Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello all,

I live in Westport, Ontario, Canada. I have been exploring Aquaponics for a short while. Currently I am building a larger system for my wife and I. I have posted the build design to the General discussion area for some input regarding the indoor setup of the project. I am retired and Aquaponics seems to fill my need to some point for activity based projects. I am designing a system that can be switched from summer to winter. Not moving grow beds just switching from one setup to the other. Check out my thoughts in the Discussion area and let me know your thoughts. I would also be interested in hearing from anyone in my general area, I suppose I should clarify "my general area" seeing this forum is world wide. When I say general area I mean somewhere between Ottawa and Kingston in Ontario. Looking forward to learning as much about Aquaponics and winter growing as I can.

Embo

Welcome Embo. I'm not quite your general area, but about 8 hours west/southwest. I'm in the process of building a greenhouse to try and be able to run a system through winter. I managed to keep tomatoes alive until Mid-December this year, and have kept lettuce and swiss chard and such alive all winter but not really growing much... greenhouse wasn't quite far enough along for this winter but hopefully I'll do better next winter once I have all summer to work on preparing it for the cold again...

Hi Rob,

Eight hours south-west, maybe around Sudbury? I wanted to start a passive solar Chinese style greenhouse this year but seeing as I just moved to this location I may have to wait until next year, summer 2018. I am building my inside and outside systems this year, I have started the build already. I want to utilize my garage for the winter beds and switch to the outdoor system in spring, or at least that is the plan so far. The reason for switching has more to do with space then anything. Lots of space outside but not so much in the garage as I still want to keep the vehicle in there as well. If I understand your comment about winter products you mean that you are able to maintain and harvest the plants but not necessarily grow new ones, correct? Lets stay in touch as I can learn from you as you are growing in cold climate as well.

Embo

I've always thought the chinese solar greenhouse design was pretty neat .

I'm southwest (Michigan) not northwest =)

Yes, I have had lettuce and swiss chard that I've been savoring all winter long.. it was not growing much but it was at least staying alive in the greenhouse so I didn't have to harvest it all at once and have it go to waste in the fridge... As the days are starting to get longer and we're starting to warm up a little bit everything is starting to grow a little bit again.

I did not make it far enough with my greenhouse to keep it warm before winter. I need to finish filling cracks in the foundation where I can feel breeze coming through, plus caulk around windows and such that have air leaks around them right now. I reused an old door so the frame isn't the best, can see daylight between the door and the top of the frame so I need to get some bulb seal to seal that better. Just ran out of time in general. When the sun isn't out the greenhouse isn't much warmer than outdoors (although it has not froze inside the greenhouse so that's a plus... and it does make a big difference just getting out of the wind), but for example Saturday it was about 40F outdoors, it was only about 42F inside the greenhouse with no sun... Sunday/Monday it was still only about 40F outside but when the sun started shining the greenhouse warmed up to about 55F in no time, so I think once I finish sealing my air leaks it will perform better next winter (but a lot of what I need to do needs warmer weather to do it... I'm going to buy more concrete and finish filling the trench outside the greenhouse so it will hopefully help fill cracks between my block foundation, then I might buy insulation board and line the inside of the blocks before I backfil gravel inside the greenhouse... filling the floor with gravel will help hold heat better than just dirt too.)

Good Day Rob,

Sealing cracks and insulating will work wonders. I come from a construction background and if I may add, since you have a trench open along the foundation of the wall not only insulate the wall but also the ground, out from the wall. This skirting is something a lot of people do on most slab on grade foundations and short foundation walls. It prevents frost from getting under the wall to the floor area as it would have to travel under and then into the foundation area. It works wonders. I will be starting my greenhouse this summer and hope to have it ready for summer 2018. I will insulate the foundation walls and the ground around it as well. I will add 2" rigid insulation about a foot under ground and extend it out four feet. How much to add and how far out depends on your climate area.

Keep me posted on your progress.

Embo

Hi I'm Ash, from Mississauga Ontario, (gta). I also tumbled across the hidden world of aquaponics not too long ago... But unfortunately it was in the middle of our Canadian winters.. Lol, so I decided to make an indoor mini system to see how it goes.. 2 months running now...
No dead fish (I got 40¢ feeder goldfish) but unfortunately my plants aren't doing the best... I first plant some of my dying houseplants (why must they always need water? [SEE-NO-EVIL MONKEY].. And they are doing great! So I decided to try vegetables.. I planted peas, tomatoes, cilantro, and chilli peppers... They start off great but then the leaves start curling and drying out... The pepper is ok so far but I lost the pea plant... And the tomato looks like it's next... Could be lighting.. I'm just using my balcony window for sun..
My system was a constant flood with red broken bricks as the media.. But I started seeing some plant rot going on so decided to timer the system... It's off 2 hrs and on 2 hrs 24/7....air stone on constantly... Since its a small system for now the water from the Gb falls straight into the fish tank.. Pumped back up with a pump..
Come spring time I would like to expand to an outdoor system.. Most likely build a greenhouse around it... But I too am worried about winter maintenance (hibernating is going out the window for me I guess[CRYING FACE]) also think of what fish yo use for the bigger system.. I would like to get some edible fish for one of the tanks...
Anyways nice meeting a fellow Canadian on here.. I guess we'll be starting around the same time for the outdoors ones.. [WINKING FACE] I would love to keep tabs on u to see how your system is doing.. Take care

Sent from my SM-N920W8 using Tapatalk

Embo the plan was to line the outside of the greenhouse with straw bales in the winter time to keep the ground from freezing near the foundation just never made it that far. Then the straw bales will be used in the garden in summer time to try and keep the weeds down. I am thinking I will buy a bunch of straw this spring as prices come down and just tarp them til fall. Just have been too busy this year, had our first kid in August so he is 6 months old now, changed how much free time I have.

Blue butterfly some of your plant issues are probably lack of nutrients, what are you feeding the goldfish? If just regular goldfish food it's probably not enough for the plants, might look in to some of the better feeds used for feeding food production fish. I'm running rainbow trout in my system for winter and will have tilapia in summer they are started indoors right now.