not the most cost effective greenhouse you ever heard of
- Thread starter redox
- Start date
fazgood
Not Quite Right
Redox,
Those tanks do not look insulated. I am planning to use at least 3 inches of foam insulation all around and under my tanks. Do you think that is worth the hassles and expense? What does your chiller costs to operate per month?
In my area the average HIGH temps are about 30F in January to 90F in July and August. Our cloud cover seems to be similar to your area. I am debating the big chiller or the evaporative methods.
Thanks
Faz
Those tanks do not look insulated. I am planning to use at least 3 inches of foam insulation all around and under my tanks. Do you think that is worth the hassles and expense? What does your chiller costs to operate per month?
In my area the average HIGH temps are about 30F in January to 90F in July and August. Our cloud cover seems to be similar to your area. I am debating the big chiller or the evaporative methods.
Thanks
Faz
Faz I think insulation on the vats would be nice but your 3 inch depth would be way overkill . There is also the problem of mold and moisture accumulation within the vat insulation if you are planning some type of spray on insulation. As far as chiller exspense? The evap thing works for alot of people but I havent tried that. I do know that temp spikes will wipe out some stuff. In the first year I should have not tried to introduce acro's. Your climate has colder winters than I have so that would be my main concern. I think that my chiller barrel puts the chiling in a concentated area and is more effective at chilling sea water than an evap would.
Last edited:
gholtmeyer
New member
Re: tonights pics
Re: tonights pics
whats the striped fish?
Re: tonights pics
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10761160#post10761160 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by redox
here they are
[ IMG]http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w1/ghgrown/9-13-07.jpg[/IMG][/IMG]
whats the striped fish?
Just read the thread and I must say very nice setup redox.
A lot of discussion has covered the equipment and costs. Some people have touched on the time commitment, but I'm curious whats the time schedule you keep? It seems you are in the greenhouse during sunup / sundown / mid afternoon so I'm curious how much time is required to keep the system going? (feeding, maintenance, husbandry, gazing / gawking
, tuning / optimizing, fragging, etc)
Lastly how did you get all this past your wife? Just looking for future pointers
A lot of discussion has covered the equipment and costs. Some people have touched on the time commitment, but I'm curious whats the time schedule you keep? It seems you are in the greenhouse during sunup / sundown / mid afternoon so I'm curious how much time is required to keep the system going? (feeding, maintenance, husbandry, gazing / gawking
, tuning / optimizing, fragging, etc)Lastly how did you get all this past your wife? Just looking for future pointers
That is a good question. My day in the gh starts right at sunup. In the morning before I leave for work I feed all the fish. I tried at first to feed before sundown but it seemed to cause fish to jump out more often. So now its in the morning I take a sample of water for testing about every third day. I test for mag,strontium,alk,po4,and every once in a while iodine. The testing takes about 30 minutes. I will also top off my kalk water and do any obvious things that might need my attention. Things like replace filter socks, examine all equipment to see that they are functioning properly. You know Murphy has a way of showing up when you least exspect it:lol: Once I see all is good I leave for work. I usually dont step foot back in the gh untill 5pm . On some ocasions I will come home for lunch and take a look, but not that often. Most all of my cleaning takes place on the weekend. Things like hoseing down the floor, siphoning junk out of the vats, cleaning skimmers, refilling media. I dont pre mix my salt anymore because I dont think it is nessesary. I just keep 120 gallons of fresh di water ready for salt mix. 20 minutes of mixing and its ready to dump. I will dump it through a sock just incase some salt didnt dissolve. I dont really have to do much. Most of my time im there is just observation time. I have run out of frag room so the only frags that get mounted now are from me breaking off branches durring cleaning. The bottom of the sps vat is littered with frags that have yet to be mounted. In some cases they have grown to the vat floor. As far as the wife thing goes....... I was deep into the saltwater hobby long before I met her (18 years ago) so there were no surprises when I offered to move all my tanks out of the house. She hates the whole idea of the gh but she knows I love it. So she deals with it. Just tell your wife I am gonna do something about the noisy messy reef tank.
Well she didnt exspect what I actually did but all the same I did get it out of the house:lol:
I take a sample of water for testing about every third day. I test for mag,strontium,alk,po4,and every once in a while iodine. The testing takes about 30 minutes. I will also top off my kalk water and do any obvious things that might need my attention. Things like replace filter socks, examine all equipment to see that they are functioning properly. You know Murphy has a way of showing up when you least exspect it:lol: Once I see all is good I leave for work. I usually dont step foot back in the gh untill 5pm . On some ocasions I will come home for lunch and take a look, but not that often. Most all of my cleaning takes place on the weekend. Things like hoseing down the floor, siphoning junk out of the vats, cleaning skimmers, refilling media. I dont pre mix my salt anymore because I dont think it is nessesary. I just keep 120 gallons of fresh di water ready for salt mix. 20 minutes of mixing and its ready to dump. I will dump it through a sock just incase some salt didnt dissolve. I dont really have to do much. Most of my time im there is just observation time. I have run out of frag room so the only frags that get mounted now are from me breaking off branches durring cleaning. The bottom of the sps vat is littered with frags that have yet to be mounted. In some cases they have grown to the vat floor. As far as the wife thing goes....... I was deep into the saltwater hobby long before I met her (18 years ago) so there were no surprises when I offered to move all my tanks out of the house. She hates the whole idea of the gh but she knows I love it. So she deals with it. Just tell your wife I am gonna do something about the noisy messy reef tank.Well she didnt exspect what I actually did but all the same I did get it out of the house:lol:
