A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Sad Day

This is mostly a rant. So I have my aquaponic system in the garage for the winter. It is separated from the house and not heated, I have an aquarium heater keeping the water temp up and a grow bed that absorbs the heat from the water during the flood drain every 20 min. This has been working great, until today...

The temps were about -10 F last night and the power went out for 8 hours. Bad combo.

I checked on my fish after getting my family squared away and there was ice on the top, luckily all the fish survived but most of my plants probably didn't make it. *sigh*

I wasn't sure what to do for backup heat, since the water wasn't circulating to keep the plants warm.

Sooo, life goes on. Anyway, just wanted to share my frustration.

Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Alex Veidel on December 5, 2013 at 8:18am

Well, I'm really glad your fish survived....s'ry 'bout the plants :(

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Permalink Reply by Jim Maroon on December 17, 2013 at 5:55pm

I am very new to this stuff, just investigating so far, but have read around quite a bit. I'm surprised I haven't seen mention of using a UPS (uninterruptable power supply) for backup electricity for the aquaponics systems.

What am I missing on this? Wouldn't this have kept things going for you for a while?

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Permalink Reply by George on December 17, 2013 at 9:56pm

How long would it keep a heater and pump running? Below zero temp in an unheated garage seems like a challenge, even without the power outage.

Backup pump power even without heating can be a bit of a challenge. I try to run backup (solar, batteries, inverter) simultaneously with a grid system and it seem like something always goes wrong, eventually. I've tried doing it several different ways and two years later I may finally have the kinks worked out - we'll see.

Jim Maroon said:

I haven't seen mention of using a UPS (uninterruptable power supply) for backup electricity for the aquaponics systems.

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Permalink Reply by Jonathon D on December 17, 2013 at 10:54pm

A UPC would be great, but my current system setup cost me about $35. Adding a UPC would be a significant price jump. I'll get a better setup, but I have to advance a bit further in my career path. At least more than a student, which is what I am now...