Green House in the works...

[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!

[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