Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello, I am very new and have not built a system yet. I have watched tons of videos on building but still have some questions. One is about location of outside verses inside. Some videos have them in a green house and some are just outside with no cover at all. Seems like all that extra water in the system would have some pretty bad effects? What am I not understanding?
Thanks for helping me with my noobness.

Guess it depends on your local conditions and how much rain you do get.

I know for my system the rain causes no apparent problems, but we only get about 500mm per year.

Your system will use water (plants and evaporation)

I live in a hot , arid area and am currently topping up around 500 Litres of water a week (our stinking hot season)

No way our rainfall can keep up with that

I think you will find

heat , snow , wind , frost , insects , nutrient deficiency will give you more grief

Big downpours could dilute your system

Once your system has "Aged" it can cope with swings and roundabouts

New systems are low on nutrient base so plants are a bit more vulnerable

Ideal is a greenhouse / shadehouse that you can alter as seasons change

eg roll up sides or ends , vents ect

Fully enclosed greenhouses are bug havens

I have side curtains I hook up on nasty windy days

My 2 cents worth.

I have a greenhouse. And my plants get eaten by bugs all the time. Trying to manage the pest is difficult for me. My NFT outside the greenhouse grows better. Lots of natural predeters to thin out the pests. But does not grow well in winter.

I chose greenhouse due to leaves falling into my tanks. And for winter times. Not so sure now. Maybe shadecloth option would have been a better option for me. Cheaper and maybe less pests problems. And less of an eye sore.

I'm currently designing an automated pesticide solution. Hoping it'll solve my greenhouse pest problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9fU8SHOcMA

This is my manual process. But will be automating it. As I'm hopeless at being consistant.


My first choice is rain water. From my 1000l roof collection tank. When that runs out I use tap water with Pond water treament. Removes chlorine.
https://www.bunnings.com.au/aquapro-250 ... r_p2812744

Works well, no fish death.....Even with major top ups when disaster hit. AKA pipes unhinging itself. Tap water has advantages as it raises the PH level in my tanks. But it's still my 2nd choice.

Well said. Just a thought could you alter the greenhouse to lift / remove sides for summer as terra suggests, that way predators have free access to the area in the time of year nasties are most previlant?

I've had a rain deficiency in my system for much of the past 2 years, having to top it up with crappy town water or bore water from a neighbour, although both those sources are so alkaline and loaded with minerals that it meant I went for long periods with no need to add K2CO3 or dolomite.


BTW Asitis, please use reply instead of quote, as there is no need to quote entire previous posts just to add a line or 2 at the bottom, it makes threads harder to read, and wastes page space for those trying to read it on a small screen, not to mention all those wasted electrons!

What’s rain?

It’s been so long I’ve forgotten.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I dont think rain should be your main conscern, sure it might dilute your medium as Terra said theres tons of things to worry about first.

Will do

Thanks for all the input. I guess I should have mentioned the average yearly rainfall where I live is about 70 inches. In the rainy season that can be 3 or 4 inches in a single day and can do that for a week straight or more. lol. Unless there is a hurricane and can do like way more rain in a week.