My Greenhouse FARM In the making!

[ricksreef]

AND he builds kickin' acrylic tanks!!

[Reefs Rock]

scubadude

Man you been kickin butt. Things are looking great. By the way didn't anyone ever tell you to keep your fingers out from between the clam halves?

We are under three weeks to MACNA. My schedule is to land at the D/FW airport around 1 pm Thursday the 26th. I've reserved a car and have a room at the hotel. I'll be leaving Monday the 30th around 3pm.

I have some old friends in Dallas that I really need to hook up with. One of their 2 daughters was our flower girl in the wedding. I'll be giving them a call soon to see when they can get together with me.

I think you know but will mention anyway, the property is a done deal. It's 5 1/2 acres just West of Lakewood Park which is just a bit North of Fort Pierce. We are on Johnston Rd. one mile North of Indrio Road. Don't have an actual address number because it's a vacant property. It has about 400 orange trees on it and grass man, does it have grass, about chest high. We will have our work cut out for us cutting that sh**.

Talk to you soon or at MACNA. Have a safe trip. Looking forward to seeing you and your traveling buddy and everyone else in D/FW.

[H2OENG]

Scubadude,
Thanks for the beer offer! I have never been to FL., but your house is right there with disneyworld on things to see.
I'll try to find the blower article for you. I cracked up, then went "Hmm". Email me anytime with Qs. I've worked with or built quite a bit of stuff!
I have spec'd blowers in the past, and found that most are about the same price, big or small. Sweetwater seems a better value and slightly more corrsion resistant than GAST. If you use one, try not to choke it up. Whatever air you dont use, vent it with a ball valve. I installed gauges on ours (inches of H2O) to keep a steady pressure when adjusting for more or less airstones. The outlet line will be hot enough to melt sch 40 PVC, sch 80 is okay. Put an air filter on the inlet, and remove the cover once in a while to clean out the powdery dust that builds up inside.
I used to run the engineering department at a public aquarium and can tell you all about salt air and equipment! Stainless steel turned to mush, really neat salt stalagtites, etc.
A good maintenance task for your fans and pumps (everyone, not just for a greenhouse) is to (obviously unplug and remove them) use DI water to wash away salt creep from the motors. DI water is devoid of any minerals, and will re absorb the salt quickly. Flush it out good to remove the (now)salty water. Don't submerge the thing, I used a lab squirt bottle. Use an air compressor to dry the windings and contacts- or leave it in the sun for an hour. Re-lube the bearings, etc. and you are good to go.
This also keeps the pump, fans, wave motors, etc. safe, as there is no salt to short the thing out. You will get years more service life out of your equipment.
Your (external) pumps have a fan to cool the motor windings. They WILL pull in and deposit salt dust. Take a look in there. You should have seen the inside of my office computer! Real pretty oxidized copper green.
Speaking of corrosion, anyone have big corrosion problems in their houses? New thread?
Chris

[scubadude]

Originally posted by Lunchbucket

keep it up buddy
now i really really need a reason to come to FL and see this!!
Lunchbucket

LOL thanks Lunch....I tell ya though there is much more intricacy in nanos then what im doing *nudge* ;-) Lemme know when u coming down

Originally posted by ricksreef

AND he builds kickin' acrylic tanks!!

Thanx Rick
My new buddy from ORCA....Ok everyone i gotta admit...this guy Rick he is a modest one. Heres a pic for you buddy! I owe this to RICK!

