will this greenhouse work?

[coral acquisition]

i was thinking of doing an outdoor prop tank in the near future. maybe by next year and was thinking of buying a greenhouse. i don't know if making one will look this nice. just wanted to know is this greenhouse will work.

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=87132-87553-701273&lpage=none

i'm also thinking of getting solar fans for air movement to save energy.

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=41125-228-SG8&lpage=none

maybe some solar l.e.d. lights/spotlights for night time viewing.

they also have solar pumps on ebay that i could use.

i can make the tank/stand/sump myself to save some money. just wanted to know if this greenhouse is worth the money. i want to spend as little money as possible.

i live in north hollywood, california and its gets hot during summer. it was around 100F last week. winters are not so cold. i would be able to get full sun in this greenhouse. would i need to get light diffusers too?

thanks

 

[coral acquisition]

will this work too?

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[dendronepthya]

Greenhouses make sense on a large scale, but not so much on a small scale. I would not really consider doing it unless you are about to put between 5,000-10,000 gallons in.

 

[coral acquisition]

i was thinking of filling this up w tanks hehe but also using a surge type system for
water circulation. it would allow me to just use one pump.

was also thinking of using solar cells from harbor freight n charge batteries to use for
extra pumps at night.

 

[skanderson]

a small greenhouse has large swings of temperature. the larger in scale the easier it is to moderate this, but i dont think anything under about 1000 sq ft is very practical

 

[Mr..Tang]

I agree you would have temp. swings but I think it may be easier to control than a larger greenhouse. thermostat controlled fans could cool a smaller area than a greenhouse twice this size.

I could be wrong though.......

 

[hamburglar]

If you want to do a little greenhouse like that, check out the prices at Harbor Freight. You can get an 8x6 for half that price above including freight.

I used the 6x8 Harbor Freight a while back. The panels became brittal after 4 years (as expected), but the aluminum frame would probably last forever.

They have a larger one that looks interesting if I were to ever do a small one again.

Have fun!

 

[coral acquisition]

kul i will check harbor freight. how did u control the temp swings?
the only prob i see in socal is during summer when it get around 100f
but if i have solar fans it should help n ato right?

already have a big container for water.

 

[skanderson]

you should spend some time in a greenhouse before you order one. here in wisconsin my greenhouse will easily hit 30 to 40 degrees above the outside temp and your sun more direct so you will get even more heating. cooling will be a significant issue. if you are sure you are set on doing this you may also want to look at the farmtek site. they have some decent prices on hoophouses and greenhouses. good luck

 

[coral acquisition]

this is just an idea for now. there a guy here that grows corals outside but i think he
lives more by the beach area. no greenhouse but i was thinking if i need it
so i have my own private room n no animals going in the water.
the main purpose was to keep animals out.

 

[DAftPunker]

Tropicorium in Michigan has all their tanks in a greenhouse type enclosure. What better light can you get than actual sunlight? Although they won't look as great and i would recommend some supplemental lighting of higher temperature.

 

[yardboy]

The climate in Michigan compared to North Hollywood is radically different.
I've found it's much easier to heat a tank than to cool it.
Calfo used greenhouses, but I wonder why he chose the Northwest to do it instead of Florida?

 

[dendronepthya]

Geography changes everything when you are thinking about a greenhouse. You have to prepare for the hottest and coldest day of the year. If your system can't handle it, you lose everything on that day. Here in Ohio, the hottest day is about 95-100 degrees and the coldest is about -20 degrees. Neither heating nor cooling is particularly easy to manage given temperature range.

 

[hamburglar]

I could not efficiently control the temp swings in a small greenhouse.

I could do it.....but I used a lot of electricity for the chiller and heaters. No money to be made that way.

 

[dendronepthya]

There is a lot of trial and error when doing a greenhouse reef. What works for some people won't work for others. You could copy the efforts of someone in your region, but even you may get different results because of some subtle differences that make a world of difference.

As a bit of general advice, I would say plan out your idea of a big budget greenhouse with the best materials you can think of and then triple the cost. It is for this reason that I said if you plan on doing something small, do it inside your house.

 

[jimicasper]

I think atlanticseafarms.net grows all their corals in a greenhouse as well. Their website has some info on it. It looks alot bigger than what you are planning though.

 

[coral acquisition]

i was thinking of having a small one cuz of the little space i have. plus i just wanna try
it out and do this for fun. if i get some profit then that would be
great too. i wad just thinking a green house so that noone bothers
anything in there. maybe i need to make it just a shed instead of a greenhouse.

 

[hamburglar]

If you are doing it for fun than I say go for it. You will have a blast. It will end up being expensive, but isn't everything involving reef keeping expensive

I had fun when I did it....learned a lot....but didn't come close to turning a profit. I would still do it again though because it was a lot of fun just to make it work.

Do something cool, take pictures, and post it all here.

 

[Mr..Tang]

hamburglar
Was the covering on your greenhouse OK to use for growing corals? Did you have to screen it more or did it block out too much sun? And what corals did you frag and grow out in the greenhouse system?

Thanks

 

[Zach.Attack6]

I think a green house is a cool idea but for fraging I think it works better on a larger scale, and I think it may just be cheaper for you to build a shed or buy a shed and make it into a frag room sorta
You would still have to figure out how to control the temp but A simple window AC or standup unit would do, I think a shed would be better for you but if you found a way to make the green house to work it would be alot cooler