Water temp, how warm is to warm?

[Brent]

I guys, just got my barrelponics system together last week and have had it cycyling fishlessly.  Today here in Indiana it reached 80 outside and when I got home looked at my water temp and it was 99.5.  Just wondering is that to much temp for fish to live in?  I am a newbie and the system is located in a greenhouse, I'm thinking that I may need to buy some shade clothe, but want your opinoins first.  I did have my vents closed all day cause I thought it was gonna rain, but the rain never showed up.

 

Brent

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Hi Brent.  That is definitely too hot because it is nearly impossible to keep enough oxygen in the water at that temperature to sustain fish.  As water temperature goes up, it's ability to hold oxygen goes down.  You will be well served to do what you can to shade your system!

[TCLynx]

A barrel ponics system is also pretty small and therefore the temperature will swing more quickly.  Yes shade cloth will help but also opening up the greenhouse as much as possible for the summer will not only keep the water cooler but probably make it possible to grow plants.  Keep in mind if the water temp in the greenhouse got to 99, imagine what the air temp must have gotten to in order to raise the thermals mass of the water up to 99!!!

 

I know of fish that can survive the water getting to the 90's but as Sylvia says, there won't be much dissolved oxygen in the water at that temp and any little thing going wrong will kill the fish quickly.

[Brent]

Thanks you two, great info and good points.

[Brent]

Oh I am already planning my next system, it will be much bigger.  Just figured the barrels would be a great way to start and get the hang of it.  Although I kind of wish I would have just made the bigger system to start with, becuase it prolly wouldn't have been much more work.  Just wish I could find some totes that didn't store oil or fertilizers (big farm community in my area)  near me.  Take care.

[TCLynx]

You can make bigger fish tanks using cattle panels an pond liner, kinda a round tall mesh tank.

 

and now I'm experimenting with ways to use cattle panels and chain link fence rails/hardware to make grow beds with either HDPE plastic or pond liner (pond liner needs a bit of extra something though.)

[Brent]

I'm am good friends with a local large dairy, and they have tons of heavy plactic that they use to cover the feed with and we use it to make huge slip and slides with J Lube ( stuff used to lube up with for artificial insemination).  Also I bet they have lagoon liner scraps.  What do I have to look for if I were to use those products?

[TCLynx]

You want food grade or potable water safe liners for making fish tanks or grow beds.  The feed covers I would worry tend to be tarps that will get small nicks which might not be a real problem as a rain cover of the feed but will leak when filled with water.

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Brent,

In a new system when fish are small and their O2 demands are little you can get by with very high temps, lulling us into a false sense of complacency, however, as time goes by and your fish are growing, fish floating on the surface will bring us back to reality. Avoid feeding fish when temperature peaks, use shading, using a fan/ice/electrical cooling, and anything you can think of to keep fish alive. Ap forces us to think "outside the box"!