Budget Greenhouse Project

[hamburglar]

Short update....Spent about 6 hours out there today. 400 Watt 14K MH is installed (thank you Premium Aquatics for shipping the bulb so fast). 30% shade cloth re-installed. Propane heater removed. Most of the existing (dieing) corals moved into my indoor system to recover. Several new Montipora caps moved out into the greenhouse for testing the new light.

I am just about starting from scratch this year. I have a lot of problems to correct based on this previous years results. Temperature shifts and lighting seem to have been the main problems.

Hope to do a serious thread update including pictures this Monday since I will be home from work.

 

[hamburglar]

***** Budget Greenhouse Project Year 2 *****

As stated in my previous short update, I am really starting fresh this year. I know it has not been exactly a year yet. I dropped the first corals in the greenhouse last June. But, looking at it from a seasonal point of view, I am back to the summer time where I started before.

So what did I learn this past yearââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦Ã¢â"šÂ¬Ã‚¦

The number one thing I learned is that you have got to spend more money than I expected. I spent the entire year purchasing hardware to combat heat and cold. Knowing what I know now, I would have started out a little bit bigger also

I killed some corals this year. Sorry about that. I promise that none of them came from wild reefs. They all came out of my indoor propagation system. I killed them with heat, I killed than with cold, and I think I stunted their growth with lighting issues.

So what am I doing this yearââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦Ã¢â"šÂ¬Ã‚¦.

First off, I have a lot more equipment starting out this year. I have the chiller and heaters already deployed. There will be no big temperature swings this summer. I have set the heaters to kick on under 78 and the chiller to kick on over 82. Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ll burn a little more power by doing this, but I hope to see much better results with the corals.

The second major change is the lighting. I have added a single 400Watt 14K Coralvue Metal Halide. I am going to initially run this for 6 hours in the middle of the day. I may adjust the times and duration for experimentation.

I am still considering the installation of a horizontal geothermal loop. The vertical loop turned out to be cost prohibitive. I am thinking about renting a walk-behind trencher to bury a couple hundred feet of Ã"šÃ‚¾ inch schedule 20 pipe 3 feet deep in my back yard. Not really sure about that one yet. I would be walking a fine line around some serious spousal aggravation by doing that. The chiller can keep up anyway. The geothermal would just save some electricity in the long run.

 

[hamburglar]

Lets see if I can still rember how to post pics...

Here are some views from the front, doorway, right, and left:

For those of you analyzing the pictures closely, I am making my own Bi-Ionic 2-part mix. I just continue to use their containers since they are already labeled as Alk and Cal components.

Yes there are also some plants growing in the rock. If you think that is bad, you should see the fire ants that moved in over the winter. I have never seen so many. You would not believe how many ants, spiders, wasps, yellow jackets, dirt dobbers, and other pests have tried to seek refuge from the cold in the greenhouse.

 

[hamburglar]

Here is some detail on the electronics. You can see the 1/6 HP chiller here. It controls one of the Finnex 500 Watt heaters. There is a Finnex controller hanging on the right that controls the second. I am going to remove this second heater and controller for storage over the summer.

Behind the chiller you can see the plastic bag that I drape over my power strips. This bag completely eliminated the ground fault trips that I was getting during the winter. You cannot stop the condensation at night, so all you can do is cover up your open sockets. There is nothing worse than your heaters turning off in the middle of a cold night.

Here is a closer tank/pool picture. Sorry it is a little empty and a little funky. I removed almost all of the corals with the exception of a few mushrooms. I put the corals in my indoor system to recover a bit (yes, it was getting bad). I placed some Montipora Capââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s in here to see if the new light is going to help. I plan on cutting up a big Acro in the next couple of weeks and moving quite a few new frags out here. I will take some more pictures when I get some stuff in the pool.

 

[RedSonja]

I forget to read RC for a few days and what happens? Thanks for the updates hamburglar, looking forward to hearing how your system does this year.

Are you going to the next RARE meeting in May? I'm hoping to make this one and have some softies to trade, my one little cap frag in the stock tank is looking very happy, and I moved a branch of green sinularia in there from the main tank that is recovering nicely from the move. I actually logged onto RC to research what people use to cut eggcrate because I'm finally getting motivated to put a rack in the stock tank now and realized I didn't know the best way to cut it.

Anyway, not to hijack your thread, sorry. Once I start talking about coral it's hard to stop!

-Sonja

 

[hamburglar]

RedSonja,

I cut my eggcrate with a pair of side cutters (like for cutting wires), and then rake it over my concrete driveway to remove the plastic splinters.

Where is the rare meeting located? I know I'm going to try to make the Raleigh MASNC meeting in the late summer.

I'll try to get some more corals in that greenhouse so that i can post better pics. I know it looks pretty weak right now. I have some tanks filled to the brim indoors.

 

[RedSonja]

I forwarded the email to you about the May meeting. It's mostly people hanging out talking about reefs and at the end, trading frags.

As soon as I posted that last comment, cloudancer came home from work and said tin snips for cutting eggcrate. Well our tin snips seem to have gone AWOL but I made do with pruning shears just fine. Now I have one little rack for frags, yay! While I was arranging it the little cap frag got knocked off by the current w/o me noticing it, and I had to hunt around all the live rock to find it. In the process I found 5 more pieces of the same cap on the bottom of the tub! Talk about easter eggs! :rollface: Also while moving around rocks to look under them I found two very nice size blue with red dots shrooms I had no idea were in there. Dang I need to dig around in there more often, who knows what other goodies came in with the LR!

I'll take some pics once the water clears up from all the moving around.

