I love the idea but think they make it sound a little to easy on the site. I am looking for land with a pond for raising my own fish or land that already has good fishing on it (lake or river). I guess this may be an alternative.
Tom

survive a Canadian winter.

Funny the site doesn't list an e-mail in the contact us section.

Roadscholar, you got me really interested in aquaponics. I have been reading a lot on the subject lately. However I can't find an already proven solution for our canadian winter... still looking...

One of the advantages of the Tilipia farm pond is that it works in smaller spaces, and places with crappy soil. So when it comes to nutritional value per square foot of land, it's VERY good sustinance. That's why it's being so heavily promoted as a third world subsistence food source. That seems to be the emphasis of those guides I linked to.

I've looked into info on raising trout, or other cold-hardy types of fish. They tend to have much more fussy needs for water quality, temperature ranges, quality food sources, etc. The Tilapia can work with nothing but putting manure or compost in the corner of the pond, and they feed off the green slimy stuff that naturally grows from it. You get much BETTER production if you also feed them stuff like kitchen scraps, grains, or fish foods.

yeah I was thinking about this myself. One idea I had to maybe resolve this issue was to make a frame around the unit (inside?) and use thermal blankets (cheap) and use a low cost heat source for the inside of the unit itself.

Here is a link for the blankets

http://www.quakekare.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=28&gclid=CPrY97Tpp5QCFREUiQod_gpX0g

I would think that you could rig a basic and maybe automatic climate control system. If it gets cold enough, close down the unit and turn on the heat.
If you need a light source as well, you might look into full spectrum lighting if you can find and power it on the cheap.

Hope that helps
Curtis
Roadscholar

Portable farm looks interesting. I saw it awhile ago and may use it when I get set up - maybe as a way to get a little income from local restaurants.

I just clicked on the portablefarms website from the link above and McAfee antivirus threw an alarm that there is a trojan on the site that can harm computers. Just thought I'd mention it.