Northeast US Aquaponics, Basement v. Outside

[Scott W F]

Hello friends,

I am still in the information-gathering stage of this, but I live in Western NY and want to know if there are any folks in my neck of the woods successfully doing this. I would like to grow year-round and I believe I have enough room in my finished basement. I would appreciate any advice.

Thanks!

Scott F.

[Keith Rowan]

i have a system set up in my basement.. check here:

http://aquaponicscommunity.com/forum/topics/howdy-from-ohio

 

i'm using pairs of 4' t8 "shop lights" @ 32watts each

i have a total of around 1000 gallons of water

[Scott W F]

Hi Keith,

How did you get the tanks in your basement? I have a walk-out, but it has only a standard sized door. 

Scott

[Scott W F]

Specifically the IBC totes. I see that you have a pool and smaller fish tanks in there as well. Looks like a pretty cool system you have.

Scott W F said:

Hi Keith,

How did you get the tanks in your basement? I have a walk-out, but it has only a standard sized door. 

Scott

[Gerry]

Having that much circulating water in your basement couldn't be good for your house?
Do you have ventilation fans going to keep the humidity down?
In my experience with construction its a bad combination long term

Gerry

[Scott W F]

What about a dehumidifier in the same room? Wouldn't that take some of it away? If the power consumption is an issue I would expect that there are measures to 'insulate' the room taking the extra humidity into account. This is my uneducated opinion....

Gerry said:

Having that much circulating water in your basement couldn't be good for your house?
Do you have ventilation fans going to keep the humidity down?
In my experience with construction its a bad combination long term

Gerry

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Keeping the air temps in the basement warmer than the water temps in the fish tank should go a long way in helping with condensation/dampness/humidity...(but if your one of those weird folks living in the north, yet for some reason stuck on growing a tropical fish like tilapia, you can pretty much forget about about that one...

De-humidifier would certainly help too and is a very good idea. Insulating any cold walls or surfaces is probably a good idea as well.  

[Scott W F]

Vlad - I am at the planning stages right now - do you suggest I use trout instead of tilapia? My basement remains cool year round. I am considering creating a tent of plastic around the room it will be in to further insulate it - but I think it should remain near 60 degrees.

Vlad Jovanovic said:

Keeping the air temps in the basement warmer than the water temps in the fish tank should go a long way in helping with condensation/dampness/humidity...(but if your one of those weird folks living in the north, yet for some reason stuck on growing a tropical fish like tilapia, you can pretty much forget about about that one...

De-humidifier would certainly help too and is a very good idea. Insulating any cold walls or surfaces is probably a good idea as well.  

[Keith Rowan]

my basement is actually drier with the ap system.. i've had the pool full of water for more than a year... i was kind of hoping it would help in the winter when it gets so dry, but it didn't add much humidity at all..

all 3 IBC totes that i brought into the basement i cut in half first..

the basement stays pretty cool.. and i think you could give trout a go as a seasonal, but your water temps will still get up to 70 in the summer i would imagine (mine have) 

i do have a few tilapia in heated tanks, but the tanks are covered.. they'll be going into a single tote insulated system that i will heat.... if i can get them to bread, i'll be using the fry as a supplemental feed for my yellow perch.. yellow perch will do well in a wider range of temps than trout and will grow faster than most people realize if you provide a high quality, high protein food..

my base food is silvercup for the perch and aquamax 5D09 for the tilapia.. scuds are easy to grow as a supplement and i'm working with crayfish to see how they go (papershell and marmokrebs).. as well as freshwater shrimp

[Scott W F]

Thanks Keith - I am still trying to figure out what my system will be and how, etc. I appreciate the info.

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Nope...not suggesting any fish in particular...just one that is more in line with your temps...trout seems to be at the other end of temp extremes. Keith's suggestion of pellet trained yellow perch sounds like a good one...so might be blue gill, catfish, breem, carp etc...

Scott W F said:

Vlad - I am at the planning stages right now - do you suggest I use trout instead of tilapia? My basement remains cool year round. I am considering creating a tent of plastic around the room it will be in to further insulate it - but I think it should remain near 60 degrees.

Vlad Jovanovic said:

Keeping the air temps in the basement warmer than the water temps in the fish tank should go a long way in helping with condensation/dampness/humidity...(but if your one of those weird folks living in the north, yet for some reason stuck on growing a tropical fish like tilapia, you can pretty much forget about about that one...

De-humidifier would certainly help too and is a very good idea. Insulating any cold walls or surfaces is probably a good idea as well.  

[don matter]

how hard is it to have a Aquaponic Garden in the north east ???? I can't but it in the house