My Greenhouse FARM In the making!

[Lunchbucket]

dang that sucked i didn't get an email update from Reefland BB for this thread so i haven't checked it in a while.

talk about some cool shizit!!! dang man those skimmers are AWESOME!! looks like your tanks are getting more and more stocked too.

MORE PICS MORE PICS
keep it up man.
any updates?
Lunchbucket

[ozmonster]

just tagging along to follow thread. Great set-up scuba.
oz

[Lunchbucket]

MORE UPDATES PLEASE

[scubadude]

Skimmers are working GREAT! Sorry I havent had much time to post but I have been very busy. The temps, ca, alk, and SG are the main things I have been watching and about the only one that has been a real struggle has been the temps (hasnt been too bad though) I believe I have reached 73 fahrenheit but it has been a very slow gradual descent in temperature so it hasnt been so bad. Pretty much all corals are still living and growing but im finding some species arent doing so good in the cooler climate, and finding others are doing better I will try to get some pics as well as post a more thorough update after the new year.

Rocky

[puma]

Just a wonderful green house, I am planning to do something like that but smaller, actually I have a small system under natural light and I believe it is an awesome choice to keep marine animals

[Reefs Rock]

Scubadude

Merry Christmas to ya bro!

And the same to all Reefers at Reefland.

[Reefs Rock]

puma

Welcome to Reefland!

[puma]

I want to build a cc skimmer like those(im not so good for manual skills) do you have a guide for it? And i guess every body is waiting for more exiting pictures of the scuba´s farm;)

[scubadude]

the greenhouse is doing great guys! I have been working on getting my levels tweaked, and believe it or not I have been using 2 part additives for my Alk and Ca (cant wait till I get the CA reac and the hydrated lime drip setup) My readings as of today are

SOFTIE SYSTEM
Ni, Am, Na, Phosphates, Silica all undetectable
SG 1.023
PH 8.4
Ca 420
Alk 10 DKH
Temp 73.6

SPS SYSTEM
Ni, Am, Na, Phosphates, Silica all undetectable
SG 1.023
PH 8.4
Ca 390
Alk 9.8 DKH
Temp 74.4

My large deresa clam has passed on nothing else has died though and I have a couple of smaller clams in the same system, I think Im gonna attribute the death of the large deresa to hooking up this CC skimmer, as Im quite sure that the deresa was loving the excess ammonia nitrate in the water before the CC skimmer was added.

PUMA,
You dont need to build a REAL large CC skimmer but here are the plans
Counter Current Skimmer plans by Snailman

REEFS ROCK,
Dude! Happy Holidays to you and the lady! I have heard through the grapevine that you are changing your strategy and instead of a coral farm you are planning to farm SHRIMP?!?! Either way its all good, but I know you better than that.....your gonna have a tank or two, or three filled with corals aintcha? Call me if you get a chance

[Reefs Rock]

scubadude

I have heard through the grapevine that you are changing your strategy and instead of a coral farm you are planning to farm SHRIMP?!?! Either way its all good, but I know you better than that....

Hahahahahah, jeeez the grape vine in FL grows fast and far. The facts in this case are this..... I read an article about freshwater shrimp aquaculturing in FL and 13 farmers made about 9 million dollars last year and couldn't meet the demand of the market. That works out to about $700,000 per year gross income. I though, what the H%@* would I do with that kind of money? Better yet why would I want to work that hard for any amount of money?!? I just retired from a strenuous trade and my body aches. But I made a mistake!!!

I showed it to my wonderful workaohlic wife Sue and she figures she can work it in her schedule and laughing I said, "Yah right". So she said check into it for me. So it's like, "OH GOD, here we go again"!

Me doing it? Not on your life! Sue doing it? The Lord only knows. You haven't meet her yet. When you do, you may not recognize her at first as a determined person. But, if you ask her to do something or she tells you she going to do something, DO NOT FIND YOURSELF STANDING IN HER WAY! She'll knock you down getting to it. She has been a KICK to live with these last fifteen years.

I LOVE HER DEARLY and have learned to get out of her way at appropreate moments. HE he he he.

The greenhouse is going up for corals, clams, LR, LS and some fish, etc.
That is if we haven't run out on money before then.

