There is a Hole in the Roof

The weather cooperated enough today so that Burr was able to open the roof of the building that I am now referring to as "The Greenhouse."  He is putting a shed dormer into the second story for me so that we can have more storage space.  The south facing window should also give me a good area to start my seedlings as well.

Burr and Calvin spread a tarp over the roof just before it got dark.  It isn't calling for rain, but I would not be surprised if we didn't get some tonight.  They plan to work on it tomorrow and hopefully get everything closed in before it gets dark.

I spent time experimenting with the siphons for my growbeds.  At first I thought that I might need a larger drain pipe than the 1 inch that I am using.  I hooked up this contraption to my 1/3 horsepower sump pump so that whatever water I didn't want going to the growbed would be sent back to the tank.  I am using a valve to regulate the amount of water entering into the bed and  I found that it was very easy to find the right spot where the siphon turns on and turns off.  

I am experimenting with using two different bells on top of the siphon.  I found that the 2 inch bell sometimes has a problem stopping the siphon, so I added a snorkel (see photo above).  I also am experimenting with a 3 inch bell and it works well without a snorkel.  It is taking about 11 minutes for the tank to fill and about 4 for the tank to drain.  I am going to let it run all weekend and see how it performs.

Layout and Siphon Testing

Working on the layout of the growbeds.  Planning to use 2x6 lumber for the growbeds to rest on, but there are 2x4's in this photo just so that we could figure out the right height and position.  I bought some pavers that Burr has carefully laid out (perfectly level) for standing areas.  We are planning to put gravel in on the other areas up to the same elevation as the top of the pavers.

I have also been working on testing out the bell siphons for the growbeds.  I filled a fish tank up with water and tested a 1 inch diameter standpipe.  I am not sure that I like how fast it drains, and I may consider using 1.5 inch diameter.  But then again I don't have any gravel in the bed right now, so the amount of water is significantly more.  The siphon worked well.

In this photo, you can see my 1 inch siphon.  I am planning on testing this a little more before increasing the size of the drain pipe.

Filling in the Holes

With the tanks set, we have filled in the holes and are getting ready to build up.  

Burr has poured some concrete footings where we plan to place concrete blocks to hold the grow-bed tables.

This afternoon, while the concrete footings were setting, we carried in the concrete blocks that will be used to support the grow beds and the pavers that will be placed for standing on.  With the Thanksgiving holiday coming up, I am looking forward to making a lot of progress this week.

Setting the Tanks

Burr has been providing me with a bunch of help to get the tanks placed.   He chipped away the excess concrete footing material so that we could get the tank placed close to the side of the greenhouse, and we placed some concrete blocks in the bottom of each tank hole so that the tank would be level.  We filled in some excess dirt to hold the blocks in place.

Once the tank was level, we filled in the sides with excess soil.  The tanks will not move, especially when they are filled with water.  Each tank is almost 300 gallons, so that will weigh 1.25 tons for each tank.

I purchased some refurbished 55 gallon barrels, which I am going to use as sump tanks.  I am putting two barrels on each side and connecting them at the bottom so that the water level will rise together.  Each sump tank will contain a pump, so that the system will have redundancy.

We placed the tanks so that they would be below the top of the fish tanks and that they were level.

Here is the connector at the bottom of the two tanks.  I plan to put an overflow control on these sumps as well as a float valve that will allow me to have water added to the system if it gets too low.