Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Our high is about 27 C pretty much every day, perhaps as low as 22 C during some times but nothing to plan on.

Our low is probably 5 C less than that.

The question, what temperature do you think our water will end up in the AP system and, is this too warm for trout? I personally love any kind of fish - but my wife is partial to trout.

What think ye?

Hard to tell CRT..... it's not so much the air temperature but the tank water temperature.....

Trout prefer (in a natural state) cool to cold, high flow, thus high oxygenated water.......

Most of the ambient heat your tank will pickup will be from constant recirculation through the growbeds..... if you can shade the growbeds (and you'll probably have to ) then you might be able to keep the water temp down below 27 C......

If you can then maybe.... maybe.... but you'd have to be constantly turning over the water and or running supplementary oxygenation....

And your margin for error would be near zero.... power outage, pump failure and you'd have poached trout pretty quick I'd think......

Pacu might be an alternative for you, with Talapia an obvious choice....

What are your native fish in the area???

We have Tilapia (non-native), Channel Catfish (non-native)

For native, we have Guapote (rainbow bass), Pinto, gaspar for the big ones. We do have tarpon up to 90 kilos or so but that might be a bit difficult to handle - and they have lots of bones.

Yes, we will have to shade without a doubt.

I am seriously thinking about using water power to drive the circulation - hydropower we have - this should make a very reliable system - in fact, I will probably have two - more circulation won't hurt.

But - we have another finca which is higher and has tons of water - I just might grow the trout there. A very good size spring fed stream that is at an altitude to make it possible to grow trout I think. The verticle drop of the stream in the finca is more than 100 meters and it would fill a a meter pipe easily and then some.

What is the temperature of the spring water?
This may allow you to chill the FT by running the cold water from the spring around the FT, then back to the stream, without changing the water in the FT.
You could alternatively run the spring water thru pipes in the FT.
If it is cold enough, Trout are a real alternative.

Did some reading and just checked some things - it is possible in one of the fincas (farms) - the reading is just below 21 C, mid day when it was sunny. The water was colder. And this wasn't at the coldest point.

I think I will just do trout there instead of where we live - we have people who live there all the time so they can maintain it for me.

I think that sounds good for trout. When my air temp was at 27C, my water temp was around 18-19C. My water only got too hot when the air temp got well above 30C and the water got into the 20's, and I had to put in as much oxygen as possible. My trout died when the air temp reached 40C, and the water was >25C.

i'd want to keep them in water <18C for maximum health.

"survival" temps often mean added stress

Steve, I do think you are right - I am going to use aguaponics on our place but more likely use a more convential system (pass through) for trout. This is because what I lack in temperature I can more than make up with in water flow. I have the ability to have a flow of about 250 liters or more per second - yep, per second. On this farm I have to build a hydroelectric system anyway, so I am thinking of combining the two.

CRT, those Guapote sound like a really cool AP fish...... grow big, eat well and s&*t loads..... like all Talapia/Cichlids breed like rabbits....

No trouble growing a ton of veges with these buggers

And apparantly taste fabulous..... might pay to heed the warnings though

http://www.cichlidae.info/article.php?id=92

Which warning would that be? Don't stick your hand in there or something...

We have a very large pond stuffed with them - when we put them in about 300 were almost edible size (and 2,000 small ones) - it is assumed after 6 months we have some very edible ones now. They grow very fast and being newly flooded - there was lots of food in the pond.

Tilapia appeals because that way I can have diversity. Besides I am really partial to Cerviche made with fresh tilapia. (raw fish "cooked" with lime juice)