Greenhouse project

Very nice! If you have any questions feel free to ask me... my family has had greenhouses for the past 40 years... we currently have ~250,000 sq ft of greenhouses... so if ya need to know anything or have any q's i would be glad to help out...

Someone said something about humidity... if you are growing orchids... you probably want ~90-100% humidity in there year round... which is not a problem in the summer... gets a little drier in the winter but they are always humid... not a big problem... but when the metal gets cold you get condensation.. so you want to make sure that any equipment that is electrical or water sensitve is inside or under a covering of somesort... because it tends to get dripped on
 
Doesn't the increased condensation on double-pane make up for the difference in transparency? Also the triple has wider spacing between the crosswalls, no? So when the sun's hitting at an angle to the crosswalls do you get more thru the triple?
 
once the light hits the condensation it is already thru the plastic, and should just get bounced around and still come back out @100% of what went in... You mostly get condensation on the metal though... not really as much on the plastic...

i think the total plastic (or poly) thickness determines how much light gets through... because the more material you have to go through the higher the loss is...
 
Interested to learn

Interested to learn

Hi

Of course you're going to be very careful w/ permethrins or what all you might use to kill the bad bugs..

It's funny to think of one system where you eschew nitrates and phosphates side by side with another which loves them..

all the best!
 
Question: why did you go for double-pane polycarbonate instead of triple?
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We were never given the option. Even if we were, I am not certain which would be better for our application and would have purchased the less expensive of the two.

On a rainy day November day here in Ohio, the light that comes into the greenhouse is about equal to a 55W Power Compact. If the polycarbonate had more layers, I would worry about it diminishing the light even more. On the other hand, I am sure it would insulate the area much better in extreme temperatures. I suppose it is a give and take. Today when it was sunnier, the greenhouse was fairly warm even without the heater, and we were getting light equal to a decent metal halide setup.

so you want to make sure that any equipment that is electrical or water sensitve is inside or under a covering of somesort
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I agree. Right now, I am not sure what I would need to protect other than the air pumps. I sort of designed the system around using as little electricity as possible. The only other things I can think of off the top of my head are the water pumps used for the skimmers and calcium reactors, but all of them will be submersible.

It's funny to think of one system where you eschew nitrates and phosphates side by side with another which loves them...
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It's too bad that I can't just water the orchids with the water from the tanks.
 
It's too bad that I can't just water the orchids with the water from the tanks.
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now that would make for an awesome FW amazon set up!!!
This is a really informative thread. With all the condensation, will you have to worry about the sturctural supports of the green house rusting out?
Just curious,
Nick
 
I hope they don't. They are made of galvinized steel, which from my understanding does not corrode. I'm not sure on that though. I hope the greenhouse kit manufacturers knew what they were doing when they chose the materials.
 
dendronepthya said:
I hope they don't. They are made of galvinized steel, which from my understanding does not corrode. I'm not sure on that though. I hope the greenhouse kit manufacturers knew what they were doing when they chose the materials.
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I would guess that most of the metal that is not structural is made from aluminum because it wont rust and corodes very slowly... I would guess that those things will stand for at least 20 years without any problem...

As for covering the pumps, we have small shed type structures build... with a little shingeled roof so that the stuff drains away from them and they are still open to the air for cooling purposes...

I would suggest for water changes that you get a 250g fertilizer tank, and then you can have that at as a storage for RO/DI water (then you wont need a unit quite as large) and another 250g tank for fresh saltwater (and you can have teflon stirring paddeles put into it) this would make the ocassional water change and top off very simple
 
It's too bad that I can't just water the orchids with the water from the tanks.
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If it was cold enough outside that the condensation ran off the sheeting, you could collect it in a small cistern. Probably more work than its worth.
You could also build a solar distiller for the waterchange water, and reclaim it. Again, lots of work, and water is relatively cheap. Just a shame to waste it.....
Very nice project!
Chris
 
Tagging along for any updates on the green house.
Id be interested in knowing some light reading at this time of the year (in the greenhouse of course)
 
What's going on with the Greenhouse these days??

Has progress slowed due to the crappy winter we're having?
 
Has progress slowed due to the crappy winter we're having?
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Definitely. This has been a particularly punishing winter, and we decided that it would make more sense to start up the tanks in the early spring rather than heat the entire greenhouse for only a few tanks. If there were a few thousand gallons of water, it would make sense, since that quantity would act as a good heat sink and help out the gas bill, but initially, there will much less than 3000 gallons.

It looks like the weather is getting warmer, so hopefully soon we can finish up the greenhouse and get the tanks started. A lot of my reef buddies have offered to help getting things started up. :)
 
Thanks a bunch BigBird, I can use all the luck. I was a little surprised that I took up almost the entire front page of the business section. All pretty exciting stuff. You'll have to come by and check out the greenhouse some day when there is something to see.
 
It took a while to finish the greenhouse structure, but we finally did. Now onto the actual construction of the aquaculture systems. Steven Pro was kind enough to take some photos of my setup while in Akron.

The first one is of my half of the greenhouse. There are roughly 2500 gallons worth of tanks sitting there right now, and a small fortune in PVC plumbing. The big blue tub in the middle is a 700 gallon polyethylene tub that I picked up while buying the black rubbermaid stock tanks. I have not decided exactly what I will be doing with it, but I'm sure it will prove useful.
full%20setup.jpg


This is a 48" tall, 12" diameter skimmer that Geo built. There are two such skimmers in the greenhouse right now, and there. Once I figure out what to do with the big blue tank, I'll probably order up another skimmer for that system.
skimmer.jpg


Right now, this is the only 300-gallon rubbermaid tank that has water in it. While Geo was over here, we wanted to test one of the tanks out to see the airlifts work and also test the reverse Carlson sure device. You can see the RCSD at the bottom of the tank on the right. It is 12" in diameter, and I am looking into installing a larger one. The 12" works ok, but I want a bigger surge.
water%20cell.jpg


Lastly, here is a pic of the PVC airlift frame in a dry tank. I will be setting two 48" x 24" eggcrate sheets on the frame to grow corals. Underneath, I plan to aquaculture rock.
dry%20cell.jpg


Thanks for taking a look.
 
that is amazing man, there isn't much else I can say to sum it up, once it is all up and running it is going to be incredible.

nice work man. :thumbsup:
 
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