Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Wow. Glad it didn't get smooshed.
Good to see you are testing out your geodesic stuff to be able to support the load.

They're 2' apart. You have to set the bar pretty low when you buy from Harbor Freight.

Yep, but this greenhouse is still hard to beat for the price and can be braced to work as well as other much more expensive greenhouses. I'm really pretty amazed that the clips holding the polycarbonate didn't pop out and it didn't collapse with the snow load that was on it. Hope your weather gets reasonable soon!

It's been a long time since I've done an update on my small greenhouse so I put a little video together show what I'm growing this summer. I hope you enjoy!

Hi Web4Dev I am Donone on the forum and I am interested in replacing my limestone river rock with the TruGro expanded shale. I was pointed here by others on the forum. I have 48 half barrels in two runs of 24 for my grow beds. I plan to swap out one barrel at a time and was concerned about Ph shift and was told to contact you for info. The brochure from TruGro says it comes at 8.3 or above because of the calcining process but will change quickly to be neutral. It should go to be what my water is. I wonder how long that will take and if it would shock my fish tank with a rapid Ph change? Will the rinse process be enough to drop the PH to what my water is? Thanks for the info in advance.

Hi Donnone, All expanded shale has a high pH. But it's the dust that is left behind from the kiln process. The stone itself it totally inert. All you need to do is rinse off the shale before adding it to your system. I have switched out the stone in my own beds with no effect on the water.

My company also sells expanded shale and would appreciate the opportunity to quote the business. We are able to ship by freight at a competitive price. I believe the TruGro shale has a dramatic size difference in their shale where ours are nice small stones ranging from 1/2" to 3/4" pieces. For details about it, please visit http://www.ExpandedShale.com. Send me a private message if you are interested. We sell through our ebay page if you wanted to try a smaller quantity or a sample pack. http://cgi.ebay.com/Expanded-Shale-Hydroton-substitute-Hydroponics-/280678710511?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item870c9a1108

Thanks.

How is the system going? Any updates?

This greenhouse isn't running any more after I built the new one. viewtopic.php?f=18&t=8898

I just read this thread and wanted to make one comment.

You had posted that your winter growing season ended when temps outside hit 21F.... I just want you to know that (until MY Greenhouse collapsed in the blizzard of 2013) i grow through the winter and suffer very little damage (limited to cool weather crops though).

The past two years i had finally bought an indoor/outdoor thermometer and my GH does fine even when the outside temps drop to -14F (Yes, that is a minus sign there!) and i USE no heating. What i do have is a double walled design and the air space is large enough to walk between the two shells. That, plus a 1500 gallon (US) tank coupled with the larger size of my GH (50 x 22 feet) seems to moderate the temps enough to prevent hard freezes (I get NO ice on my tank).

FYI - Am a bit north of you near springfield MA.