Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So, after months of research, I got started with my system last week. I went with the greenhouse for several reasons:
1. Keep critters like the wandering neighborhood cats out of the mix
2. Keep wild critters out. We have skunks, coyote, and other various woodland creatures that wander in from the woods behind out neighborhood.
3. Allow for possible year-round growth. While not tropical, our winters are mild enough to allow a greenhouse to continue on.
4. Allow for enclosure of the system to satisfy the home-owners association

After much research on greenhouses, I decided to get a pre-fab. Dimensional redwood was going to be close the the same price, plus I could have it assembled in a week instead of built in a month. I went with the Rion Hobby Greenhouse 16x8, found a great deal online. I also did a lot of reading on Subterranean Heating and Cooling methodology and thought that I would give it a go. At worst, I'll have a slightly efficient system that adds some heat/cooling to the greenhouse. At best, it will knock down/up the temps more than I expect.

The plot I chose gets full sun from about 8am to sunset, so I should not have to worry about that aspect. I should have enough room for an 8'x2'x2' fish tank and will put the grow beds above that.

Here come the pictures (I hope as this is my first post on the forum).

More pictures.

And more pictures. My only complaint so far with the Rion is that the part number stickers do not come off cleanly and every part has to be rubbed with a wet washcloth to remove the residual paper. When you have hundreds of pieces, it is a pain.

Next step to to complete the close in the provided weather strip, add the doors, and the automatic open roof vents. Then, back to work on the STHC plenums, run power, build the fish enclosure, and build the growbeds! The fun continues....

That looks great! If you don't mind, how much does a prefab GH of that size run you?

Found it for about $1700 at ourcrazydeals online, free shipping. Cheapest I found. If you do end up getting one, I can let you know of other things I found out during assembly.

great price! my custom built (redwood and corregated plastic) of about the same size will run about 3K.

Looking good, cant wait to see it full of greenstuff, (plants not alge)

jT

DéjàVoodoo: Yep, that's why I went prefab. The DIY in me fought it, but budget and time won out.

DecalsbyJT: Thanks. I'm ready myself.

Any thoughts on fish tank depth The only drawback to the house is that the straight sides are 4', then 5'7" then the peak is 6'10" I don't want to lose too much height, but I am looking at building a wood rectangle with a pondliner insert (padded inside by blueboard) for the fish tank. I would think that 18" is a minimum with 24" being more desirable. With only about a $15-20 price difference in pond liners (Just liners company is in W. Tennessee, so shipping should be cheap), I would think the 2' depth is preferable.

With a 60 degree sunny weekend, I got some more work done It took about 6 hrs, but I finally got all of the weather strip put in. Each poly panel had weather strip around all sides, except the roof. I also ran and buried the electrical, piped out and sealed the plenums and build the 8'x2'x2' fish enclosure frame. Plans are to put blue board on the interior of the tank, then a pond liner. The in-line duct fan for the STHC should be here tomorrow or Wednesday so I can get that all hooked up. I don't want to bury the plenums yet until I'm sure the air is moving through the pipes properly. It is coming together, piece by piece.

That's a good looking tank.

Thanks. I got a used Iwaki MD40 RLT that I will plumb to pump water around the backside. I've decided to put the grow bed on the other side of the greenhouse. There just would not be enough room to deal with the fish or the grow beds if I tried to put them over the tank. Duct fan will be here tomorrow, so I will work on completing the STHC setup before finishing the tank or grow-beds.

So, I got the booster duct fan from Home Depot in the mail. It states that it will run 160cfm. I hooked it up and it blew cool dry air out the other end of the plenum! Problem was I could barely feel it. There's no way that air would be pushed out of the return plenum into the greenhouse. So, I took it back and opted for an 8 inch 350cfm variable speed fan from Grainger. I ordered the speed adjuster as well so I can tweek it.

The great news is that the STHC works as theory said. It was about 85F in the greenhouse yesterday, but the air blowing out of the the pipes (though it was slow) was around 70F. At least I am confident that it wasn't a waste of time.

Oh, I also installed the three automatic roof vent openers; though a pain to install, I'm glad they are in, I think. They seem to start opening up at about 74F, and that's as low as I can dial them down. I'll just have to be sure to make sure the electrical is well away from the vents b/c of potential rain inflitration.

Your kit came with the auto vent openers? Or was that an additional cost?

Thanks
Mark

I have thought about building a green house with a prefab. I was going to split it in half and build the back of the house with insulation and cement or such. This would make a larger green house with better insulation. Nice start you have there.

I'm pretty sure you want to air moving very slowly to give it time to phase change and condense heat into the soil. If the air moves too fast you lose that advantage and the underground system is for naught.

Also, I'm no expert here, but I think the auto vent would be counter productive to the STHC system. Sort of like holding the door open while the a/c is running. If the STHC can keep the daily temps below 85º or so, I'd leave the vents closed...

Just my 2¢.

CB