Passive solar greenhouse / aquaponics system planning/build

rininger85

F&F That's a nice idea. I would have to build a box like that outside of the greenhouse, but I do have the space to do it if I need to. Thanks for sharing, I'll keep that in mind as another heating option. At 5C are you near your lowest temp for the season? That's about 41F, our average low is the lowest in January at about 15F (-9C) so I don't know for sure what all I'll have to do to keep this warm, but it probably wouldn't be too difficult to build a box like this on either my north or west wall of the greenhouse, then I could build a small boxed in area to house a gas water heater too and just light it when I really need to bring the temps up. Do you run your fish water through this system to heat it or just radiant heat water lines?

rininger85

last night I got another load of gravel. My trailer tires are only rated for about 900lbs a piece (1800 total) so my first load the place I went would only sell me half a yard of gravel because they said the gravel weighs about 2800lbs per yard. I went to another local place yesterday just to compare prices (I paid about $27 for half a yard of 6A limestone gravel the first load, I paid $41 at the other place and got about 3200lbs and that included a $15 charge for having them load the gravel for me... you can shovel it yourself and not pay the $15 but I figure I have to unload when I get home, I'm not going to load it myself too for $15...) I jumped out of the truck to see how much they were dumping in and told them to stop when I saw the trailer springs start to drop but I was already overloaded with 3200lbs of pea stone gravel. I was a bit worried because the tires were squatting pretty badly, but I managed to make it home driving 35mph with my hazards on for the 8 mile journey... there were a few people that were probably pissed off following me, but most of them didn't try to pass me so can't get too pissed at me. This load was enough to finish filling the trench so I decided to move my IBC totes in to the greenhouse too. They were located over by my barn on the far side of my yard and were really too heavy for me to move by myself that distance so I got the lawn mower out and a rope and tied the rope to the back of the mower and dragged them over to the greenhouse =).

I had to dig a little more dirt to get the IBC's leveled out where I want them, but this is pretty much where they'll be, I'll have to move them again once I start insulating inside the greenhouse but I should be able to build the greenhouse with them sitting in place. So now I just need to make a trip to the lumber yard one of these nights to pick up lumber and I can start building the greenhouse walls =).

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Food&Fish

rininger85 wrote:

F&F That's a nice idea. I would have to build a box like that outside of the greenhouse, but I do have the space to do it if I need to. Thanks for sharing, I'll keep that in mind as another heating option. At 5C are you near your lowest temp for the season? That's about 41F, our average low is the lowest in January at about 15F (-9C) so I don't know for sure what all I'll have to do to keep this warm, but it probably wouldn't be too difficult to build a box like this on either my north or west wall of the greenhouse, then I could build a small boxed in area to house a gas water heater too and just light it when I really need to bring the temps up. Do you run your fish water through this system to heat it or just radiant heat water lines?

No the fish and the main wicking beds are about 30 ft away I just run trout [cold water ]
This morning its 8 deg heading for 14 deg

rininger85

So a lot has happened the last couple of weeks... On Saturday 8/6 I bought all of the lumber for my greenhouse... I started building the walls and got the north and south walls built and set in place, I started building the west wall and was walking from house to barn and back looking for my step ladder when my wife who had been spraying weeds around the yard told me her water broke... So after almost 24 hours in labor we were blessed with a perfect little boy. He was 7 lbs even and 19 inches long. We spent two nights in the hospital then came home. His bilirubin (jaundice) levels were elevated so we had to take him back for a blood draw every day and after a couple days it was up high so they had us put him on a biliblanket for phototherapy. It made for a long few days but today is the third day he was off the vlanket and we took him in the day after he came off the blanket and his bilirubin levels had not gone back up so I think we are in the clear now, now we are just focusing on putting some weight on him because he dropped half a pound as momma's milk was coming in, but doctors haven't been worried yet, we have a weight check tomorrow and hopefully he will be over 7lbs and we will be good to go.

I took two weeks off work so when I've been able to I have been working on the greenhouse. I decided to start up the aquaponic system on a small scale so I can learn a bit while building the greenhouse, so I am just running one fish tank right now with one frowned and planted some short day stuff, lettuce, kale, radish, Swiss chard because they didn't do well in our garden this year (weeds got out of control) so thought these were seeds I had that I could try in aquaponics that would be done before winter if the greenhouse isn't operational by the time it gets cold...

I'll post pics shortly, apparently can't do it from my phone because i need to resize them.

markb

Congrats on the new addition on your family!

boss

Congratulations on the Baby. Thanks for sharing.

rininger85

Thanks guys, it's definitely a change of pace for us but we wouldn't have it any other way! He's quite awesome! So here are some pics...

First.. me and my little man...

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Then the project... a trailer load of lumber...

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So Saturday 8/6 this was my progress before the wife's water broke...

