Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm getting a feel for working with a geodesic shape similar to Rio Gallinas Charter school grow dome. Floor space with existing grow-beds, quantity of and size of panels, etc. The dome is about 25 foot diameter by 35 foot tall. I need to see if we can have two 20 foot long grow-beds inside. How large of a gold fish round tank and where it will be best to put it. I would like plenty of floor space for children and a teacher.

Similar layout to the Geodesic dome We will be setting up an aquaponics system in. Although this design doesn't have a skirt or one more layer of hexagrams.

This one has the skirt and is taller than wide layout.

I've got a new sketch pad 24"X18", moved a table into the living room for a place to work, got my pencil sharpened... Now to locate my architects rule... Doh!

One thing we'll need to deal with is the door is lower than the FT I picked out. We do need to deal with the entrance so I'll go have a look at how large the open in the geodesic design currently is. We'll get the help of a local contractor to rearrange the entrance using the two doors which are currently in place. I'd like to see the doors combined to one entrance in order to create an air lock effect.

First lines on the new sketch pad is making me realize that the drawings I've always done work for me if I am doing the work. I can not ask for help building projects at Rio Gallinas Geodesic greenhouse off of these drawings. First thing is to get down what needs to go in the dome. Then I can ask someone with Autocad skills to do these designs so a contractor can read them. Does this sound right?

Confidence erratic.

Good morning!
The local University NMHU appears to be pulling out of my project.
No worries!
I am going to do a presentation to Kiwanis on Tuesday for their Sunrise Meeting. Since I do not have a concrete plan, because I was waiting for NMHU and LANL to tell us what we were going to be working with, I hadn't moved forward.
I hope I can get enough local involvement to move forward.
I will to go back to a simple gold fish aquaponics set up for the school.
This will have a couple DWC of a size that will fit in the geodesic dome. I'm thinking two four by twelve DWC beds. Depending on the level of community involvement we attain I'm considering building the structures for the DWCs employing concrete block and masonry. Hopefully we can get a contractor to do the block laying. Also under consideration is building the fish tank from blocks as well. Inspired by @Dasboot system which he created in Thailand.
Block construction with liners offers a better solution instead of trying to get a pre-built round tank though the door of the geodesic dome.
We'll be employing the liner material you all have suggested for all the tanks.
I might also employ a few media beds to offset the amount of Kaldnes bio-media needed.
I can get 2 cubic feet of Kaldnes for less than a $100 https://www.ebay.com/itm/Moving-Bed-Bio-Filter-Media-MBBR-1-Cubic-Foot-Better-than-Kaldnes-K1-aquaponics/142041264768?epid=1031481309&hash=item211251b280:g:guMAAOSwrx5UXRx0
I hope by using masonry for the fish tank, DWCs and media beds it gives us better control of sizing for each component.
Have I provided enough information to receive suggestions on a simple system such as this? Metric scale is fine.
The geodesic dome is 25 feet (7.62m) across and 35 feet (10m) tall. There are dirt beds around the interior of the dome. I think we can leave those and use around 300 square feet? r = 10 a = 316, if I'm doing this correctly?

Questions are:
1> FT size?
2> DWC size?
3> Media bed size?
4> MBBF size?
5> pump size.
I was thinking I'd use 55 gallon barrels for RFF and Static upflow filter. Would I need an IBC for the MBBF to accommodate the quantity of K2 needed?
Thank you for you help.

Brian are the walls like the picture above? Sets the dome up above a short wall? If you give me a basic sketch with overall dimensions I'll sketch it up in 3D for you to figure out bed sizes.

I could probably get you a 3D PDF out of SolidWorks so you could actually spin around the 3D model. What I don't know is if it is truly round or like above it has short section walls... I guess that doesn't really matter if its not the space you are concerned with.

Ah ha! I found it...

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.5897505 ... 312!8i6656

So is it safe to say to get the 35ft total height that you step down in to the dome? Otherwise I'm getting that a geodesic 3V dome 25ft diameter would be 14.6ft tall + 2.5ft side wall would only be about 17ft tall. 2V (mentioned as 'similar to above') is shorter.. 25ft dia = 12.5ft tall + 2.5ft side = 15ft tall.

Again I don't know how much that matters, I can sketch up the beds if thats what you want just need to know what your thoughts are on them... I see a couple older sketches back at the beginning of the thread but not sure if that's the latest idea? I know you mentioned changing from the round tank to a block tank... that kind of stuff... or tell me what your goals are and I can try to see what will fit? i.e. how many gallons of a fish tank and maximize growing space? Some of your sketches had some round grow beds that followed the contour of the dome... I don't know how you're going to do that unless you do a block/poured concrete and seal it? Or are you back to rectangular beds?

I have been advised there are no audio video equipment for this meeting I am printing out images to hand out.
I may be wrong about the measurements. I believe I posted what they are when Adam (brohay) was with me. I will go back and look now.
Here is the latest drawing

Brian, here is a quick sketch of relative space you have. I've created a 3D PDF that I can email you if you send me an email address... I've tried to no avail to post the 3D PDF on my google drive to be able to share it online but I can't figure it out. With the 3D PDF you can actually spin it around and zoom in/out like if it were the actual 3D CAD file.


I started with the 25ft diameter and sketched out the space claim for the components -- have you decided on what material to make the beds from yet? I think I saw you mentioned cinderblocks last, but for now I've sketched this trying to achieve 24" (plus room for liner/little gap) to allow for Beaver Plastics style of raft beds sitting longways (they are 24" x 48"... I made the mistake in my beds that I made the outside of the beds 24" didn't think about the rafts being 24"... so here the inside of the beds are 24.25". I left 24" walkways between the corner of the beds and the edge of the dome wall (I think this is a minimum -- my 24" walkways in the greenhouse are actually cramped trying to work in there but with the dome you have the benefit of it only being at the corners). For the fish tank I looked up dimensions of the 300 gallon rubbermaid stock tanks. I haven't done anything to size the sump tank yet it is just a space claim. If you figure out specifics of what you want in these items let me know I'll update it so they look more accurate. The barrels are rough size of 55 gallon drums for the filters.

These are pretty simplistic sketches... if you have more specifics about what you want I will update these just let me know.

OK I've already came up with a better idea I think... the original layout matching your sketch you ended up with only having about 24" walkways around everything. I'm thinking more ADA accessible would be a good thing. I will tell you I'm not an architect so I don't know ADA guidelines but by swapping things around and moving the fish tank to an outside wall I can get 36" walkways with the same items in there. Plumbing might be a bit harder but I think this would be better for a public place -- I'm assuming the doorway is a 36" door so it would be good to allow anyone who can fit through the 36" door to be able to fit between the walkways. There is a lot of room between the fish tank and the first bed this way, I could even this out so you have similar space between beds and outside walkways?

evened the walkways out a bit.. more ADA accessible.

There is probably a perimeter of about 28-36 inches of various planting beds as well as the wind turbine close to the center with who knows what kind of network of cables buried/conduit to various plugs around perimeter.

I am searching for my photos, to try and give better perspective.

Adam

OK get me whatever you can and I can try to add it for a rough size estimate... 25ft diameter seems like it's going to get crowded fast =(

Not exact location (within Blk or two)



Tank around 8' diameter

do the beds go around the entire inside currently? And the pole for the wind turbine is centered in the dome?

The beds go up to either side of the makeshift FT.

I would not say centered but off to the right (from door) of center.

Let me get to a computer and orient via Earth to try and recall......

Adam