milesmiles902

That is awesome. He actually came up with some pretty cool ideas. I like the large frag carrier.

Day 3: Today was a slow day, but I am happy with what I accomplished. Even though it rained last night and there was no change of the foundation. I went and dug a pathway beneath the brick for water to flow through. I filled it with gravel and covered it back up. It goes from the highest side of the greenhouse to the lowest. I wanted to prepare for the worst and the best time to do it was now. With the whole, I began placing a wood frame around the base. It gave me a way to squeeze the bricks together and make a flat face. The issue I came across is that Home Depot does not supply a 1''x1'' that is greater than 8 feet long. So, I temporary joined the faces together of the long sides with screws. I want to grab a metal joint holder that they use in houses and fasten it down. Screws worked temporarily, but aren't the strongest. I ended up really liking the look of the wood. Even though I said I wasn't going to do it earlier. The front of face started to come alive late in the afternoon. I measured a normal door size and began building. Nothing is screwed together, just held by wedging. That is why it looks a little cockeyed. As it became dark, I started to use a 150W Kessil to light the work site. It actually worked surprisingly well. The reason I had the Kessil was because I went and grabbed some aquariums and tons of lighting off of a guy from Craigslist. It was a snag in my opinion: 1 x 40 Gallon 2 x 30 Gallon 2 x 5 gallon 1 x 1 gallon Multiple mechanical water pumps and filters 5 different water heaters 2 x 150watt Kessils 1 x T5 HO, 36" lighting fixture Tons and Tons of Activated Carbon. I can now say that I am rich in Activated Carbon. Hopefully I don't get taxed. They will all be going in the greenhouse.

You know...I am a crafty person. I'll figure something out. I found a really good youtube channel that describes a way to insulate a greenhouse in the winter. It is called "Bright Agrotech" and in his demonstration of insulating a greenhouse there was 1 foot of snow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2fs6zx_a9Q

Day 2: Gathered enough bricks to be able to lay a foundation. I don't have a way to transport the bricks except my car...so I used my car. In total, I had to make 3 trips to gather the necessary amount. I don't know if my car will ever recover from the sagging. At the moment, the brick is very uneven, but I do like that there is a slight grade towards one corner. I thought about putting a wood perimeter around the base, but I can't fit one full length in my car. So, I started putting a lip of gravel around each side. I eventually dug a pond in the second half of the day. It is only 1 foot deep, but it will suffice. There was shelving eventually incoporated into the pond on the greenhouse edge. It kind of looked like a seashell by the time I was done. There was no pond liner at home depot, so I used polyethylene 3.5mil plastic. I folded it over enough that it was 6 layers thick. The perimeter probably will be filled with rocks to hide the liner. I am unsure about the best way to hide a pond liner. The problem I first ran into was that I put the pond on the wrong end of the greenhouse. Where it was built is the highest point of the greenhouse, with the lowest being on the opposite side. I was unsure about whether the pond would overfill and flood the greenhouse. So, I began filling. Surprisingly, I just kept filling the pond and the water went under once it approached the edge of the brick. I put gravel below each brick to provide support and I think it created enough of a passage for the water. You can't really see it in this picture, but when I was running the hose at full blast, the water line was just about even with the bricks. It looked like there was no edge , removing the divide that the pond liner caused. In the winter months when there is a lot of rain, it will look continuous, and in the summer months it will be gone. Tomorrow I plan to build the wood front and back. The door might be home-made. Who knows. Unless people have ideas.

I am not going to try to use natural gas. I think the best way to heat a greenhouse would be to heat a container full of water, then pipe that through the greenhouse. I would use electricity in that case. Another thought I had would be to run halides during the winter. Where I would have the halides running at night when it is coolest, along with insulating the greenhouse. I could have one large halide for both the hydroponics and the aquariums. In reality, I really don't know, but I think it was be approachable. Thanks for the tip. Preventing mistakes is never a bad thing. Theoretical is completely different than actual, but hey. Doesn't hurt to try.

Let me build it first. I plan on using only natural sunlight for the majority of the year. I might add some minor light during the winter to supplement the corals, but that would be it. The major problem I will be fighting throughout the year is temperature. I have a large fan that was hanging around that would will installed above the door, but that only provicdes a limited amount of evaporative cooling. Maybe flush out the warm air. I might look into a product called Aluminet, which reflects quite a bit of radiation. I have heard of people using cooled copper piping that pumps water which runs through the greenhouse, but I have no utter experience with that. We will see how year one goes. My main goal is to really see how cheap I can be with the aquariums. The greenhouse I might spend a little more because it is going to last for years, but the aquariums should have no theoretical cost. I am going to take the excess water from my main tank and then put it into these. There will be no cost for lighting for most of the year, and other than that I will have to pay for carbon and pumps.

Some websites that someone advised to me for microcontroller projects were these: Digikey - Really specific parts, but has a minumum order number http://www.digikey.com/en Jameco - Less specific, but you can order just one, and not 5000 http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001 Haven't ordered from them, but I would bet they are reliable websites.

