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Comment by Matt Miskinnis on January 19, 2013 at 7:45pm

@Larry sorry to hear about the loss.  I'm sure I'll have a similar story when my system is up and running.  I finally decided to do a full water change out since my ammonia was off the charts, after doing that the Ammonia seems to have calmed down.  I figured I couldn't get all the Ammonia out with the residual water in growbed within the lava rock, but figured I could reduce it a lot.  below is a pic of the water sample I just did, I kept the Ammonia test from the night before to show the before and after from the water change, thank goodness now the Ammonia is now down to workable levels.

Comment by Larry on January 19, 2013 at 9:10am

yea my fish all where on the botom too. I did enclose my FT with 1/2inch foam inselation top to bottom double layers ruff R-fator of 6 but i did not turn off my pumps. Mine is set up i can trun off just the FT maybe i should have done that let the Fish have the warm water and just run the grow beds to keep the water moving and keep the roots from freezing. Looks like my Egg plant and Tomatoes and bell pepper. have enough green to come back after cuting all the frozen stuff off.

 

the fish replacement is no problem being as i have alot inside breeding:)

Comment by John Malone on January 19, 2013 at 7:51am

Sorry to hear about the fish loss Larry.
I fully expected to lose a bunch too, but it appears they're going to make it.
I've concluded that I need to improve the insulation on my system to even out the temperature fluctuations.
Mind you, that cold stretch was the worst for nearly 30 years so we shouldn't have to endure that again too soon, hopefully.
For the record, my tank temp is back up to 57.4 as of last night and I expect it to keep climbing over the next few days.

Comment by Larry on January 18, 2013 at 8:39pm

Well i did not fair out as well as some of you :( I lost my egg plant, tomatoe, Bell pepper damaged should pull through, sweet Basel and 37 fish. I was running two heaters and 2 solar heaters. The fish not dinner size yet so just tossed them in the freezer and will be a pilgram next month. Putting corn in Regual garden and will chop the fish up and plant with the corn :)   Just like old times LOL

I did not loose any fish till 45-49 deg. Heck 2 days of sunshine and temp is back up to 65 and climing  

Buter crisp lettuce, red leaf and roman, swiss shard, parsley, Stevia, green onion, Dill, Brocoli and Califlower all did well through the cold snap.

 

Comment by Jeremy K on January 18, 2013 at 1:14pm

I made it though the cold with no dead fish but lots of dead plants.... No worries, I wanted to plant different plants in different beds this year anyways

Comment by Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr. on January 17, 2013 at 6:35pm

@Jacques. George would do ;-)

Comment by Robert Rowe on January 17, 2013 at 12:00pm

@Sheri

John Malone says his FT and Tilapia from your stock hit 46.6 degrees. Have you received similar reports from others and what has your experiance been?

My Talipia are still indoors @ 70 degrees and doing well. I am still working on my FT2 designed for Tilapia am wondering if I really need to hold low temp to 60 degrees minimum or would 50 degrees might be a better number.

Since part of my effort is toward sustainability(Hate that word), I don't want to build in active (non solar) heating unless it is necessary. 

Comment by Jacques L. on January 17, 2013 at 10:09am

@Matt
Had a bit left over. Putting that away for some future project.

During the last summer the structure held up just fine, the issue was securing the shade cloth well enough that it didn't fly away. Used scrap PVC cut to 2-3 inch lengths, then cutting out a slot along its length. Could essentially slip them on over the screen cloth onto the existing PVC underneath. On occasion some would come loose, but figure if I had used more clips overall, it wouldn't have been an issue.

As for the film now being put on, its secured to the cedar wood base by rolling some 1x2x8's into the film, then tacking that on with a brad gun. Figure this will be much more secure than the clip option.

As for this upcoming summer, I'll be putting the shade cloth back up again once the inside temps get too high. I also plan on adding in a swamp cooler or fan system to provide circulation inside. The trick is to find one that's not going to eat in to my electric bill too much 

Comment by John Malone on January 17, 2013 at 9:39am

Whew!  Made it!

...through the cold snap with no dead fish.   Very, very, very pleased with that.

The lowest temperature I read in the fish tank was 46.6F, but I suspect it got down to 45F.

As of last night the water temperature was 49F and I expect it to continue to rise with the improved weather and solar heater input.

All I can say is that this strain of tilapia are mighty tough.  Thanks Sheri!

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on January 16, 2013 at 3:21pm

Cool, thanks for the link,  did you find that you had a lot of extra left over?  I'm hoping I don't have to purchase that much since I only have a single grow bed so i'm hoping not have that much to cover.  And another question - when it's monsoon season, do you think it will hold up?  I figure summer time people will be switching from green house cover to shade cover and wonder how strong these pvc structures are.

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