Water cooling using aquaponics tank

Humanrob said:

I used to trout fish with my dad as a kid, I imagine they would need lots of oxygen and cold water. Thinking along those lines, I wonder if fish that live in lakes would do better, like bass?


I've heard that parts of CO get enough sunshine per year to make solar a viable supplemental electrical source for heat. Geothermal would be optimal... hahaha... if we're dreaming.

Does make me wonder. If @ttystikk is starting with pot growing know-how and lights, and wanting to add aquaponics, a purely indoor set up that was based on standard cannabis growing models would work -- if selling the fish would pay for that part of the system on its own. I have no idea what the fish market is like. Unless the idea is that the fish are paying for themselves in saved fertilizer costs for the cannabis?

Admittedly negative, but one way to look at this is there is a reason everyone isn't doing it -- so what is that reason? It might be an initial level of difficulty that scares people off, but one that once overcome would make this worth the effort... or it might be that the economics don't work out. I have no idea.

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ttystikk said:

I'm open to anywhere.

Warehouse or greenhouse, my LED lights could work either way.

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ttystikk said:

In order; warm water fish are much better candidates for aquaponics for lots of reasons. Tilapia and another I can't remember the name? Are the most popular.

Colorado gets COLD, which is where the 4 season greenhouse thing becomes a problem. Supplemental lighting by LED solves low light/short day conditions in the winter.

Geothermal isn't very expensive. If heat from the lights can be captured, that's good enough for well insulated indoor spaces.

I've been working with all of these technologies, I'm not talking out my ass.

Selling fish is legitimatize only because of local laws. I'm wondering if selling live fish might be the way around it.

I'm using agricultural dry nutrient salts. They're so cheap that aquaponics would not be a cost saver. I'd be doing it specifically to have a self contained food production system that produces protein as well as vegetables.

The reason everyone isn't doing it is because the word hadn't gotten out about cheap high performance LED lighting- this is a new technology that simply hasn't penetrated the conventional wisdom of The larger ag industry yet.

This new approach is why I think I might have a good chance at getting my foot in the door with a larger facility growing whatever- because even herbs can grow 1/3 the doors or square foot or year as cannabis- and the price of pot is collapsing.

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Ken Beck said:

Nobody doubts the leds working well, its mainly the temp control (for plants and fish)and cost of power for lighting and heating that is the question. Thats the 2 problems i think are the only reasons deterring people from doing this. That and traditional farming allows for a large harvest and planting at once to make a lot of money in one shot. Aquaponics would be a continuous supply of crops and fish. In a very condensed footprint. Things like lettuce can easily have 12harvests a year and squeeze 4 per square foot. This means if you make the system efficient enough, you will be profitable even fully indoors with no natural light and selling at wholesale prices.

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Ken Beck said:

If you are looking at warm water, tilapia, catfish, and bluegill are the main ones. They have a very good FCR and can tolerate a lot. You need a fish with an FCR of 2 or less because if they dont convert food well, then you cant stock them at very high densities, and they will grow slow yet consume a lot of food. Just the fish side of aquaponics alone should be profitable. even including the lighting cost the fish sales should cover all costs of food and power/heating. I wanted to try trout as a way to make fish even more profitable as they have almost a perfect FCR at between 1 and 1.2. people have done it in cold climates and basements usually stay in the low 60's year round so it is very tempting to try out.
Idk why leds havent caught on as much as those dumb fidget spinners lol. But with any average person being able to hit 200lumens per watt with consumer grade products online, i could only imagine what is possible next. But herbs is a good choice to do as well, some can get to harvest in a month too under the right conditions.

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ttystikk said:

I agree completely and I have the necessary lighting infrastructure to put this into practice.

The laws and regulations for growing herbs and garden vegetables also happen to be far less onerous then for cannabis as well, so there's that.

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ttystikk said:

LED lights haven't caught on because of their reputation for being expensive. That is changing rapidly, so expect this revolution to hit the ag world full force very soon.

