Greenhouse and heating for Aquaponics in cold climate of Canada

Lounge
#1

Hi All,
I am in the design stage of our startup and any advice on the kind of greenhouse required to cater to Canadian cold climate and any good vendors who understand both Canadian weather and RAS systems.

Thanks,
Regards,
VB

#2

@j.derksen17 @nick.savidov @DMaitland @arvindvenkat Do you Canadians have any suggestions for @bakthulav?

#3

Usually depends on how deep your pockets are, but glass would be most expensive, polycarbonate next and then double poly. A passive solar gh is also another option. In our opinion, most gh companies do not understand aquaponics well, even if they tell you they can help you with it. They understand only the concept, so do not depend on them providing the details when you begin to ask questions about particulars.

3 Likes
#4

Great advice! I used to work for a greenhouse manufacturer, and I found many greenhouse companies like to call themselves turnkey, but most of them only understand the structures, and don’t have any actual growing experience nor do they understand climates and environments.

#5

Hi VB,

I read that with auto thermo-carpeting capability plants can survive -40 C temperature. Not sure if aqualfic animals you raise can also survive that temperature outside. For plants to survive, I believe the inside temperature has to be above freezing. In case the animals won’t survive that low temperature, will deep underground tanks solve the problem?

Thank you.

Best,
Shen.

#6

For a good deep winter greenhouse check the you tube channel arkatopia green house

#7

I know it’s not Canada, but when I lived in northeast PA we put down black plastic, insulated the walls with extra floats, and put black row covers on overnight. First light of the morning would start heating up the plants first. We also had heaters in with the tilapia in the tanks. We wrapped the tanks in bagged insulation. Water temps were close to 70*F coming out of the tanks. Always around 50 going back in. Of course we had insulation boards between the ground and the trough, the sides of the troughs were insulated too. It was my favorite part of the morning to be walking across frozen ground to open the doors and see steam coming off the troughs. That’s what it looked like anyway. That was in a double poly high tunnel. Very low tech, low cost. You could always dig down a few feet also. Use the earth as natural insulation.

#8

just for your information, If the system is big enough and you use a side channel blower, it will heat up the air roughly 40 degrees celcius above ambient, meaning you can transfer quite a bit of heat into the water just via your aeration.

Even more so if you are using airlift for the water movement (or in tank circulation) as well as oxygenation via airstones.

1 Like