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I got the west wall finished and put the windows in to make sure my wall was going together properly... I'm not being the most careful when building this to make sure it's perfectly square etc. so I had to make some adjustments while mounting the windows (might have measured the wrong side of the window as the inside of the window is a different size than the outside of the window).

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rininger85

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I started a grow bed in the top of the IBC that had already been cut... its kind of a pain because the way the guy cut it didn't give it support on most of it, so trying to get the bed shimmed just right to get the water level where I want it is tough (without cutting the PVC multiple times, I'm just going with a temporary set up to learn what I can learn while I'm building the greenhouse... so I planted a couple kinds of lettuce, kale, swiss chard and radishes to test it out... right now I only have about a dozen rosy red minnows in there, but I did just see when I was buying chicken feed today that there is a fish day coming up at my local co-op so I'm going to order some yellow perch / hybrid bluegills that I'll get in about a month...

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and this is where I'm at right now... I need to go a little higher on the east and west walls to get to where the cradle will be at to mount the beam in. My dad said he might be coming up in the next week some time to meet my kiddo so hopefully I'll be able to get to a point where I'm ready to set the beam by the time he gets here so he can help me lift it... then the roof will hopefully be fairly easy to mount.

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Mel Redcap

Awwwwwwwwww~!

boss

Now that's a proud smile. Congrats again

rininger85

My dad came up for a couple days to see my son, so I put him to work while he was here. Word got out that he was going to be here and that we were working on the greenhouse so my uncle Mike decided he wanted to come help as an excuse to see my dad, and Mike called my uncle Wayne so I ended up having 3 people to help with the greenhouse today... it's starting to look more like a building now! I need to add supports between the rafters and buy tar paper and shingles and I'll be ready to put the roof on. I'm going to have my dad help me put the patio door glass in tomorrow too since it's a bit large and heavy for one person to do by myself... then hopefully will at least get the plywood on the roof before he leaves, then the rest will be pretty easy for me to finish myself.

markb

Great progress.

BroHay

Great Progress indeed!

However, and this is the framer in me, just pointing some things out that may have already been addressed, or may need to be.

1) your rafter connections to the walls.
They look like they are resting on top of the wall with no "birdsmouth" or "seat cut/heel cut". You are asking the place of connection to support the weight and withstand the forces of movement on a structure that is consists of primarily open spaces for all of your windows. I would consider looking at some sort of Simpson Strong Tie metal connector to aid in reinforcing that point of connection.

2) I would also look at you support for the ridge for it is inside the structure (do not know how it is attached) and make sure that the points of attachment are beefed up as well. Normally that type of support would be constructed within the wall and tied to the foundation to help with support and minimize movement.

3) Wall to wall connections.
I cannot tell from the last picture, but do you have a 2x4 as the first stud connected to the back wall (with no windows) or are there only the cross pieces providing the connection? Look at putting in an additional stud in if only the cross pieces.

Also, at the top of the wall, there is usually an additional top plate that will extend 3" -3 1/4" past on to the adjoining wall and serves as an additional connection point to join the two walls together.

4) Southern Wall -- how to you plan on supporting the window wall, or tying it into the other two side walls since it is 3 1/2" shorter and only being held (temporarily--I hope) by the 2x4 from the side wall.

I do not know which way the wind blows, but think of a house of cards if the 2x4 is the only point of connection for support.

Please be safe.

Adam

rininger85

The south wall and the glass pane wall will get tied in more and more as I finish framing the east and west walls. The initial structure I was building by myself, but my dad has been here the past few days and two uncles came over on Thursday to help as well. Between the three of them they have a combined 100+ years of experience building houses ( my one uncle was a career carpenter his entire life, and my dad and other uncle used to remodel houses together before my parents got divorced and my dad moved to Florida, now my dad builds hurricane proof houses in Florida...) so I'm not too worried about the strength of the greenhouse... My initial design had some flaws but we reworked pieces of it and now this thing is solid... I've spent the last two days on the roof of it and it doesn't move now... We pretty much finished the roof, I need to go back up and put the ridge cap on but otherwise it is done, but we had scattered thunderstorms and a lot of rain today so I'm waiting for the roof to be dry before I go up to put the cap on so its not as slick... We also mounted the window panes in the south wall today, so now all that is left is to finish filling in the east and west walls and I need to box in the overhang on east and west and I'll be ready to start putting plywood up. I need to pick up some stuff to finish framing the glass panes in he way I plan to have them, so for now we just have them held in place with some scab boards to hold them... Also need a dry day to caulk them in good... Now the hard parts are done, it's just a matter of time available to finish enclosing it before winter now... I feel much better about it now though after the past three days working on it with my dad.. The rest I can do a couple hours here and there along the way...

rininger85

more progress pics

Backyard Aquaponics
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