Had to look up FCR. Warm water fish grow much more rapidly than cold water fish, making trout a questionable choice for production aquaculture.

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Ken Beck said:

Trout actually grow pretty fast weight wise, they take forever to mature though. A trout in their last 2-3 yrs to maturity can gain almost 10lbs. Even with the first year only doing at most a lb, the next 2-3 years more than make up for it. Then again, I have trouble keeping trout alive yet tilapia refuse to die lol. I cant personally document trout if i cant at least grow a couple to maturity. But yea you should put tilapia at the top of your list of fish choices. Catfish are good but they like to hang around the bottom a lot so you need to combine catfish with something like crappie or bluegill that hang around the top to get a good stock of fish in the tank without wasted water space. Heck, do a couple tanks of tilapia to stagger their growth. And then a tank or 2 of catfish and bluegill so there are a couple fish options and they all like the same temp range and water quality.

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ttystikk said:

That's the plan. Can I get away with using catfish to eat algae or do I need plecostomus?

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Ken Beck said:

I've been busy the last couple weeks trying to get my boat running reliably so i havent given any updates, but the pepper plant did finally take root after a week and is producing peppers already. I have wanted to try trout, but they are so hard to keep happy. 1/3 of the trout i was getting for a system i am setting up in my basement didnt even survive the trip home. The next 1/3 died after getting them into the 35gallon tank before i was going to transfer them to the tote in the basement. Then after many water changes trying to keep the last few alive, i realized my tap water had dangerous levels of chloramine that was killing them all.. Unfortunately i couldnt stick my current system water in there as it was too warm. By the time i could fix the problem i was left with 1 lone trout. Ugh. Im not sure even the temps in my basement are cool enough to have the trout do well either. I may need a chiller just to make this work. I will be expanding the warm water system to include 2 more grow beds, the nitrate just is too much for the plants in the bed to use. It filters our deadly tap water well though. No ammonia even shows once it cycles into the system.

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nfhiggs said:

One word for you:
Catfish.

Hardy as hell, can literally live in mud and loves warm water.

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ttystikk said:

...warm water fish are much better candidates for aquaponics for lots of reasons. Tilapia and another I can't remember the name? ...

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Dumme said:

Koi, Shubunkins, or Goldfish, would be the other..

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Ken Beck said:

Trout actually grow pretty fast weight wise, they take forever to mature though. A trout in their last 2-3 yrs to maturity can gain almost 10lbs. Even with the first year only doing at most a lb, the next 2-3 years more than make up for it. Then again, I have trouble keeping trout alive yet tilapia refuse to die lol. I cant personally document trout if i cant at least grow a couple to maturity. But yea you should put tilapia at the top of your list of fish choices. Catfish are good but they like to hang around the bottom a lot so you need to combine catfish with something like crappie or bluegill that hang around the top to get a good stock of fish in the tank without wasted water space. Heck, do a couple tanks of tilapia to stagger their growth. And then a tank or 2 of catfish and bluegill so there are a couple fish options and they all like the same temp range and water quality.

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Dumme said:

I use Brook & Rainbow Trout..

Another overlooked thought is that some fish require different diets to remain healthy. Trout require a high protein diet,and the feed is expensive, especially if you're using organic feed.

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Ken Beck said:

I wouldnt eat those though lol. I mean koi can be worth a pretty penny when grown to a decent size so its possible they would be worth it. Goldfish are only good for.... I honestly cant think of anything. They are cheap young, cheap big, and arent edible.

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Ken Beck said:

Where are you growing brook and rainbows?

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Dumme said:

I have a 1300gallon system in my 1000 ft basement garden.

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Ken Beck said:

Ok now i need to know things like temp ranges of the basement and water. I was looking at doing trout and i have a completely open basement that sits at low 60s year round. Also what kind of growth rates are you getting?

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