Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey Mark,
Would there be any gain for me to include solar heat sink via 55 gal black metal drums on the south AND east wall of my proposed greenhouse? Trying to weigh the benefit vs sq footage losses. Mine is more of a lean-to like JT's. The main difference between is that mine will be going around the corner of the house along the east side.

Thanks for your help.
bk

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

You are in a great climate for water barrels to help out. Keep in mind they don’t release a lot of BUT’s so having the north wall insulated and having the greenhouse air leaks sealed is very important.
If it is not sealed up the BTU’s will just flow out.
If you are going to put them in there do it soon so they have some time to heat up.
This web site has some good information
http://bradford.cafnr.org/passive-solar-greenhouse/

I took out my filter in front of the DWC. I don’t think it was doing very much there.


I have some seeds starting in the rock wool. I ordered a Germination Station with Heat Mat.



Home depot had deal of the day a metal 3 shelf unit $27 shipped that I thought would go perfect in the spot my old filter was. I think this will be a good place to start seeds in the greenhouse.



I pulled out the plants in the DWC. I am getting it ready for some new plants. I hope this new seed setup does well.

Sweet!

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

I have troubles starting my seed and have some rockwool, but I was reluctant to use it. I thought those fibers might harm the fish, like asbestos. Any ideas about that?

Verstuurd vanaf mijn LG-D855 met Tapatalk

Here is a good description of someone using rockwool (Samuel L Jackson four post up for bottom)

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=23344&p=520272&hilit=Ryan%27s+rockwool#p520272

My cucumber does not have any cucumbers yet. I guess I need to do better at hand pollinating.



My nitrates and PH are doing good.

Just have a small fan, put it on a timer, so it runs maybe for 3 hours a day, point it at the cucumber plants and the air will do the pollinating.
Works great with my cucumbers and the tomatoes in the school.

WoW! Big system you have there. Really nice I think.

Tilapia eating lunch

mark what type of tilapia are they? how big do you think they are in the vid?

I don’t know what kind of tilapia they are. They are about 6”-7” there are a few big ones that are a year old now they are plate size. One cat fish that hides all the time. A couple bluegills there are growing very slowly.
The temp was down to 53F last night 76F in the greenhouse.

nice video thanks for sharing.

very nice Mark. I'm getting closer to having my greenhouse insulated, but our temps are down in to the 50's every night now. My north wall is fully insulated and I started painting the water barrels I have black and painted the north wall white today, I need to get another coat of white on it after it dries a bit, working on finishing the rest of the outside insulation while I'm at it. Your greenhouse continues to be an inspiration... hoping mine will be as successful as I finish it.

Thanks.

Hurricane was close enough to give us some wind on Saturday. (We are a long way from the main storm.)
We lost power for about three hours. My backup 12v air came on. This was a good real world test. When the power came back on the 12v are kicked back off.
I did take the bell out to keep water in the grow bed.

The fish were fine and this backup system gives a piece of mind.

Here are some of my young lettuce starting out.