After a great deal of thought, I have decided to turn my indoor pool, that never gets used, into an aquaponics set up. I think I have come up with a set up that I think will work for both aquaponics and a place to cool off during the summer. Your suggestions and thoughts are welcomed. I of course may not take them
but they are welcomed. This is just a basic idea of what I'd like to accomplish.
The basics
The building is attatched to my house through a basement walkup. Dimensions are 31 feet wide by 46 feet long. There are 3 sliding glass doors and 4 good sized windows though only 2 sliders and 1 window face south. This is really the only decent outside sunlight. The pool is 16 ft w by 32 ft L and goes from 4 feet down to 9 feet.
There is a large blower that supplies heat in the winter (I'm in Canada). There is also in floor radiant heating that could be used. I am thinking I may use this for some planters that will sit around the pool on the concrete. The room has to be heated regardless since our water heater for the house and piping system for water radiant heating system is located here. We heat with wood and unfortunately have to burn wood all year just to get hot water for the house. In summer there is always excessive hot water.
The lighting is from pot lights so I am thinking of buying a conversion kit to turn them into pendant lighting that could be put into the position needed and hung for plant level. Cost would be minimal, about $20 per pendant.
I would like to basically divide the pool into two by filling our livestock feed bags with sand and covering with a pond liner (our pool liner is toast so it has to come out). My hope is to also create different planting levels as well. In the deep end I would keep it at ground temperature and not supply any additional heat. That way I could stock it with trout, which prefer the cold temperature. With heat in the room the water usually stays around 12 degrees in winter, summer is warmer but it's still chilly. I want to grow wild rice in this area, along with possibly some other aquatic edible plants, but I am not sure yet what will grow well in cooler water.
There will be beds surrounding this area on the concrete.
Base of the pool will be a good gravel bed since it's free for me.
In the shallow end and sloping section we will have koi and goldfish. This will be our swimming section and it will be slightly heated. It will still be relatively cool, but will be a nice place to take a dip on a hot summer day. This will be where crops like strawberries and basil that like warmer temp will be grown.
I am thinking I'll have two separate pumps rather than one larger one. One for the deep end, one for the shallow.
My hope is that we can eventually have some solar power added to the system but it will have to wait for quite some time.
I imagine this will take us quite some time to actually get up and running, but the hope is to first stock it with goldfish, hopefully by the end of summer then by next spring get some trout in there.
I'm also hoping to use the old pool liner to set up a duckponics set up outside. We have a gully in our backyard (I live on a farm) thanks to glacier retreats and it would be nice to use it for something. I thought this would be the perfect place for our duck pond. I'd have no digging required.... bonus. Ducks poop CRAZY amounts and for some reason prefer to do it in the water. If they can get in the vessel holding the water, they will. I've even had my full grown ducks get in regular sized buckets you'd use for mopping. So the duck poop would be pumped through grow beds and the plants would clean the water for the ducks. No need for me to waste tonnes of water every day dumping poopy water out of doggy pools.
Backyard Aquaponics
