Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi, my name is Al. I'm considering starting an aquaponics system and I have a few questions. Being in a cold climate my system would have to be either indoors (my basement) or seasonal.

My first question is what (lower) temps will plants endure and thrive in? My basement drops to the 50s F in the winter, and stays cool during the summer. It is a walkout so I could easily move the system, or at least the planting vessels outside in the spring.

A second option would be just to have a seasonal system (May-September).

A third option would include my pond. It is about 50 feet in diameter and 9 feet deep given adequate rainfall. In reality there is enough (non-fish) life in the pond to do it without fish. Due to the climate here one could not rely on fish surviving the winter in this pond so I would be starting fresh every year. There is enough frogs and insects in the pond to feed quite a few fish all on it's own. I could set up the grow portion of the system next to the pond. Again, this would be seasonal.

Now a question about fish. Does anyone use wild caught fish? I know there can be legalities involved and is probably not biosecure, but is anyone doing it? I could easily obtain yellow perch, bullheads, crappies, and bluegills. I could catch small perch in the winter, keep them in an indoor system, and transfer them to the pond in the spring. I can also trap wild crayfish.

Thanks for reading, Al

Al and welcome from another "Frozen Chosen".

Where you at?

We are in Big Lake, kinda between Minneapolis and St. Cloud.

I'm just getting started like yourself. You won't find another forum that is this friendly, helpful and full of knowledgeable people.

I would highly recommend that you take a lot of pictures of your potential AP site(s) and post them in your thread. That way people have some idea what you have to live with and what you have to work around.

BTW get the Mrs and kids involved early, it's a whole lot easier and more fun

Greetings from a neighbor to the south. It's not as brutal here as what you guys have but when folks go south for the winter, they're not coming to Iowa.

In December I started a system in my shop which is heated to 45-50F and it's been going very well. I'm raising tilapia and heating the water to around 80F so that helps the plants stay warmer than the average air temp in the shop. I'm strongly considering switching to yellow perch when these tilapia hit the plate but I may still heat the water a little just to help the plants out. In my situation (and your basement as well) the heat the system looses just goes into the shop and that's just a little less that the furnace has to run. You do have an advantage in having cooler summer temps in a basement though.

Do you have any good sun exposure in the basement? To me, that's one of the biggest hurdles of growing indoors. It's easy enough to buy good horticultural lights but they aren't cheap to buy, or run. I'd definately trade the cost for fresh veggies in the winter though.

If the basement space is suitable, I'd set the system up there. Growing indoors is kind of nice if you overcome a couple of hurdles. Even if you didn't provide any heating, most greens, lettuces, and cole crops would do well.

BTW, got any extra YP

i started my first system outside in northeast ohio (in the "snow belt") and moved into the basement that fall..
i've got almost 200 fish - yellow perch, a couple bluegill and about 50 tilapia (nile and blue)
the yellow perch keep the tilapia population in check...
my basement got into the 40's this winter, water got to 48 and i lost about 5 tilapia..
i've been using regular t8 flourescent lights (48" 32watt) and grown plenty of greens and spices
i'm using marmokreb crayfish as a supplemental feed as well as minnows..
i'd turn that pond into a minnow pond (fatheads) - with aeration, they'll live just fine under the ice.. a year after adding a bunch of minnows, add a bunch of yp (they'll live under the ice as well), and harvest the next year - get feed trained yp, and you'll be able to grow some big fish
you could use your ap system to grow out more yp for the pond over winter - you could use cages in the pond as well

Bob, we are almost neighbors, I live near Milaca. I ice fish for notherns in Mille Lacs and there are always small perch around and I know they have the genetics for large size. I could devote easily over 200 sf of basement space to the project. I'm thinking that I could expand the planting area outside the walkout in the summer while keeping the perch inside where the temps will stay stable and cool.

I'm not keen on trying to keep the pond viable over the winter, It is quite away from any current power source. How much will a YP grow over a summer? I could start them inside and put them in the pond in the spring and fish them out in October. The ones that I see while ice fishing are in the 6 inch range. I keep a wood stove going upstairs, I could conceivably route the water through a cistern on the stove to warm it up but the stove temps vary quite a bit throughout the day and I suppose that could stress the fish.

tinknal,

Glad to hear you are so close. If I can't get my old basement cleaned up and converted I may have to use your approach and put something in our crawl space under our house.

So keep posting please and use lots of pictures so we can "steal" your ideas

BTW Attila told me it's illegal for adults to transport live fish in Minnesota. BUT kids can transport up to 4 fish each day. So how many kids do you have? How many neighbor kids?

I forget which species it applies to. For sure sun fish and bluegill are ok. I can't remember if yellow perch are ok.

I'll have to check with the DNR before I take the grand kids fishing.

Looking forward with what you come up with!

Just curious as to what you guys plan on doing to prevent mold in the cellar from high hunidity? I had a very small system (6 - 4 gallon tanks in series with a biofilter) and the humidity got high enough to cause mold issues. Had to close it down fast.

Good question. Minnesota winters are very dry, so I'll leave the upstairs door open to help humidify the house. In the summer I can easily vent to the outside, being a walkout. There is a full sized sliding door and a pair of double hung windows.

i live in a pretty old house, the older half of the basement has clay walls, and seeps when it rains.. after i put my system in my basement, it's actually drier - and dries much quicker after a rain..
in summer, it's humid in there anyways, since it stays a few degrees cooler.. i've got a small exhaust fan tha does a really good job of keeping it nice in ths summer