Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Both outside and inside your greenhouse is nice and warm.


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Nice and warm? Only a Canadian would think that's nice and warm! Oh wait... =)

We are about 30 degrees right now so not too bad. It has been known to be -20 to -30 C for Halloween


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I don't know where in SK you are so I just checked Saskatoon and it says it's snowing... yuck! We haven't seen any of that yet... give me another 2 weeks then I'm OK with snow for hunting season =)

I am southwest of Saskatoon by 4 hours in the Arizona of Saskatchewan. We got like 4 inches of snow like a month ago but it lasted maybe 3 days. Well today is opening day for mule deer.


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I am southwest of Saskatoon by 4 hours in the Arizona of Saskatchewan. We got like 4 inches of snow like a month ago but it lasted maybe 3 days. Well today is opening day for mule deer.


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4 hours SW of Saskatoon... you're barely Canadian then?

Haha border is about 100 miles south of me.


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Friday November 3rd, 830pm, outside air temp 39f (4c), inside greenhouse temp 54f (12c) fishtank temp 55f, (13c), the tilapia I failed to catch when I was trying to clean them all are completely different fish now. They are very slow moving, very easy to catch. One was nearly dead, sucked to the SLO so I pulled it out. There are two or three others in there still but they don't look very good. They look like they are losing scales, not sure if it's from being sucked to the SLO or if the bluegills which are much smaller are picking on them. Going to let them go and see how cold they go but probably not much lower. Tomato and peppers still ripening but I might have cut them back too far too late because not seeing new growth. Hopefully will still continue even if slowly.

The bluegills aren't real active, not sure if it's due to temp or due to having the bigger tilapia in with them. Catfish seem pretty active when I shine a light on them but don't come to the surface to eat anymore only eating when it falls to the bottom of the tank.

Everyone was eating/behaving fine before you cutback the growth? Temps relatively the same?

Could the trimming of the plants somehow affected uptake of nutrients changing chemistry? Seem to have stuck on my mind from somewhere that no more than 20% removed at any one time from any given plant

Might anything have fallen into the tanks causing blockage within the reduced diameter pipes affecting flow rates and O2 levels?

Or maybe the colder weather has caused something with the bacteria colonies or, with no heaters in the system, any food eaten can't be processed by fish correctly b/c it is too cold?

What are your current water parameters?

Just spitballin'......

Adam

What problem are you trying to troubleshoot? I don't think I have a problem... Was just making an observation... The only problem is for the tilapia but they are becoming inactive and going to die due to the temps dropping. Everything I've read says blue tilapia can survive to 47f but seem pretty inactive at 55f so just trying to see what happens.

I'm really tempted to go pick up a 24ft x 52" tall pool (something like 13,500 gallons) to use as a fish tank. There is one nearby that someone wants $45 for and says there are no leaks. I have wanted to build a pond on the property since we first bought the property... but it will cost me several thousand dollars to get someone out here to dig it. I think this would make a decent size fish pond so I could stock it with a lot more fish and let them grow out longer. My only concern is if the pool would survive the winter being at least partially full. I know the old style of hard wall above ground pools like what I had growing up we just disconnected the pump/filter and took it inside for the winter then the pool would empty down to that level and that was all we had to do for winter. Now to make them cheaper they've gone to the soft sided pools with metal frames still but kind of look wimpy compared to the old hard walled pools. I think my wife will kill me if I do buy one... so I'm debating on if it is better to do it then beg forgiveness later, or try and get permission first... I think her biggest issue would be how it looks...

I've sketched out where I think I would put it. I think if I put it behind the greenhouse you wouldn't really see it from the road or the house, but we do have a road that runs east-west to the north of us that you would still see it from... but I don't think it would be a big deal, it's not a main road... I think I would keep it close to the greenhouse that way I don't have to worry about digging too big of a trench to bury electric out to it, and I would hide all of the filtration behind the greenhouse. This would allow me to run the greenhouse system off of the larger pool in the summer time then in the winter I would disconnect them and keep one of the two IBC tanks inside the greenhouse and get rid of the other one, I would keep a few fish in the greenhouse system to keep providing nutrients in the winter (although I might not need to with time… might be able to get enough nutrients in the system that I wouldn't need to run fish in the system in the winter it could just use up the nutrients that get trapped in the system instead.) Eventually I would like to convert the garden beds to AP beds but I have gone dirt for now because my wife is still not completely on board with AP (I think I'll get her there, but my system is still young only been running a year if I include the test system, only been running 7 or 8 months for the complete system... so I would expect within the next year things start settling in and producing more then I think she'd be OK with changing the garden beds once she sees that we can grow everything we want and get better production out of AP). I need to add outside AP beds to be able to grow lettuce in the summer time... it got too hot in the greenhouse. Having outdoor AP beds I should be able to keep lettuce going (plus the larger body of water being outside should keep the water temps lower in the summer and help cool the greenhouse if I circulate the entire system in the summer).

this is my overall property layout. the black line indicates what I currently mow, outside of that is overgrown weedy field.


Here is a closer view of the greenhouse/garden/hoop house and where I think I'd put a pool. I have three different pool sizes shown, the 24ft (13,500 gallons), 15ft (5300 gallons), and 12ft (2500 gallons) based on different pools currently available cheap. I think if I was going to do it I'd go for the big one though because the smaller ones leave a lot to be desired for capacity to add a lot more fish =)

Sounds great. Perhaps you could build even better hard boarded walls around the pool. The spa pond conversion I did with rotten hay surrounding, actually worked well.
As long as you add external air by placing the air pump inside the greenhouse you should be able to cover the pool as well.
Getting the wind chill off the sides seems to be the key element in keeping the pool from sporadically getting too cold.
Adding the cover is icing on the cake.

I was thinking I would probably add some sort of pole building to cover it eventually if I do it Brian. Even if it is just a roof over it to begin with so I can reduce the light getting in the pool which would help keep it a little nicer so I don't have an algae pond. If I did that then eventually I could enclose the walls to protect it too. Keeping it close to the greenhouse I could tie it in to the greenhouse for added strength so it's not just a free standing building. I had left it in my plans to be able to add a larger tank room off the back side of the greenhouse some day... I have a door framed in that is currently sitting behind my tanks just in case I decided I wanted to add on later... all I would have to do is remove one board that I put in the middle of the second door frame as a nailer board and I could easily have a door from the greenhouse in to that room as well (without having to redo the structural integrity of the wall) you can see it in the pictures on page 5 that I already framed the second door in =).

If I did add on I would make sure to include space for a wood furnace so I could heat it better.