Originally posted by Reefs Rock

By the way didn't anyone ever tell you to keep your fingers out from between the clam halves?

hehe....that statement can go way too many ways! I will leave that one alone and try and keep this thread "G" Rated

It's 5 1/2 acres just West of Lakewood Park which is just a bit North of Fort Pierce

WoooooHooooo.....Lets see 5.5 acres divided by 450sq. ft greenhouses equals...hehe ;;

[scubadude]

Originally posted by H2OENG
Scubadude,
Thanks for the beer offer! I have never been to FL., ...........Speaking of corrosion, anyone have big corrosion problems in their houses? New thread?
Chris

Thanx for all the nice tips

Here is the air pump I will be using model number908aa22


FWIW Here is one of the DIY CC skimmers that I will be running in my GH ....We are gonna put this one on the Rock tank its over 9' tall so Im actually gonna plumb it outside of the greenhouse




Thanx CHUCK aka Mako (My buddy standing next to the skimmer who built it for me)

[scubadude]

I Have sooo much life in my tanks now...most if it is great


Here you can see all the life growing on the rocks

[scubadude]

and some of the life is not so great












the last 3 pics Im curious if anyone wants to take a stab at ID'ing for me?

[dattack]

That small mounted frag looks like Pink Simmons.

I have one too.

[Lunchbucket]

holy crap that skimmer is HUGE!! wonder how many gallons that holds in it's self!! how big of pvc is that??

more pics the better ;)
keep it up man!!
Lunchbucket

[Reefland]

Are you hooking an AMPMASTER 5600 up to that skimmer?

[Reinhold]

.

[Reinhold]

I'd say he needs a Pratt and Whitney PT-6 jet turbine.

[reefhead]

LMAO

[scubadude]

I built a Makeshift canopy for the LR tank, it was getting a tad bit warmer than I wanted.

[scubadude]

I also changed my 55% shade cloth to 33%, but just over the SPS tank


I also raised it up higher so to make the tank more accesible and manageable.

[Lunchbucket]

nice man!!

how many frags you have in there? the SPS? how much LR you planning on getting

Lunchbucket

[Reefland]

I am curious, what kind of growth have you experienced under the natural sun light? Do you experience any unwanted algae growths under the intense illumination?

Scott Z.

[scubadude]

Originally posted by Lunchbucket
nice man!!

how many frags you have in there? the SPS? how much LR you planning on getting

Lunchbucket

LOL I stopped counting after a while...Im sure over a hundred frags in the SPS tank, but alot of them are new and need to be grown out.....it has been varying from week to week but I usually have atleast 500lbs of LR in the LR tank at all times.

Originally posted by Reefland

I am curious, what kind of growth have you experienced under the natural sun light? Do you experience any unwanted algae growths under the intense illumination?

Scott, believe it or not its not bad anymore, THANK GOD! The sargassum is growing pretty fast and there are a bunch of small aiptasias popping up everywhere....but there is TONS of life so im happy that the systems are falling into place Im just on the lookout for some copperbanded butterflys to give a smorgasboard too. The algae needs food as well as sunlight and I try to not feed the tanks....the only reason im feeding the tanks is becaus of the nassarius in there. I have a foxface in each system but they are eating the Sargassum Gawd I love that! and there are a couple of lawnmower blennys but they have enough to munch on too....I feel pretty good about my nutrient export waste levels so far....plus I will be hooking up better skimmers on the coral tanks soon hopefully

[Lunchbucket]

wow!! where you get that many frags??

Lunchbucket

[scubadude]

Chuck mah buddy named it that, and since he built it for me I think Im probably gonna paint the name on it somewhere Your the best Chuck if you read this you LURKER!



And of course the Air Pump....Thanx GEO
and the manifold....its as simple as it looks folks


On the left top you can see the clear tubing and the black barb input for the water inlet, and on the right you can see the compression coupling which is used to control the water level, and output comes out at the BOTTOM of the skimmer and comes all the way back up then down to where you want it to dump, BTW the water pump is a MAG2 with about 4' head hehe


and yes the bubbles start at the very bottom of the skimmer and this is almost the top of the skimmer the only place where I put clear acrylic so I could see the bubble action....TONS of tiny bubbles


FWIW the very tip of my GH is 12'+ I can barely stick my head between the top of the GH and the collection cup and see wats going on in there :P