Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I live in Eastern Tennessee, and we have a real winter (under 20 degree nights, and less than 10 are not uncommon).

I was going to put a basement system in, and after reading understand that is not a good scenario for me, so I can put a small hoop house (20 feet) up, with shade cloth/greenhouse plastic up I can probably keep the temps in the 70-85 range about 9 months a year.

However, for 2-3 months, it wont be possible, so what are my choices then? Can Tilapia move into the basement for a few months, how dangerous is the transfer?

What plants can I grow in the basement for them to help with the process of keeping them there for the winter?

weissangst, you could easily move them to the basement, as long as the temps are 60's or above. 70's & 80's are better. You can raise plants indoors, but you need good lighting.

Or just build the basement system as a RAS and not worry about the plants and expensive lighting. It could be as simple as setting up a few large aquariums, Depending on how many fish you keep. Try setting an aquarium up in the house for the fry it wouldn't cost as much to heat and they're fun to watch!

If you wanted to get really fancy, you could run all the aquaculture stuff in the basement, and run your plumbing through the exterior wall to grow beds outside the house.

That would have to be pretty fancy the water would be cooled too much by sending it outside in those winter temps. So you'd have to have a way of switching between sending the water outside to GB's in the warmer months and then inside to the filter system for colder months. Not exactly economical, but not impossible.

I think the cost of putting some plastic sheeting around the grow beds would be as much or less than the cost of even a month of electricity to run an array of grow lights indoors. You could use some cheap styrofoam insulation boards from home depot to insulate the body of the grow bed, as well.

However, it's really hard to calculate ahead of time whether this stuff will work out. in my experience, all the theory goes out the window as soon as you start putting things together.

You would need a glass GH and it would need to be heated 24/7 to keep tilapia up there.

You could chance species, like our Aussie friends do. Warm water in the Summer, cool water in the Winter. Then you could keep the cool water in the basement and still have a nitrate source. Koi, catfish?? Koi, you would need to sell or transfer to an outdoor pond. Catfish could be eaten each season.

Burry the tanks? Or I plan on using a rocket stove mass heater under the tanks. http://www.richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp Rigid foam insulate and a hoop house with dual layers of reinforced plastic.

shortcut if you already know what one is. https://youtu.be/qtFvdMk3eLM

RMH would work, but you have to keep it fed 24/7 for several months. Certainly possible, just not easy. You would obviously need to vent the exhaust outside and have a cheap, readily available fuel source.

Is there a reason you want (or need) to use tilapia over cold tolerant native fish that can better handle your winters?

Cathode, sorry about the confusion i wasn't suggesting an indoor garden, but rather a RAS system in the basement for over wintering the breeding stock. No grow lights required