How to select the best fish for my environment?

[AquaPatriot]

Has anybody experimented with the heated pads that you lay underneath your seed starters? I was wondering if it would be worhtwhile to put one underneath the outside of the growbeds to see if I could help stabilize the temperature of the media?

[bsfman]

Has anybody experimented with the heated pads that you lay underneath your seed starters? I was wondering if it would be worhtwhile to put one underneath the outside of the growbeds to see if I could help stabilize the temperature of the media?

Might be worth a try since growbeds are heat radiators during cold temps and heat absorbers during high temps. The most economical bang for your energy bucks though comes from heating the water directly.

[JCO]

I agree with BSFman, heating the water directly is the best practice.

When trying to heat the water indirectly, you will loose some of the heat through radiation to other objects that it touches which does not benefit the water, but the surrounding air.

Heating the air is also not a viable source either as the ambient air temperature will never produce the same temperature in the water. The water will always be cooler than the surrounding air.

Heat the water and keep the Fish tank covered as much as possible during the winter to conserve the heat inside the tank.

[AquaPatriot]

I did buy a heater but I do not believe it will be adequate. I do like the idea of covering the water much like an outdoor hot tub. I know there has to be a place to release gases. Any opinions on how much water I should leave uncovered? I should have the plumbing done by this weekend. I will rinse the media over the weekend and cycle the water a few times and probably add fish if the numbers look good. Thanks again for your help.

[AquaPatriot]

I have one more thing that seems to have different opinions? To add red worms or to not add red worms? I plan on running the water going into my growbeds thru a filter sock to help reduce solids in the GB. After reading some other opinions, it appears that if I filter the incomg water there would be no need for the red worms. Any thoughts?

[Aloha Don]

Wow! you are opening a can of worms there...lol
Worms have been discussed in different threads here on this forum...
search for worms and read everyone's opinion...

[JCO]

That's probably the best suggestion I've seen on this forum when I comes to worms because you know how I feel about worms in the grow bed

[eddiemigue]

LOL JCO. I have had quite a good time reading the worm debate, but I won't chime in now as to not derail this thread.

Aqua,

Regarding your original question, I am in the lower Hudson Valley in NY, zone 7a, and I believe not to disimilar to your climate. I have blue tilapia, and they are doing very well. My setup is in an unheated, but well insulated room in my garage. All the thermal mass in the room, combined with the heat from the lighting keeps the room above 50F. Thus, a simple aquarium heater in the FT can keep my water temp in the 60F + range and keep the tilapia happy enough. They slow down, growth-wise, and don't breed at the lower temps, but can survive fine.

Your setup will have a lower ambient temperature overnight, but with enough thermal mass, and some decent insulation (not sure how your greenhouse is constructed), you should be able to keep the water temp tolerable for tilapia w/o too much energy input.

[AquaPatriot]

Thanks again for the input. The system is in a enclosed patio that we refer to as a sunroom. It is not insulated. The windows face the south and the GB's will be about 18" from the windows. I hadn't planned on using lights becuase of the direct sunlight but I may reconsider during the winter to increase prodcution and for an extra heat source? Hadn't really considered it much.

[eddiemigue]

Lights can get very expensive to run, and aren't the most efficient way to heat an area. I use them b/c there isn't sufficient sunlight in the room that I setup (the heat output is a secondary benefit), but if I had a greenhouse/sunroom, I would rely on sunlight for lighting. You may also want to consider passive heat capture with solar air heaters and/or solar water heaters.

I plan to give these a try in my hoop house and see what kind of difference it makes. Part of it depends on how much thermal mass you have in the sunroom and whether you can effectively capture the heat of the day to later radiate our at night.