A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Walapini update

Well, first crop of radishes done. Kale and lettuce about 2 weeks away. My water temps were getting bit low (65f) so I built a black plastic pipe coil (20ft * 3/4") for the fish tank today. Its hooked to the stripped hot water tank that stands on the wood heater. Water tank temps average 98 -108 f. Pumped via a spare pump for the aquaponics. It brought the system water temp from 66f to 75f in 3 hrs. Ordered a 12V hot water pump from US Solar. Should be here sometime next week. BTW, in case any one wonders, the pump sits in a 5gal pail full of cold water so it does not heat up too badly. I will attempt to do a drawing of this setup as I believe it is a very cost efficient way to get system water up to temps where fish will eat and thrive..ergo happy plants!

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Permalink Reply by Jeremiah Robinson on November 6, 2014 at 8:43pm

Hey Ian,

Awesome work! Were your fish in there during that temperature swing? No ill effects?

Permalink Reply by Ian Cameron on November 7, 2014 at 8:57am

Yes, I left them in there. I really don't like stressing them by moving them around. They are all healthy this morning and ready to eat!!

Permalink Reply by Jeremiah Robinson on November 7, 2014 at 9:05am

Interesting. I've found temperature swings stress my fish out more than moving. That said, that's been most true with trout and least true with tilapia.

I used to have kids come by and "catch fish" with the nets every day.

Permalink Reply by Ian Cameron on November 7, 2014 at 11:50am

Yes, well I am just raising some very large (now) goldfish and creek shiners. They cohabit very well and seem to tolerate temperature swings quite well. I did not think that a water to water coil heat transfer would do them any harm as long as it was not a sudden large temp swing. This being a pilot project of sorts, I am trying to minimize stressors as much a possible.

Permalink Reply by Ian Cameron on November 16, 2014 at 7:06pm

16/11/2014: Well, hooked up the 12v pump today. Pulls 8 watts under load. The only downside, and its small, is the 1/2" inlet/out let.Try finding 3/4 to 1/2 adapters up here out in the bush! Well some creative connecting between black poly pipe and PVC sched. 40 got 'er done. One line to fish tank coil, and one to raised bed heater coil. Took a while to bleed all the air out of the system but is working good now. Pump is hooked to an Industrial 120v/12v power supply and that is hooked into a Ranco thermostat controller. That 40ft sea can full of busted grow op stuff sure is coming in handy!

Temps this week have ranged between -12C at night and 1.2C by 2:30 pm. Green house temps averaging 23.3C. RH inside averages 31%.

Permalink Reply by Jeremiah Robinson on November 16, 2014 at 9:06pm

Can you post a picture? I'm dying to see it :)

Permalink Reply by Jeff S on November 17, 2014 at 1:37pm

The hard cold set in here in Michigan last week while my GH was still unfinished and I was in Fla. All the plumbing was new and relatively untested when I left so I set up backup pumps and heaters just in case. Good thing to, my main pump line froze. All the fish seemed to survive even thought the water got down to 57F. I'm hoping the worms and bacteria in the GB made it. The worms made it through the first cold snap but this one was worse. Not sure if the GB froze. Haven't had time to check just getting the GH covered. All is protected now so we'll see. I also put in a 12v pump. Very pleased with it so far.

Permalink Reply by Ian Cameron on November 17, 2014 at 7:28pm

Jeff, hoping everything goes ok. Looks like you folks are going to get some nasty weather the next few days. How are you heating your GH? Yes, that 12v pumps seems to be doing a great job for me. Hooking it up to the Ranco thermo controller with the probe set at the bottom of the fish tank really does work. Heating the tank and the raised beds at the same time. Temp set at 75F with 1 deg. differential to minimize thermal shock to the fish. pics to come as soon as I can find my camera.

Permalink Reply by Jeff S on November 17, 2014 at 8:33pm

Well to top it all off my ammonia is 8.0+. I'm really surprised I don't have a tank full of dead fish yet. Right now I have about 1900w of heaters going in the water and a propane heater keeping the GH at about 44F.....at least it was an hour ago but the outside temp is dropping. Was only able to get one layer of plastic up so far. The GH is 2 X 4 framed and last year I put a layer of 6mil plastic inside and outside and it seemed to work well. Plus I've doubled the size of the GH and haven't got my wood burner operating yet. Tomorrow I start on setting it up..... if I can brave the cold.

Permalink Reply by Ian Cameron on November 26, 2014 at 3:54pm

Well, first 12in of snow last light and today with another 12 in expected by tomorrow morning. The poly bubble roof is standing up ok. Temps to drop to -28 -30C on the weekend. That will tell the tale! Romaine lettuce ready for harvest. Just in time. Jeff, did you get your wood heater up and running?

Permalink Reply by Jeff S on November 26, 2014 at 8:21pm

Got all the duct work in place today. I'll hook it all up tomorrow and fire it up. Put the second layer of plastic on and that seemed to settle the harshness with an occasional propane blast. I put the second layer on the roof Monday and 55mph+ winds proceeded to remove it before I could get it secured. Finally got it secured. Where are you located. That's pretty cold.

Permalink Reply by Ian Cameron on November 27, 2014 at 7:06pm

That's good to hear. Did you use channel and wiggle wire to hold things down? I line in central British Columbia. yeah the temps supposed to get down to -18 tonite and colder from then on. Methinks that 6 cords was a wee bit optimistic, but wood is not hard to come by up here.