Green House in the works...

[MarkS]

I'm building a small green house in my back yard. It's constructed out of pressure treated 2x4's, plywood and corrugated PVC. I still have to finish the front and build the roof, but I'm almost done.

The green house is 10' x 10' x 6'. The roof, when completed, will peak at 8'. I used plywood around the base to stiffen the structure and the wood will be sealed on both sides and painted on the outside. The front and back (north and south sides) have white corrugated PVC and the east and west side and roof have clear.

I was originally going to start a small aquaculture operation out of this, but after doing some detailed research, I found my set up to be inadequate. So, I am going to do an saltwater pond.

More pics will come as construction progresses.

From the side... Ignore the clutter...

[MarkS]

The opening on the left is actually the center and is where the 6' x 3' door will be located. There will be a vent on each side of the door. You can see one in the pic. With the exhaust fan I am going to use, I will get 100% air exchange every 30 seconds.

[MarkS]

This is basically what the pond will look like. It's inside dimensions will be 7' x 6' x 2' for 628 gallons.

The blue thingy is a 55 gallon plastic drum that will be used as a Carlson Surge device. Since this is going in a green house, I am thinking of building a large scale ATS, but I'm not sure how to go about this.

What I'm planning for the contents is pretty cool. It will have a 6" deep sand bed. In the center, spanning the width will be an island about 30" wide. This will be constructed out of live rock and sand. The top of this island (or sand bar really) will be 6" below the surface of the water. This will divide the pond in half and seperate a high flow area (from the surge device) from a low flow area. The high flow area will have corals and clams, while the low flow area will be planted with seagrasses and be home to quite a few seahorses. I'll have about 3 or 4 mangroves planted on the island.

I am also going to grow phyto, copepods and mysis shrimp in 10 gallon tanks. Each of these tanks will be drilled and will drip into the pond. This will provide a constant source of live food.

The livestock that I'm planning will consist of a variety of LPS, SPS and softies, varous clams, a carpet anemone with several A. Ocellaris clownfish, a school of yellow tangs, seahorses and the usual assortment of snails, shrimp and simular critters.

[DeletedAccount]

Wow! This looks like quite a project!

[reefer]

can't wait to see pics of it finished!

[MarkS]

Here's a better rendering of the pond, showing the sand, mangroves and seagrass.

[BA]

AWESOME

[mathias]

so I guess since its outside no need for lighting???? that sounds cool........

[GaryP]

Mark,

Are you planning on doing anything for temp. control, especially cooling?

Gary

[MarkS]

Mark,

Are you planning on doing anything for temp. control, especially cooling?

Gary

I'm not sure yet. From all I've read, it seems that cooling, due to the large water volume, will not be an issue, but heating will. There's a 10' x 10' dirt plot about behind the green house, so I may do a geothermal cooling loop.

I'll probably not do anything while it cycles and log the temp during that time to see what will be necessary.


so I guess since its outside no need for lighting???? that sounds cool........

Yup. That's the idea. The only electricity used will be the pump filling the surge tank, any heaters and the pump for the geothermal cooling loop, should that prove necessary. The electrical usage will be a tiny fraction of what it would be if this was indoors with MH, closed loop pumps, return pumps, skimmer pumps, etc.

[BA]

if you have the SW pond part dug into the ground it will help with insulation

[MarkS]

if you have the SW pond part dug into the ground it will help with insulation
True, but that's not possible here. Both the green house and the pond are sitting on a concrete slab.

[BA]

oh yea, forgive my stupidity, i looked at the pics, eyes and brain didn't regesture :roll2:

[Tim Marvin]

I ran mine for a little over a year. My finding were: Cooling in the summer was nearly impossible to keep it below 84-85 which caused a mild stress to the corals except for mushrooms and zoo's. Winter I ran 5/300w ebos, an electric space heater and gas propane to keep it in the low 70's. Unless you are doing it just for a labor intensive hobby it was not profitable as a frag set up. I wasn't able to even break even with the high cost of keeping it warm in the winter. Unless you planning to bury a tank of substantial size 5-10 feet under ground you are going to have a ball with the day/night temp swings. My suggestion, scape the idea and grow your plants in the greenhouse. This is probably why the large coral farms are in the ocean, on the coasts, or in mild climates. If you had a large greenhouse with air conditioning and gas heat that would work, but you'd have to set up thousands of gallons and move the corals. Also the light doesn't seem to be as intense as you need it here. Most of the corals lost some of the color and algae was an almost constant battle. This was just my findings, you may have better luck. It is cheaper and I produce better frags running the halides indoors.

