My Greenhouse FARM In the making!

[mrok12]

That cooling system is a brilliant idea. They are starting to offer those in residential homes in michigan. Rocky, How did you build those tanks? I have the license now and I am going to do distribution in my area and possibly a little retail. I am going to specialize in clams though. Nice ones are tough for the LFS to get so I have a line on a place in phonope through a place that sells to distributors. I appreciate the info from before to Rocky.

MROK12

[scubadude]

Sorry I been out of town on biz/pleasure I went to the MASM meeting in Michigan, and had a huge job in NY City.....I just got back so I will be picking back up on the greenhouse project within the next few days Thanx for all the comments!

On my LOOONG trip I visited and took pics of the following places

Harbor Aquatics
Premium Aquatics
Tropicorium
Inland Aquatics

*to see pics of these stores go HERE

As well as some hobbyist that I had the privilige of seeint their setups too....This whole road trip was VERY edifyieng (sp?) I will be posting pics of the whole trip....I have TONS of eye candy for everyone

FWIW I was totally amazed by Inland Aquatics setup....its HUGE!

Shane

LOL I have been conversing w/ Snailman on my reacs and skimmers thanx for the headsup though. Yes I saw and have pics and model numbers of the sequence pumps you are referring to. Anthony Calfo does not have a shop/greenhouse anymore...he sold it...I did get to speak to him in person though at the MASM meeting, as he was one of the main reasons I went there.

Reinhold

I only wish I had some idea of what the temps are gonna be but unfortunately I dont.....This is kinda undeveloped or undisclosed information im relying on.

Mattcastaneda

The 1.5" pipes will come out of the pumps then go underground, once underground they will be adapted to 4" thinwall PVC for more temp. saturation time, then they will flow back up and into the tank. The 4" PVC thinwall will be buried either 48" or 60" deep into the ground (I havent figured out how deep yet....but will soon)

MROK

I fortunately have a freind that has built tanks for years and has taken me under his wing (of course I have been helping him for free alot too) He has given me the knowledge to build these tanks as well as a few smaller ones that I have built. The trickiest part on big tanks (1/2" or thicker) is doing your cuts/breaks but some pieces you can order precut sometimes....bracing can be tricky too....gotta know dimensions and weight loads.

[scubadude]

It took me a while to do this first part (get all the post level) cuz I knew it is VERY important to how the rest of the greenhouse goes together, I am doing this on a budget too....so I couldnt just go out and rent one of those surveying levels...big $$ what I did thanx to a freind in the construction bizness we used a water level which is basically a 3/8" clear flex hose filled w/water and food coloring and keept both ends higher than the rest of the hose as some of you know water finds its own level and this is the basic concept I used as a poormans level for the grading of pouring the concrete post



and the bows (half moon shaped framework for the ceiling) is basically just made of a schedule 40 structural grade aluminum and I went through a few titanium drill bits today getting the self tapping screws to line up these 2 piece bows....pretty simple though.



Then the bows flex inward and just fit snuggly into the post as so



then there is one long pole called a purlin that attaches all the bows together for more structural soundness.



And thats it for now....but by Monday I should have the roof glazing on and maybe my fans and doors on, and hopefully start wiring a breaker box back in there and Im gonna be tapping into the water main and have a main water line going right to the greenhouse....Im hoping within another 14 days I might have SW in my tanks.....I doubt it though

[tendar]

Ok here is my question.
What are you going to use for a floor?
Obviously your not pouring creat. You just going with grass (soon to be mud) or putting a bunch of pallets down with plywood nailed to the top.

[Reinhold]

Looks great! Scubadude, did you have to get any special zoning vaiances or rezoning of residential property to do this?

Have your neighbors given you any grief about the project?

[DukeDog]

Hey Rocky it looks like it's coming along good. Keep the pics coming. Are you concerned with storms and heavy winds ?
Jeff

[scubadude]

Originally posted by tendar
Ok here is my question.
What are you going to use for a floor?

Well Im gonna use about 6 concrete stepping stones under each stand on the stress points (crnrs and middle) once I get those level then the stands will go ontop of them. Also if you look at the stands I cut some vinyl (tent material) for underneath the stands, so bugs wont cant migrate from the ground to the wood (im hoping this will help preserve the wood a bit)

Originally posted by Reinhold
did you have to get any special zoning vaiances or rezoning of residential property to do this?

Actually NO I didnt have to do anything because there is no concrete footer poured there is no zoning/building requirements, some countys/jurisdictions may require plans and certain wind ratings, but I lucked out....actually at first a lady in building dept. said I needed a 100mph wind force rating But after talking to her boss (building
dept. manager) he told me as long as there is no footer im ok.