Wow! That sure was a lot of replies. Right on. Yeah, I am always down to chat about some corals. Appreciate the support. You know, for me it is really hard to compare studies for reefs to my aquarium. Each tank is different, and has many differing/unique variables. I imagine if you repeat the same study, with the same tank, you'll arrive at the same answer. Although, I think it is difficult to compare different closed systems. Sy uses a lot of mud instead of carbon, who is to say that it wasn't the mud and not the lack of carbon. It makes it challenging. It sure seems like that each person uses carbon differently, but in the end everyone does use it. I really think it is required to make a tank look and run better, but it really depends on the tank. I think if you were doing a slow flow over a mesh bag of carbon youll be fine. Look at the pore size of filter bags for mechanical filters. They are mighty big, compared to a micron mesh bag.

I wish I could edit my previous posting...I want bigger pictures.

Hello Everyone! I have never properly introduced myself on the forum, but my name is Miles Taylor. I live in Corvallis, Oregon and am a graduate student in physical chemistry. Among the many things I enjoy, DIY of anytype is my favorite. Thus, I have decided to attempt to build a greenhouse for both saltwater, freshwater and a hydroponic garden. I have never grown coral outside, nor built a greenhouse, but hopefully we can talk about my struggles and triumphs. I could go and make a 3D image of what I want, but I already know what I want. Here is the overall idea: I would have coral on one side of the greenhouse and hydroponics on the other. Straight ahead would be a freshwater pond that goes from inside the greenhouse to outside. Limiting freezing and allowing certain plants to be inside for the whole year. The vats might end up being fruit trees, but we will see. I think it would be good to have a large sump with liverock in it. From the entrance My plan is to make leveled platforms for both the aquariums and the hydroponic setup. Allowing for gravity to feed water through piping if I needed, plus it allows for different plants to grow and have the necessary room. The greenhouse is going to be 9'x12' and about 9 feet at the peak. The location I chose is just outside of the fence to prevent any curious dogs from entering the pond: The nice part about this spot is it is going from east to west. It gets the full range of sun, without maybe 10° on either side. I was thinking about doing a pvc structure for a long time, but after my grandpa past there was a metal frame left behind that I was able to use. I think he would be happy it isn't just laying around in the desert. I drilled holes and began screwing the pieces together. The frame itself will be metal, with a polyethylene 6mil lining (I found out mil is not the same as millimeter...). The front and back will be a wood frame, that way I can build a door going in and out. I went and purchased some brick and concrete blocks for the foundation. I wanted it to be slightly off the ground, that way it wouldn't be all soggy during the winter. The advantage of raising it off the ground is that if the pond floods, it won't be in the greenhouse. My dad and grandpa have always dug into the ground a foot or so, that way temperature is better maintained throughout the entire year, but I decided not to. I plan tomorrow to lay down gravel with sand to make a flat base for the brick. The terrain itself is not flat, so I will have to terraform it. So far I've spent ~65 dollars, but there is still more to do. If you have advice, I am happy to listen. If you have questions, I am willing to answer. It will be an ongoing project, but it the structure itself should be done by January. P.s. I am getting paypal figured out for membership.

That is a very cool idea. You did a great job.

+1 to that.

A dark color would make the aquarium stand out. Why don't you just apply a dark stain to the wood, then clear coat it? That way you see the grains of the wood, and hide any unwanted mistakes.

I have been using MarineLand passively off and on for about 3 weeks now. Usually once, maybe twice a week. I notice that on my smaller tank it has the potential of lowering the pH a bit, but not on my main tank, where I use less per volume. What can be tested to check if the activated carbon is bad? I know with phosban or GFO, you just test when the phosphates go up. Although, you can't really do that with activated carbon.

Hello everyone! I was just wondering what your opinions are about Activated Carbon. Recently, I have been doing about 1/2 cup carbon per 50 gallons. I heard the length in which it last is only a couple days, but I want to hear your opinions. How long do you think it lasts? Along with, how much do you use?

My tank is similar. I can't pull my sump out of the stand without emptying the main display. I don't think it would be a bad idea to replace it during the move. Just fill your new tank, make sure it doesn't leak and go for it. If it doesn't work out, you always have the rubbermaid.

I like your temporary setup. It was a good choice.

Is it going to be a hinged door or pull off wood cover?

This is really a neat contraption. In reality, a 60x microscope would be pretty darn expensive compared to this.

One thing I have learned about using a pump as a salt mixer is that it is very harsh. Eventually the pump begins to make agitating noises because of the salt not all being in solution. I would advise an older pump or powerhead for salt mixing.

**Unless you are doing this by mass. I think you could pull it off that way. Just need a pretty accurate scale.

Were you using analytical glassware when attempting this? Or just drops? I have a feeling when talking about something like a titration it is important to be as accurate as possible.

You did a great job.

I think an APEX would be nice, I just have been spending my money on other aquarium stuff.

I always forget. Many of you keep your aquariums at room temp. The only time my tank is at room temp is when it's summer time :P My RODI is near freezing when it comes out because it is in the garage. I always have to heat it before I make my salt.