kJ, or evaporate 1.84g of water.
Now, if your wet bulb temp is close to your dry-bulb temp, all bets are off. You won't get much evaporation.

I was going to suggest what greenedo did.

For the techie minded, don't forget that part of the drop in temp will be transferred to the air blowing over it (think evap cooler) but it will definatly work!

Drybulb/wetbulb is humidity, high humidity and it doesn't work well, low humidity it works great

Hi Gnash,

You have the answer to your problem in your backyard.....or just down the road from Kalgoorlie......the Coolgardie Safe.

"All coolgardie safes work using the same principle of heat being dissipated by evaporation. The safe is placed in a spot where it will be in the breeze, if any, and shade. Water is used to wet the fabric sides in the safe. The heat of the climate evaporates the water off the sides of the safe creating a cooler interior."

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolgardie_safe

The Coolgardie safe is a simple form of cooling tower. If you can direct some of your water flow to a small overhead tank or tray and direct air through the trickling water, you will cool it down......particularly in the very dry climate that exists in your part of the World.

Gary

Yes be careful with that. I know of someone who had trout in their swimming pool and put large blocks of ice in it to try to cool it down - killed all the trout.

All good ideas
If i put ice in i will make it from ap water so should be ok
Not sure about the fan, it would work but dopey dogs might knock it over if I'm not home.
I already have a coolgardie safe type thingy covering the plants and pipes (pg5 No 11&12) this also shades the tub from 09:30ish till about 17:00, but the water comes from the evap cooler and goes to ground.
Will have a think about it today at work and keep an eye on the weather.
Once again all good ideas and thanks.

You poor bugger! Thats hot. I was up at Broken Hill in temps like that a few years ago, now I am never going to the outback in summer again

I hope you have some success in maintaining temps.

By-the-way I'm still hear, and very thankful

good to see asitis.
42degC today and with all the shading and water running under tank and down shadecloth keep a steady 29.1degC in tub( Better than yesterday )
The forecast has dropped for Sunday to 40DegC thank god

can I have some of that! Our weather is crackers. mid 30's all week then 23 forecasted for early next week. Makes keeping the barra happy just a bit more difficult

That's where larger tanks come in handy, I guess. While they are hard to get to the optimum temperature, they are not so likely to experience the temperature swings of smaller containers.

We've had nearly four weeks of consistently hot weather but I'm pleasantly surprised that my small tank seems to be fairly stable.....around the mid 20's. Our tank (600 litres of water) is inside my shed.

Normally, in very hot weather, we'd be cutting back our livestock numbers (quail, chickens, etc) but fish (particularly Jade Perch) are good for the fact that they thrive in this heat.

Troutman, some were dark in colour but others were positively black.
I was interested from a breeding point of view and was thinking that if you breed the black ones only it could kinda cool

Gnash, I havent heard of any darker strain of trout so presume that the cause was either blindness or that they were in spawning mode. Perhaps they had a few Brown Trout in the tank with the rainbows as they can often be pretty dark, especially along the back line. If you are interested in breeding something a bit different I have seen albino rainbow trout and know where they have a breeding stock of them. They look pretty ugly though as they are all white with red eyes and just the pink line down the side.

Would love too, but i think the weather is to hot here unfortunately.

System update.
I am really happy how the tommie is going, heaps of fruit happening and tasting good, only problem is the roots are taking up all the space in the pipe and restricting water flow.
I have eaten most of the bok-choy and some chard ( No complaints on taste either) but can't plant any more cause of the tommie roots
I will leave the tom until its done as it's providing not only fruit but shade for the tub in the arvo's.