Aquaponics System, Passive Solar Greenhouse build

[pinballlooking]

I am not selling it and there is no patent. This is a DIY site so I have posted with a ton of detail so anyone else that wants to do this can. Maybe they can use my build to help them in their research.

I have also posted links to books that show you how to build a smaller system step by step.

[pinballlooking]

The pallet racking is in and all anchored down. ½ the decking is cut down to size. I need 4 more pieces of decking.

Not sure if I should make my own craigslist usually has some local but I done see any out there right now.



I looked at the racks this morning and I am going to just make my own rack decking. Two of the pieces I cut off the make the decking by overlapped and welded together. That will make two panels.
The square tubing I cut off the racking legs can be welded together for cross supports. Then I will weld some cattle panel to that to make top of the decking.

[Daox]

How did you figure out how many barrels to put in? Was there some calculation, or just use as many as you can without taking up too much grow area?

[pinballlooking]

Yes there is a calculation. This is from Cord’s magazine article. But it is the same in the book.

“The Parmenters recommend using 2 to 5 gallons of water per square-foot of glazing, typically stored in 55-gallon steel or plastic black barrels. These are the batteries of the system, says Penn, and more mass means less temperature fluctuation. “If you want it to run cool in the winter and warm in summer – meaning grow some tomatoes in the summer and grow all your cool weather vegetables (greens and broccoli and all that good stuff that love the cool) in winter – then 2 gallons is enough. But if you want to stabilize that sucker on both ends, heat and cold, then go 5-plus gallons per square-foot of glazing.”

It is a little more guess work with Aquaponics because all the extra water that it in the Aquaponics system.

It does take up a lot of room but I think it will be worth it in the end..

[pinballlooking]

Two rack decking panels made out four pieces. I had to weld the support tubes and the square fencing.
A Lot of welding but I think it will work. I will keep these on the bottom row.


I just need to make two more but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

[jeff5may]

Don't forget to spray paint your welds. If you do it while everything is still apart, It's easy. If you don't paint it now, everything welded will rust in no time. Then it will be too late.

[pinballlooking]

Yes they will rust fast after welding. I have been painting them after welding see the flat black paint spots. That is what all those black spots on all the racking that is covering welds or scraps. Good advice!

I welded the 7 steel square tubing supports and cut them to size. I cut the cattle panel.
Now I just need to weld the cattle panel to the supports.
the tubing was just scrap from cutting up the racking. I found new pallet decking but they wanted $20 a panel so $80 and it was a hour drive one way.
It is worth the effort making my own.

The cattle panel is not spaced as close as the other decking so I added another support.
The other racking is can handle 2500 lbs. a section I will not be putting that much weight on it. It will only need to support 935 lbs a section

When I am done the racking will hold about 7,339.2 lbs or 880 gallons of water. Just the On the top two rows of the racks. (the whole way across.)

A Chevrolet Suburban weights about 5800 lbs. so it will hold more weight than a Chevrolet Suburban. Wow water is heavy.

[pinballlooking]

I finished the pallet decking.


Then a milestone I now have all my barrels in and full of warm water.
Since it is winter I filled the with 100 degree water.
Solar batteries installed and waiting for the sun the recharge them.

It sure feels good having these installed.


I now have 24 55 gallon barrels. That is 1,320 gallons of water and 11,008 pounds of water.
I have about 1,000 gallons between the fish tank sump tank and the grow bed weighing 8,340 pounds. For a total water weight 19,348 pounds.

[pinballlooking]

Now it is time to start working on the plants. All week I have been adjusting the iron. Just a small amount each day.
It should be good tomorrow or by Friday.
Yesterday I adjusted my PH down some the fish like it higher but the plants don’t.

The lettuce I planted the other day is really starting to come up. My wife planted peas today.





My nitrates are getting a little high so I need to add more plants.

The picture with the tomatoes look by the first white on the right and you can see some very small tomatoes starting.


Here is a new view from the font with the barrels.

[pinballlooking]

I brought the Iron up to 2.0 PPM this is good plants need iron. PH is 7.2 and I took out the oyster shell bag to bring the PH down to 7 where plants like it better. The oyster shell bag is used to slowly raise the PH it is just natural for the PH to go lower from the process of converting ammonia to nitrates.



All my tomatoes are looking good except one. But that’s ok because my small seedlings are doing good and I will get a few from those. The new lettuce grew some.
I planted romaine lettuce yesterday.

Last night it was 37 F outside the greenhouse went down to 53 F the fish water is 61 F. It has been cloudy the last couple days but today it will be sunny.

It is 10:00 am now and 42 outside 70 in the greenhouse we have sun today.
I will be working on the back vents this weekend.

This is what I use to adjust the iron usually just four or five teaspoons to adjust it up .5 to .75.
I bought this at system startup and it will last years.