Dirt in my tank

[Allen Jiang]

How come there is dirt in my tank which is brown? Is it from the river rock that I put in (had dirt on it) or has it grown there?

[TCLynx]

Isn't your problem heat right now?  A mini greenhouse would only make it hotter.  Might be helpful in winter to insulate everything and add a little greenhouse.  No guarantee that would help enough though with such a small system.

[Allen Jiang]

yes it is but wouldn't a shelter that is cover in white tarp help to protect it from the heat?

[TCLynx]

If you can put up the tarp in such a fashion that it is only providing shade and NOT enclosing the area, it might help.  If it is more like a closed tent, the lack of ventilation will actually make it hotter inside.

[Allen Jiang]

well, i got a deck which i can put the aquaponics system under. would that be ok?

[TCLynx]

About all you can do is try and see I guess.  Get a thermometer so you can track the temperatures.  It is hard for some one on the other side of the planet to know for certain what your weather is like and what can be done to keep a small quantity of water from getting too hot or too cold at different times of the year.

[Allen Jiang]

ok thanks. i'll get a thermometer and see how it goes! 

[Allen Jiang]

Well how would it go in your climate do you think?

TCLynx said:

About all you can do is try and see I guess.  Get a thermometer so you can track the temperatures.  It is hard for some one on the other side of the planet to know for certain what your weather is like and what can be done to keep a small quantity of water from getting too hot or too cold at different times of the year.

[TCLynx]

For outdoor unprotected systems in my climate, I would choose to go for a 300 gallon fish tank and even then I like a bit of shade cloth over the system for the heat of summer and in the cold of winter there will be times when the fish won't eat because the water gets too cold.  (And the water will get too cold for some types of fish.)

I would be very worried about temperatures during the extremes of the seasons in anything smaller than a 100 gallon system in my climate.  I've heard of people using frozen water bottles to put in the fish tank during really extreme seasons when their tanks are too small to keep from heating up too much.

[Allen Jiang]

will 15 degrees celsius outside temperature be too cold for goldfish?

[TCLynx]

Goldfish can survive that just fine though they probably shouldn't be fed much when the water is cool.

[Allen Jiang]

ok cool because 15 degrees celsius is the lowest outside temp for oz but what about 35 degrees celsius outside temp?

[TCLynx]

If your water gets up to around 35 C then your fish may be in serious danger and you will need to make sure to provide plenty of extra aeration and you may need to be swapping some ice bottles to keep the water from cooking the goldfish.