Originally posted by DukeDog
Are you concerned with storms and heavy winds ?

Hell Yes Im concerned! But the more I start putting this together the more im at ease. Below is a picture of the greenhouse after todays work....I put windbraces on the frame in each corner. Like I said though the more I keep working on it and bolting it together the more stabile it is becoming I know right now it is strong enough if I wanted to hang from one of the bows I could



Tommorow I will putting the roof on!

[scubadude]

I know I said the roof was goin on, but things are going a little slower than I thought....I found out that I had to install door, vents, and fans before the roof goes on. Anyway If I would have bought my fans and vents from the greenhouse supply place then they would have cost me almost 2k bux! So I said the heck w/that....I bought two whole house fans each of them are 4500 CFMs and they where $112 each. and I also bought for $24 each two 18" Air Induction vents, and the door you see Is a regular front porch screen door 32" wide and its all aluminum with a sliding glass screened window for ventilation the door was $71 all of the supplies mentioned above was bought at Home Depot. Oh yeah theres about $30 in wood there...4x4s and 2x4s for endwall frames and hanging the door. Heres some pics.

[Reefs Rock]

Rocky

Thanks for the e-mail last night giving me the linf to you diy gh. Yes, you did give it to me right after the MASM meeting but, I had lost it.

You are moving right along. It's looking awsome. Wish I could come down and help/learn. That looks about the right size for my GH project once we get to FL.

I'll continue this in a minute, Sue wants to see the pics and then go to work.

[naser]

scuba that is awsome.... i want some frags when your done.

[scubadude]

Had to make sure there where no burs where I cut the aluminum or it would just slice open the top! We got it fairly tight



This is the spring locks on the channels that lock the top down in sections.

[organicreefer]

pssst. i got something you could grow in there

looks great scuba...just tagging along here

[wastedincome420]

Originally posted by organicreefer
pssst. i got something you could grow in there

looks great scuba...just tagging along here

Rocky: Looking great. Don't ya love the "water level" idea?? We use the same thing when tileing a swimming pool.
I froget if you allready said, but how many tanks are you going to put in there??
Thanks for taking the time to post all the wonderful pics
Mark

[scubadude]

Originally posted by wastedincome420


I froget if you allready said, but how many tanks are you going to put in there??
Thanks for taking the time to post all the wonderful pics
Mark

NP Bud! I have 2-200g tanks and 1-100gal rubbermade and I just aquired 3 - 29gal tanks. The tanks total almost 600g and I will have atleast 400gallons of water underground in these systems totalling 1000 gallons for the total farm (approx.) This will be it for now (me and the wife are looking for property and may be moving, which means moving the greenhouse too, but once I move the greenhouse I will expand to about 2x-3x bigger) That is why im not doing anything on a REAL big scale the aquariums I have will barely fill up 1/3rd of the greenhouse....I will be playing around w/orchids too

[organicreefer]

yeah ,hes gonna be growing "orchids" to help pay for it all

[scubadude]

Well I started plumbing my underground 4" PVC cooling system together, each zig (or zag) represents 50 linnear ft. so there is 300' of pipe laydown in this pic which equals approx. a volume of 150gals in itself



I used a standard PVC cement, and of course PVC Primer before cementing.



Here shows the majority of the endwalls starting to finish

[Reefs Rock]

Rocky

Looking good my friend, looking good.

Is that an R/O unit to the left of the window in the first pic?

[scubadude]

Reefs Rock,

Yes thats an RO and my chiller to the lower right...both to my 220 inside the house on the other side of that wall.

The Mini Escavator cost me $150 a day and I have it if for one more day (2day rental) Im over half way done with the trenching, So I should be ok w/only $300 plus the gas on it diesel (approx $20).
I definately couldnt have done it with out it! But it sure does take getting used to these machines.



you can see in the cut soil line where it turns dark is where the soil is damp! at 4.5' - 5' depth I have a water line and once you dig that deep the water will collapse the walls and you dont have much time getting your pipe plumbed...Learned that the hard way all in all It was kewl cuz a plumber buddy mine shown up and he helped me alot!



Oh yeah the bird bath behind one of those pictures....Broke now.. hehe

[organicreefer]

scuba,
so what about security concerns?do all youre neighbors know what youre doing?from what ive seen of youre yard it doesnt seem to have a fence?or its a really big yard?what about critters getting in to youre greenhouse?i know around here the racoons would lay waste to to it -eat the fish and taste everything else

[organicreefer]

i really need to add -you must have a GREAT wife