Moving systems based on weather (indoors cooler times of year and outdoors in the spring summer etc.)

[Meg]

Hi Everyone!!  

I am new to this forum and aquaponics in general.  My husband and I are in the process of planning and setting up an aquaponic set up. We are planning on doing media based flood/drain system with a 100-300 gallon fish tank to grow edible fish. 

We live in Toronto, Ontario where is gets pretty cold in the winter so we are going to be setting up the system in our basement.  

My question is, is there anyone out there who moves their system outside the spring for the warmer weather and then back inside when it gets cold?  How feasible is this?  Does it mess up the system much to do it?  We don't mind a bit of work (we were thinking we could pump the water out of the systems through a window in to their outdoor home) but don't want to do much harm to things!

Thanks in advance!

[Ian Cameron]

Hi Meg, welcome to the world of AP! I have (2) 75 gal tanks and (2) 45gal grow beds that I move inside and out as the weather dictates. I live in the BC Interior and the temps can get down to -30 in the last half of January. Generally, this time of year is when I give some serious thought to moving things back inside. We have had a couple of hard frosts in the last week and the fish are not feeding quite so well. As far as your system being moved, I have had no issues. I make sure that I save most of the water, and use it to re-establish the system as quickly as possible. If I am quick enough I can remove the current crop of Swiss Chard with roots attached, move the system, and re-root the plants without significant damage to them.My chard has survived 3 transplants so far, they are almost 2 years old and are quite prolific. The fish don't seem to mind as long as I am gentle with their handling. As always, keep a close watch on your water.

It all can be done with some careful thought around your plumbing and the sequence of the various phases of the move.

[Bart]

Hi Meg. I live in London ON so face same issues, my basement system ran with plants until April when I decided the hydro expense didn't make sense so I harvested everything and have run plant less until now. I will plant in the next week or two time permitting. Without plants the nitrate levels are off the chart but I pull water out regularly to water all plants around the house and yard I would guess we remove 15 litre per day on average.

I like your idea of plumbing the water out the window, I hope to create this next spring. Leaving the fish in the basement, they don't need much light and running the water out to some NFT pipes seems doable. Moving the whole system is certainly doable but would be a lot of work depending on the size and complexity. My basement system is 2 IBC tote halfs and three 205l drums. Just digging all that media out would wear me out for a day.
That's the fun of AP, you can be as creative as you want, most things will work as long as you adhear to the basics like ph, temps, bio surface area and water changes etc.