You and I haven't talked since I meet with the builder. It seems our home is way out of our budget or We are being scr***d. I'll be looking into a different builder. I'm coming down 1/8/03 through 1/18 to look into this troubling matter further.

[BGDIVING]

Scubadude

Have you determined yet if your geo radiator is deep enough to be at a stable year round temp? If so what is your year round temp running? If not what kind of temps are you getting now in the winter?

[scubadude]

Reefs Rock,
Ill Call ya ;-)

Brian
I have been looking at some interesting gadgets that Aquatic Eco Systems sells that judge flow meters and temperature inline, but I have not bought any yet.....I did however just order a couple of 800w heaters from them for both of the GH systems. the tanks have dipped down to 70 for a very short period of time early in the morning once but they warm up a couple degrees by mid day. Im avging about 73 right now though and everything seems to be ok.

[Lunchbucket]

wow, 70 and 73. seems low to me. you are experiencing no ill results??

Lunchbucket

[BGDIVING]

My guess is that 72 degrees is "the stable ground temp" I just don't know how deep you need to go to get to the stable point. I believe most of the springs in FL have a fairly constant temp of 72 although you are closer to Warm Mineral Springs which is something like 87 degrees but I believe that's from a very deep vent and doesn't represent near surface grond temp.

Open bodies of water ie my 8 ft deep unheated pool and the Gulf are running 65 degrees right now and they will be heading lower this wkend. It would be interesting to know what your ground temp at radiator depth is and if it will trend downward with the Gulf as the temp drops this wkend. I t would also be interesting to know by how much your ground temp lags the dip in the Gulf temp. It's possible that if your above the stable temp point in the ground, that your raadiator system could act to cool your tanks at night faster than your 2 800 watt heaters could keep up with especially if we run a few nights in a row around freezing this month or next.

A couple of years ago I had some water temps that dipped down into the 60's a couple of nights and Most everything seemed to tolerate it ok but my Balia Green slimers didn't care for the cold.

[Reinhold]

Could you just slow the flow of water through the entire system during the winter and heat what water is flowing through the tanks?

[Reinhold]

Or, stop the flow altogether and use the radiator reservoir for "water changes" at regular intervals?

[scubadude]

Originally posted by Reinhold
Or, stop the flow altogether and use the radiator reservoir for "water changes" at regular intervals?

Reinhold
I wish I would have made the radiator to where I could use it like this but I would need a tapped port at the lowest end of the radiator to do this and I didnt do that while I was trenching the radiator I am thinking of a way to still purge the radiator though and possibly clean out and use like you said to do water changes possibly, it needs to be effecient though. Stopping the flow altogether for any length of time may make the water stagnant too.....More brainstorming ideas would be greatly appreciated though

[BGDIVING]

Scubadude

What has been your lowest air temp in the green house?

Have you determined if your loosing heat to the air or to the ground or both on those cold nights?

Why didn't you want electric heat for the green house? I'd think electric would be more convienent.

I need to swing down your way sometime soon, I still need to return your cooler from the Nov. BBQ. Thanks for the use of it, sorry about being so delinquent in returning it.

[scubadude]

Originally posted by BGDIVING
Scubadude

What has been your lowest air temp in the green house?

Have you determined if your loosing heat to the air or to the ground or .........................I need to swing down your way sometime soon, I still need to return your cooler from the Nov. BBQ. Thanks for the use of it, sorry about being so delinquent in returning it.

LOL I havent had time to analyze all this Brian (I was running a christmas tree lot), Im sure it has gotten down to mid 40'ish or possibly colder. Dont worry about the cooler, but you know you are welcome over anytime you want!

[BGDIVING]

Check your greenhouse air temp tonight or tomorrow morning (as well as your water temp) and let us know how it did. It should get pretty nippy tonight and tomorrow. I'm really curious if your ground radiator is acting as an effective heater on these cold nights.

I only have a couple of tank heaters and I really don't expect the 50 watt heater in my 170 gal to do much other than to let the temp down gently but I have an electric heater in the garage set for 70 most of the night and then down to 68 for a couple of hours just before the lights come on.

Did you really get down to the 40's air temp inside the green house on the previous cold snap? BRRRR that's cold if you held 70 in the tanks I'd have to believe that you were picking up some significant heat from the ground.