Aquaponic Gardening

A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

For the next 3 to 4 nights freezing temperatures down to perhaps the 20's are projected for Phoenix Arizona. Our proof of concept aquaponics is now protected by:

A. Replacing all 1,300 hundred gallons of water tonight raising the water temperature to 65 F thus creating a great deal of latent heat. Thought the water seems cold it is hot compared to the air so should keep the plants from freezing. There will be a great loss of nutrients and some bacteria but from past experience the growth setback is only 1 week. There are only maintenance fish in the system so go great harm is expected to them.

B. The tarp will prevent heat loss from evaporation and radiative (general heat loss to empty space).

C. The tarp will minimize cold water input from rain.

D. The tarp will promote solar heating of water if the sun comes out. 

So, we shall see how this works. What are you doing for your projects this weekend?

P.S. Total cost $11.00 for the materials, $6.50 for the water.

Link to photo: http://bit.ly/10iXxn7

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Replies to This Discussion

I put a freeze protection blanket over my FT. My FT temps have been running about 10 degrees above early AM OAT.

Where did you get the cheap tarp at?

Lowes. Two,  9 ft by 20 foot 2mil paint tarps and some cheep but effective duct tape to stitch them together into one big tarp. The idea depends on their being little or no wind as is normally the case in very cold nights here in the valley. A tarp that thin would never last in even a medium breeze and a great deal of latent heat in that 1,300 gallons of water  So far so good.

My OAT 32 - FT 48 My Ft has 12 inches of surrounding sand and a 8 in. wall of diamond block which collectively provide exceptional thermal mass which usually keeps the temperature differential close to 10 degrees. To this I added a frost protection blanket (N-Sulate from Summer Winds Nursery) which covers the entire FT.

Hehe...Here are the two forms of cold protection that I use to protect my AP produce...

 Home made wood gassifier that I built (thanks Jim Fisk) and an Astra 30A propane blower...

 

Air temp 51F. Water temp 51F. Encouraging.



Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr. said:

Air temp 51F. Water temp 51F. Encouraging.
Robert replies:
What are your AM numbers? My approach is to increase thermal mass to a point that the loss of FT heat is minimized over several days of extreme cold. So far during this cold spell my AM numbers for the 11th through the 14th have been 39-51, 32-48,32-45,32-43. I shut down the FT pump over-night.
8:00am. Air temp 29F. Aquaponics temp 46F. I think this works.
8:00 am. Air temp 26-27 F. Aquaponics temp 45.

Our pond was iced over this morning.

picture



Robert Rowe said:



Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr. said:

Air temp 51F. Water temp 51F. Encouraging.
Robert replies:
What are your AM numbers? My approach is to increase thermal mass to a point that the loss of FT heat is minimized over several days of extreme cold. So far during this cold spell my AM numbers for the 11th through the 14th have been 39-51, 32-48,32-45,32-43. I shut down the FT pump over-night.
Robert said My 2013-01-15 stats OAT 31 FT Temp 42 Pump off overnight. My outside temp is from my remote sensing thermometer which measures in the top 5 inches of the FT. I have another thermometer on the FT bottom which this am was about 46 degrees. I think we are going to be safe tonight for Goldfish. My Tilapia are indoors and will be moved to my larger FT when temps permit. I would like to work with others on an ongoing basis to determine the most sustainable system in terms of passive temperature controlled for Tilapia. If anyone is inclined to a joint effort in this please contact Robert Rowe via this forum or 602-799-7208.
 

Hey Vlad, I have to come over here to see a pic of your stove!! Looking Good! Nothing like the brute force of cheap wood to keep things toasty. I am looking forward to next year when I will have lots of "long cut" wood all dried and waiting in the wood shed. For now it's a cut and dry and burn situation. You will love having a water coil added as that is half the battle.

BTW. get that wood under cover!!! Looks like you had a nice sunny day there!

Vlad Jovanovic said:

Hehe...Here are the two forms of cold protection that I use to protect my AP produce...

 Home made wood gassifier that I built (thanks Jim Fisk) and an Astra 30A propane blower...

 

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