-Sonja

 

[H20ENG]

Ham,
You may want to extend your chiller plumbing to move the unit outdoors. When you need the chiller, you want to get the heat that you removed from the water OUT of the GH. With the unit running indoors, it just further heats up the GH temp. Just build a little doghouse roof over it, but dont impede the airflow.
I realize its just a baby chiller, but every BTU and watt used counts
Keep up the good work!
Chris

 

[hamburglar]

Good idea about the little doghouse roof H20ENG. I'm gonna sleep on that one tonight.

 

[redox]

light movers

light movers

whats up ham? got my light movers up and running,and yes I still have that purple cap for you . The wave2ks are really rockin the place am exspecting 2 more to arive any day. My temp stability is real good, addittion of that exaust fan with temp and humidity control has really brought my temps to near perfect parameters. the other day when temps reached 83 the gh toped out at78 . My tank temps drop to 80 at night and bump up to 84 in the heat of the day, this seems acceptable to the sps at long as full polyp extension is a sign of sps happiness .Oh yea I meant to tell you also that the fan has taken away any condensation probs that I suffered over the winter . Mostly cultured stuff out there right now but have some wild stuff comming in .. Will frag the tutilensis this weekend if I get a chance . Ive been saying that for weeks but havent had the heart to cut that awsome thing up

 

[redox]

h20eng is right

h20eng is right

get that chiller out of there. let me know if you need any scrap lumber . We throw away enough scrap to build a hundred dog houses. Or one other option is to install a vent near the chiller to help draw out that heat

 

[hamburglar]

I think I am going to try to vent more cool air into the chiller rather than move it outside. I use it as a heater controler as well as a chiller, so I run water through it year round. Moving it outside would add to heat loss in the winter. I don't want to have to move it back and forth...thats how I end up breaking stuff

Redox, I sent you an email about those pictures. Did you get it? Let me know about that cap. I am still cool with purchasing a full sized piece if you get another oppertunity to do so.

I want to cut that big tri-color acro from my indoor system. I will put some frags in the greenhouse, and do some suspension testing in my indoor system. I'll save a big frag or two for you if you are interested Redox.

RedSonja, do you use a polarizer fiter on your Cannon Digi Cam for tank pictures?

 

[RedSonja]

RedSonja, do you use a polarizer fiter on your Cannon Digi Cam for tank pictures?

Nope.

How's that for short and sweet?

-Sonja

 

[redox]

the story

the story

I guess the moral to the story is....... there is no such thing as a working "buget gh" huh Ham?

 

[redox]

the story

the story

I guess the moral to the story is....... there is no such thing as a working "buget gh" huh Ham?

 

[hamburglar]

You might be on to something there Redox.....although, I still have less than $3000 sitting out there I still consider my project to be quite getto. It is in a $325 greenhouse right

I have noticed that the new batch of Montipora is doing quite well. I can not say for sure that i see new growth, but there is absolutly no die-off and the color's has remained fantastic. What was a green base purple rim plating Montipora is turning all purple. I believe that keeping the temperature to tighter tolorance ( 4 degree swing) and the addition of the metal halide 6 hours per day is making the difference.

I have added some lame brown Montipora Digi since the last picture update and they are healing up. I will do another picture update after I cut up that big Tri-Color Acro head.

Anyone notice how fast the seasons change when you farm coral outside? It seems like I was just burning propane heaters to keep the water from freezing 4 weeks ago. Now I have to open the roof vent and run the fans during the day to keep the chiller from kicking on. Can't wait for those NC heat spells....mmmmmm 90 Degrees with 80% humidity is sure fun.

Hockey is keeping me a bit distracted right now. I will be a little more attentive after the playoffs, or if the Hurricanes are no longer in the running. Then I'll have to take a few days off of my day job and really get this stuff rolling!

 

[raskal311]

If you have to run 6 hours of MH a day would you be better off building the system indoors? Save the money heating and cooling and using it on a few more hours of MH.

 

[hamburglar]

That is exactly what my dad said raskal311

He sudgested that I build a 12x16 storage shed with windows on the southern facing side. Then I could just air condition the sucker with a window unit in the summer, and heat it with propane in the winter.

I can go along with an idea like that. After all, this experiment has been and still remains a learning experience for me. I think I am on the verge of finding out that some supplemental lighting is required in all scenerios.

A few pages back you will find some discussion about different types of film. I am still curious to see if using these other film covers would work better, and require less supplemental lighting than what i currently use. Has anyone actually tested for a difference? I might have to do this one day with a different GH.

My current vision for my next greenhouse would be a full sized facility. I'm thinking about a 200ish foot long building with polycarbonate (or something better if discovered) all the way down the southern facing wall. Now I mean a building as in a wooden/steel structure with a concrete floor. I don't want anything that a hurricane can mess up. I live in Eastern NC, so we get at least one hurricane per year. If we miss a year the next one will make up for it and then some. Anyway, about half the width (southern side) of this building would be the actual greenhouse. The other side would be completly closed in with drywall like an office building. This side would contain storage rooms, bathrooms, shipping/receiving area, greenwater/rotifer culture, and fish breeding areas. There would probably be some serious computer action going on in this dry area also. I have been sneaking around and testing a new kind of online store.

If that dosn't wet your appetite Redox, I've got about 400 acres of family land that could possibly be available It's off the beaten path where there would be little traffic, but it is still within 15 minutes of FedEx and 20 Minutes of UPS depots.

 

[hamburglar]

Here is an example of the color changes I am seeing. This is a plating montiopra that has an olive green base color with a purple "growth rim" under the PC lighting of my indoor system.

In this picture you can see that the base color is turning a bright purple color. I will take another pic of this cap frag later to see if the color changes even more.

These frags turned brown under just sunlight last year.

 

[redox]

tell me where to send my crew

tell me where to send my crew

hey Ham that 400 acres sounds just about big enough I will send my construction crew to start building as soon as you give the ok