Exciting! best of luck getting your system set up!
Stock tanks: Order through your local Ace Hardware store. My local store doesn't keep them in stock, and the stock tanks don't appear on their website, but the individual stores can order from their warehouse and they come in on the next shipment. The best part is their prices are good and you don't have to pay shipping. I paid a fortune for my 150 gallon tank because shipping added about $100 before I discovered this. for my 50 gallon grow beds, I think I paid about $80 all in. What part of LA are you in?
While I'm new to aquaponics (apparently spell check is too...) I'll make a case for putting the fish inside. If you put your grow beds on top of your fish tank, you won't lose much growing space. Even inside my greenhouse, the temperature of the water drops noticeably at night (even now). So in my humble opinion, you will end up either using tank heaters extensively to keep your water temperature ideal, or your fish will be pretty unhappy. Silvia's book says 75 i think, and in my other reading, I've seen as high as 85 degrees to keep them happy. I bumped mine up to 82 ish using a 100 gallon tank heater 150watt, I think. It's technically too small for my tank, but it still works pretty hard to keep the temperatures up there, even in the greenhouse. Plus, I suspect you'll have a time running all kinds of plumbing to your fish tank when you can just pump the water straight up and drain it right back down into your tank if you do it inside. Finally, you do risk losing your fish altogether during winter cold snaps.
The system I've built is doing really well so far. The fish tank got really dirty and the fish stopped eating, now it's sparkling clean and they started eating again. hmmm. live and learn I guess. thanks to a comment from another member, I've converted to a top irrigation on my grow beds and that seems to be working so far. Let me know if I can be of any other assistance as you build your system.
Roe Sie
Hi Steven,
Exciting! best of luck getting your system set up!
Stock tanks: Order through your local Ace Hardware store. My local store doesn't keep them in stock, and the stock tanks don't appear on their website, but the individual stores can order from their warehouse and they come in on the next shipment. The best part is their prices are good and you don't have to pay shipping. I paid a fortune for my 150 gallon tank because shipping added about $100 before I discovered this. for my 50 gallon grow beds, I think I paid about $80 all in. What part of LA are you in?
While I'm new to aquaponics (apparently spell check is too...) I'll make a case for putting the fish inside. If you put your grow beds on top of your fish tank, you won't lose much growing space. Even inside my greenhouse, the temperature of the water drops noticeably at night (even now). So in my humble opinion, you will end up either using tank heaters extensively to keep your water temperature ideal, or your fish will be pretty unhappy. Silvia's book says 75 i think, and in my other reading, I've seen as high as 85 degrees to keep them happy. I bumped mine up to 82 ish using a 100 gallon tank heater 150watt, I think. It's technically too small for my tank, but it still works pretty hard to keep the temperatures up there, even in the greenhouse. Plus, I suspect you'll have a time running all kinds of plumbing to your fish tank when you can just pump the water straight up and drain it right back down into your tank if you do it inside. Finally, you do risk losing your fish altogether during winter cold snaps.
Jul 8, 2012
Roe Sie
The system I've built is doing really well so far. The fish tank got really dirty and the fish stopped eating, now it's sparkling clean and they started eating again. hmmm. live and learn I guess. thanks to a comment from another member, I've converted to a top irrigation on my grow beds and that seems to be working so far. Let me know if I can be of any other assistance as you build your system.
roe.
Jul 8, 2012
Chris Megison
Hi Steven, Please send me a quick email at chris@solutionsforchange.org with the info and your phone and we will call you. Thanks.
Jul 9, 2012