Building of the Aquaponics Greenhouse: The Inner Workings

Ah... the Inner Workings!

For the greenhouse to be an aquaponics greenhouse- there must be something to do with "aqua!"  

Hence, this giant 500 galloon water tank!

This about-to-be-water-tank, was picked up somewhere in the country from a place that had used these containers for a non-toxic wood chip dye (how you can buy red wood chips in a bag).  Noah bought two for the project & they were strapped on top of two cars and driven home (thank you ratchet straps once again!).  Noah, pictured here on left, cleaning out the left-over red dye... let's just say he was caught red handed on the job!  Pictured right is the metal cage that the 500 gallon reservoir tank is stored in.  The top of the tank was cut off to be used as a "grow bed" for the eventual acquaponic plants growing in the greenhouse, while the other two bottoms were used as a fish tank (wait till we get to the fish part!!), and the other to hold the 500 gallons of water that will cycle through the system.

And with such a cozy greenhouse and the desire to optimize the greenhouse growing space, it only made sense to store that 500 gallon tank of water underground!   In a 4 ft deep, 4 ft wide hole!  

Seemed like a simple task...

Here we go!

Keep going!

.....

and after a few hours, and doing a lot of tag-team: switching out multiple times.  

There were only 2 inches left that seemed to take hours!

Finally, the task was completed and the tank went into the ground.

Where it was covered with a wooden walkway (the eventual walking space of the greenhouse).

For the fish tank water reservoir that is kept above ground, Noah built wooden planks around the cage, including some insulation and reusing an old window to make it look like a freezer cooler.  This is what the current goldfish population are living in!

This post about the "Inner Workings" only covers briefly some of the inner workings.  In the current moment, Noah has added several different "grow beds" including other coolers, bathtubs, all fence posts, etc, with a few different aquaponic systems in place.  More on that later!

For now, I leave you with Nuva....

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Nuva, our faithful dog, sitting by the work site in April 2012.  Behind her, scrap wood that was gutted from the abandoned house next door.  Also a mulberry tree.  (It received a bit of a butchering pruning job from the electrical company this past winter.)  Nuva is the Head Supervisor of this project, and here looks on approvingly.