Aquaponics System, Passive Solar Greenhouse build

[pinballlooking]

I cut a hole in the sump tank big enough for me to get in the sump to set the sump pump up.
This tank is much thicker than my new tank. I think it will do well in the ground.

My power lines should be marked tomorrow. Then I can use my tractor to help finish the sump tank hole.

I am trying to make a deal to get Hydroshale http://www.hydroshale.net for my grow media. This stuff looks really good. I talked to the guy that runs the company today and it really sounds like a great product.

If I have time tomorrow I will try to setup a second 330 gallon IBC to collect rain water.



This tank is pretty thick.


Hydroshale has lots of good air pockets.

[Daox]

Where did you get the sump tank from?

[pinballlooking]

I found it used on craigslist. It was used on a farm as a water holding tank. It took a while to talk him down to a decent price.

It is around 430 gallons and I got it for $250.

He had said it was 600 gallons and I was going to use it as my fish tank but it will still make a good sump tank. A round fish tank is better anyway.

Since it is tall it will be a good sump tank it keep water over the pump. But being tall I will need a pump that can handle more head to get the water to the fish tank.
So I guess it a compromise like everything.


You can see the black bottom plate in the top picture I will pit that in the ground first. it will help insulate it and protect it.
I have some Styrofoam sheets to put around the sides to help insulate it and protect.


I bought just two PVC fittings and a spicket to go on the IBC tank. I have it up on a stand and my fish tank is downhill so the water flows nicely out of the IBC to the fish tank.

[pinballlooking]

We worked on digging the sump hole last night. We used my hammer drill with a chisel bit. The Hole is 40" X 46" buy 59" deep the base was about 3 1/2 - 4" thick.

We have red clay and it is very hard this hammer drill worked so well. My boy quit at dinner homework and stuff but

I worked until about 1:00 am and finished. We are having rain today so I needed to get done.

I hooked up my second IBC setup to catch rain water hopefully we will get enough rain to fill both IBC's.

I took the water out of the fish tank and put it in my sump is ¾ the way full of water.
I did not want it to float out of the hole today with the rain.

My arms are very sore today I hope to never do that job again.

[Daox]

That does not look like fun to dig out with all that clay, haha. Nice job though.

[pinballlooking]

Thanks I am glad to be done with that part.

I was using that chair to get in and out of the hole. It broke and I was stuck so I propped the chair parts at the side so I could get out of that big hole. No one at the house would have would have come out until today.

I would have just used the hammer drill to cut foot steps in the side to get out.

The shovel is like 55” so only if you look at the picture with the chair the bottom right corner is a little wider. That is the only place I could use the shovel. I had to push the dirt to that spot to get it out of the hole.
(I thought about cutting the shovel handle off but it was not worth it.)

The dirt was a long throw out of the hole at the end.

[Xringer]

Wow, that looks like a job for a BobCat. Or some dynamite.

Hope you had a back brace on.. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001OAXE0S
My wife and have them.. They work okay for snow shoveling..

[pinballlooking]

There was no good way to dig this hole. It is just too deep for a standard bob cat. My neighbor has a small track hoe but I put this tank against the outside wall and corner.

I need these places to be solid later for the foundation cement piers and on the other side of the tank will have the grow bed and it will have from 2-4 ton of gravel depending on the type I use plus 1,440 pounds of water in it. So it needs to be solid also.

If the power company line marking guy would have come on time I would have used my tractors auger to dig more in the hole. It only goes to 4’ so I still would have had to do it by hand at the end. When you dig lots of holes close together you still need to shovel out the dirt.

He marked the line today and we were less than 2’ from the power lines.

A back brace sounds like a good idea I need to pick up one for the rest of the project.

[pinballlooking]

The new 330 gallon IBC in the new location is doing much better than my other one.
It did not rain that hard yesterday and I collected over 110 gallons in one IBC.

I collected about 160 gallons in the new IBC

270 gallons total just yesterday two IBC's.

330 gallons water collected before in just one IBC.

600 gallons total rain water collected so far.

1000 gallons water needed to get started.

I am off to a good start.
I will need to dress these up later and block light form getting to them.

[natethebrown]

Originally Posted by pinballlooking

We worked on digging the sump hole last night. We used my hammer drill with a chisel bit. The Hole is 40" X 46" buy 59" deep the base was about 3 1/2 - 4" thick.

We have red clay and it is very hard this hammer drill worked so well. My boy quit at dinner homework and stuff but

I worked until about 1:00 am and finished. We are having rain today so I needed to get done.

I hocked up my second IBC setup to catch rain water hopefully we will get enough rain to fill both IBC's.

I took the water out of the fish tank and put it in my sump is ¾ the way full of water.
I did not want it to float out of the hole today with the rain.

My arms are very sore today I hope to never do that job again.

Give the clay a really good soaking, then give it a half a day or so to dry a bit. The clay will be much easier to dig through! Ask an Alabama boy how I know...