gnoibs

gnoib

Since I am new, I live outside of Dolores Colorado, have a small Ranch and have added over the last 2 years, what I call a wintergarden, to my house. It took so long because I am just one guy and I built everything myself. I live at an altitude of 7500 feet, or roughly 2500 meters. Summers are hot and dry, 100F (40C) are possible, winters are harsh, -30 F/C are possible and depending on La Nina or El Nino from a food to 10 feet of snow.
I would like to built a system, That I can use in the summer outdoors and in the winter indoors.
The fish tank will be indoors. The wintergarden has a dirt floor and floor heating ( stays nice and warm even when it is -30 outside, Hibiscus blooms all year around ).
My basic idea have a concret tank, 1 food in the ground, 1 food above, plus 1 food glas, 30 inches wide and 6 feet long. 36 inches wide would be possible.
Above the tank I would have the raks for the plants, moveble to allow acess to the tank if needed.
I plan a plumbing for outside, so I can use the system in the summer.

I would like to have eventually a fish than can go on the grill.

Once I have figured out how the picture stuff goes I will provide them.

What do I have to pay attention to in building the tank ?

Dabble On

You have to choose how you want your system to operate. Do you want a gravity feed setup utilizing one pump or are you going to have more than one. There are many many many ways to set up a system. Observe all the threads here and all the different setups and see what looks like you would want. You can put in solid settling swirl tanks or just flood directly to grow beds. It took me a good while to decide myself. I went with the CHIFT PIST way. Constant height in fish tank Pump in sump tank is what it means. I wanted to keep electrical costs low so I went with utilizing gravity and Solid lift overflows. So depending on your direction depends on how you build your tank. You can use Ferrorcement, IBC totes, Tubs, 55 gallon barrels, sealed cinder block build, or basically anything food grade.

This site gave me some good insight on how I wanted to do my setup...

http://www.japan-aquaponics.com/plumbin ... art-2.html

gnoib

What is the sump for ?
To clear out debrie from the grow beds ?

Electric Power is no concern to me, I have a larger Solar System.
But I would like to keep it simple. Basicly pumper he water out of the fish tank into the grow beds and let it drain back.
One concern would be power outage. Since I feed back into the puplic power system the solar has an auto disconnect when the puplic system fails, that would mean all the fish go to the grill :mrgreen:

And Murphy all way strikes when it is -20, snowing like crazy and the wind going at hundred miles and the generator will not start.

Dabble On

The sump is what collects the water from the grow beds. The water comes from the Fish Tank > Goes to the grow beds > The grow beds have what ever choice you go with for drainage > Drain into sump tank. Unless these beds are over the fish tank and thats how you chose to cycle.

gnoib

Thanks for the answer.
So for winter operation I would not need a sump, since I plan to have the beds over the fish tank. In the summer, when the plants go outside I probably need a sump.

gnoib

well the picture thingy is pretty simple.

I had to dig the pit quiet deep, since it is above the indoor cistern and the backfill never got tampered down.
next I will reroute the floor heating and than refill the pit with coarse sand so it is just 12 inches deep, the sand will be compacted, 250 gallons is a ton.

Ronmaggi

Were you planning on building two sets of growbeds, or move them between the greenhouse and outside? Personally I would do two sets, and just drain the ones outside during winter. Your fish tank is in the ground, therefore a sump tank is not needed, or practical. Your pump will be in your fish tank.

gnoib

At the present I will built everything for the winter operation. If the NOAA guys are right than we will have a Nino coming our way. Early winter with large amounts of snow. They give it currently 80%.
So summer operation would be next year.
When it comes to the plumbing I will prepare everything for any outside operation in the future.

gnoib

Today I framed the outside of the troff and lined it with a 14 pond liner.
Before that I put some 8 inches of coarse sand into the bottom, compacted it wet, than leveled the top.

I filled 18 inches of water into it, a little over 1/2 a ton. I will let this sit for a while, and see if the ground settels. I framed a total depth of 25 inches, minus 4 for the bottom concret, so a total of 21 inches.
The side were the plants are at the window , I will later install a mirror, to reflect the sun back into the plants.

Since I have no idea what I am doing, I will develop things as they go

gnoib

yesterday I did the bottom of the tank, 14 bags of concret, 4 inches.
It turned out to be quiet level, too.
Now I have to let the concret cure for a few days before I start with the sidewalls. I will use concret adhesive, so that walls and bottom have a very good conection

gnoib

the inside wall of the tank are up. I installed 2 1 inch pipes, I have no idea for what, but they might come handy.
Next outside walls and a cap on the walls.
Inside walls are 2 inch, I will do the outside walls the same and a 2 inch cap.

Colum Black-Byron

Nice looking tank!

Well done.

gnoib

Colum Black-Byron wrote:

Nice looking tank!

Well done.

Thanks.

I finished the basic concret work, it needs some clean up and sealer. Friend calls it my sacrophag

Colum Black-Byron

Looks good.

How many bags of concrete did it take all up?

What are you planning on sealing it with?

Slowboat

IMO some of the best photos I seen on this forum gnoib.

what are you planning on using to seal the inside of the FT?

Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

gnoibs

Who is online

Backyard Aquaponics A place to discuss aquaponics

gnoibs

Who is online

Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics