Funny how blind I can be sometimes. I swear I'd seen an area in your plan that was only 14" wide. Hmmm... . I'm also seeing now that you were already planning to sink the tank & sump. The geothermal benefits are well worth it!
Do you have a way to cool the greenhouse in the summer?
Oh, good. I'm not losing it totally, then! So the image up there ^ is your current plan?
If so, you still have areas in your grow beds that will be very difficult to reach. Specifically the back, center area of GB1 & GB 2 and of GB4 & GB5. Just cautioning you. :) Your ball valve would be easier to reach in GB2 if it were on the other side.
The swamp cooler helps a lot! Our goal is to keep the temp under 100, and we were successful last summer.
To cover the cages, we had two unusable tanks that had been used for concrete wax. We cut them up, and slid them around the cages. So basically, we wrapped them with tanks! Our tank & sump are side-by-side, so we only had 6 sides to protect. We had used plywood in the past, but obviously it rots. Oh, we also ran a couple ropes under each tank, from side to side. That way, if we ever need to pull it for maintenance, we can pull on the ropes and bring it up.
Re: duckweed. It's finicky. If it likes things, it will grow like crazy. If not, it will let you know. It's small, and has been known to muck up systems. And since you're using a bell siphon, it will pretty much wash out every time it flushes.
We have a separate system that uses trays. They are on a simple, timed, ebb & flow system, and are sitting above our fingerling tank, and it pumps straight from the tank to the trays. We have a drain that is about 1/2" = 1" above the bottom, so there's always water in the tray. The drain has a screen so only a little duckweed gets through, enough to feed the fish below, and it drains straight back into the fish tank. All the plumbing for it was from a hydroponics store.
So... a mini aquaponics system for the fingerlings and duckweed? Cool! I was thinking of doing a mini system in the living room for the fingerlings with just nonheat-tolerant plants, but using the mini one for duckweed would be better and getting it back outside with the rest of the system would keep my girlfriend happier :)
This gives me a constant height 320Gal fish tank = 320gal sump water = 250Gal in grow beds + 70Gal in the lowered portion of the main sump to give my pump the 8" it needs to stay wet. I did the math and with a flow rate of 2700GPH, the sump will range 45-80% full depending on grow-bed flush timing. Also the math suggests I'l need the 21sqft of water surface area, provided by the sumps, to increase humidity to ~60%, which is my target.
Yes they are chopped IBC's. The 330 was just for fish. The Sump is going to be the lower 2/3rds of a 275 (175G?) and the rock box/ heat sinks would be another 150G(50G x 3) totaling 325G of sump tank. Should that be enough, or should I make the 3 rock box/ heat sinks bigger? If so, how much bigger?
I recommend you simplify the plan by eliminating one grow bed (I don't think your system will handle 5 anyway) and planning it something like the attachment. This gives you 2' of space in all walking areas. 14" is way too narrow for most humans, especially when you drop something & have to bend over to pick it up! This also gives you access to all parts of each grow bed, and simplifies the plumbing tremendously.
I also would suggest you use a full 275 gal tank for your sump, and put both the sump and tank under your beds. The tank needs to be about 1' higher than your sump to drain into it. (We just built one like it.) To make the beds a good height, this may mean lowering the tank about a foot into the ground. Not fun to dig, but you'll have added benefit of geothermal mass to help regulate temperatures.We dug both our tanks 3.5' down, so they're almost fully in-ground, and our temps in the summer never exceeded 85 degrees.
In this rather overly-colorful, quickly thrown together diagram, the orange rectangles are the sump and tank, blue rectangles are growbeds, and the red is your shelf unit. Whadya think?
Replies
Funny how blind I can be sometimes. I swear I'd seen an area in your plan that was only 14" wide. Hmmm... . I'm also seeing now that you were already planning to sink the tank & sump. The geothermal benefits are well worth it!
Do you have a way to cool the greenhouse in the summer?
Oh, no, you are correct, I made changes based on your suggestions.
I do have a swamp cooler for the greenhouse.
How did you treat the cages and tanks before you buried them?
Oh, good. I'm not losing it totally, then! So the image up there ^ is your current plan?
If so, you still have areas in your grow beds that will be very difficult to reach. Specifically the back, center area of GB1 & GB 2 and of GB4 & GB5. Just cautioning you. :) Your ball valve would be easier to reach in GB2 if it were on the other side.
The swamp cooler helps a lot! Our goal is to keep the temp under 100, and we were successful last summer.
To cover the cages, we had two unusable tanks that had been used for concrete wax. We cut them up, and slid them around the cages. So basically, we wrapped them with tanks! Our tank & sump are side-by-side, so we only had 6 sides to protect. We had used plywood in the past, but obviously it rots. Oh, we also ran a couple ropes under each tank, from side to side. That way, if we ever need to pull it for maintenance, we can pull on the ropes and bring it up.
Re: duckweed. It's finicky. If it likes things, it will grow like crazy. If not, it will let you know. It's small, and has been known to muck up systems. And since you're using a bell siphon, it will pretty much wash out every time it flushes.
We have a separate system that uses trays. They are on a simple, timed, ebb & flow system, and are sitting above our fingerling tank, and it pumps straight from the tank to the trays. We have a drain that is about 1/2" = 1" above the bottom, so there's always water in the tray. The drain has a screen so only a little duckweed gets through, enough to feed the fish below, and it drains straight back into the fish tank. All the plumbing for it was from a hydroponics store.
So... a mini aquaponics system for the fingerlings and duckweed? Cool! I was thinking of doing a mini system in the living room for the fingerlings with just nonheat-tolerant plants, but using the mini one for duckweed would be better and getting it back outside with the rest of the system would keep my girlfriend happier :)
We have tanks everywhere. In the house, in the greenhouse, in the garage waiting for deployment...too many. :)
This gives me a constant height 320Gal fish tank = 320gal sump water = 250Gal in grow beds + 70Gal in the lowered portion of the main sump to give my pump the 8" it needs to stay wet. I did the math and with a flow rate of 2700GPH, the sump will range 45-80% full depending on grow-bed flush timing. Also the math suggests I'l need the 21sqft of water surface area, provided by the sumps, to increase humidity to ~60%, which is my target.
Yes they are chopped IBC's. The 330 was just for fish. The Sump is going to be the lower 2/3rds of a 275 (175G?) and the rock box/ heat sinks would be another 150G(50G x 3) totaling 325G of sump tank. Should that be enough, or should I make the 3 rock box/ heat sinks bigger? If so, how much bigger?
OK, this has been on my mind today... :)
I recommend you simplify the plan by eliminating one grow bed (I don't think your system will handle 5 anyway) and planning it something like the attachment. This gives you 2' of space in all walking areas. 14" is way too narrow for most humans, especially when you drop something & have to bend over to pick it up! This also gives you access to all parts of each grow bed, and simplifies the plumbing tremendously.
I also would suggest you use a full 275 gal tank for your sump, and put both the sump and tank under your beds. The tank needs to be about 1' higher than your sump to drain into it. (We just built one like it.) To make the beds a good height, this may mean lowering the tank about a foot into the ground. Not fun to dig, but you'll have added benefit of geothermal mass to help regulate temperatures.We dug both our tanks 3.5' down, so they're almost fully in-ground, and our temps in the summer never exceeded 85 degrees.
In this rather overly-colorful, quickly thrown together diagram, the orange rectangles are the sump and tank, blue rectangles are growbeds, and the red is your shelf unit. Whadya think?
Presentation1.jpg
I never even thought to reverse the walkways and beds, that will work way better!
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next