[MarkS]

I'm not doing this to sell anything. This is just a big outdoor aquarium. How many gallons was your set up? How big was your greenhouse?

[Tim Marvin]

It was 16ft X 8ft and I kept the ceiling at about 5 1/2 feet to help keep down heating and cooling. I was hopeing less air volume would make it easier. I had 500 gallons wrapped with insulation.

[MarkS]

It was 16ft X 8ft and I kept the ceiling at about 5 1/2 feet to help keep down heating and cooling. I was hopeing less air volume would make it easier.

That may have been part of the problem. Less air volume will heat quicker and would add to the tank's temp. What was the CFM rating of your exhaust fan(s)?

[Tim Marvin]

I took the sides off in the summer. No fans. Sealed it up in the winter. A higher tech set-up would probably work. I'm not trying to deter you just stating my experience. I used the clear carbon fiber, sheets rather than clear PVC because from my research and advice the PVC changes color and doesn't last very long. I was told you would lose the light penetration very quick with PVC. I think it was carbon, or poly fiber, at any rate it was like $35 a sheet at Home Depot. I found that a box fan blowing directly on the water cooled it pretty efficiently as long as it was under 90 degrees outside. Heating began to be an issue when it dropped below 60. JimD has a green house for his plants and he controls the temp much better than I could. If you need any help he can answer a lot of questions.

[MarkS]

You're not detering me. It's a little too late for that! :lol:

I think I saw that stuff you're talking about. Isn't it more translucent than transparent?

[MarkS]

This is the roof so far. I still need to cut and mount the remaining rafters and cover it in the PVC. Ignore the 10 gallon. It was a convenient stand for holding boxes of screws.

[MarkS]

All I need to do now is finish the front, bolt the roof to the frame and run the electrical. This is so cool! :D

[Tim Marvin]

This stuff is perfectly clear. Well, until the dirt and the leaves collect on it...LOL.....

[Tim Marvin]

Wow, that looks nice!

[GaryP]

Mark,

You might want to read Anthony Calfo's book, Coral Propagation. It contains a lot of good info on how to set up an effective green house. Calfo makes the point that its easier, and more cost effective, to heat a greehouse up north than it is to cool one in the South. Of course, that is in regards to a large coral farm like his in PA.

I know a guy in New Orleans that has run a very efficient coral farm for several years. He uses a geothermal system for cooling. His coral farm led him to open the best LFS I have ever seen. Most of the product from the coral farm goes into his LFS.

In setting up your geothermal system remember that plastics, like PVC, don't have very good heat exchange properties, as compared to metals such as copper or titanium. The way to overcome this lack of heat exchange is to oversize the length of the cooling loop. More surface area means more cooling. Of course the longer the loop, the larger the pump you will need to drive it because of losses due to drag.

I just thought I would throw out a few things for you to consider in designing your system. Based on Tim's experiences, it seems that you won't need to do a huge amount of cooling.

Gary

[Tim Marvin]

Evaporative cooling worked great! Get the cheap box fans and blow them right on the water. You'd better have a designated RO/DI unit for the make up water though....LOL....I bet I lost 15 gallons per day in the summer with the fan on. One fan kept the water around 84-86 degrees. I never tried 2 fans but I bet you could get it close to 80, but again, have an auto top off.

[MarkS]

Mark,

You might want to read Anthony Calfo's book, Coral Propagation. It contains a lot of good info on how to set up an effective green house. Calfo makes the point that its easier, and more cost effective, to heat a greehouse up north than it is to cool one in the South. Of course, that is in regards to a large coral farm like his in PA.

Already got a copy. Great book!

[GeorgeH]

I have the book also and there is a wealth of information in it :)