Knucklehead

I'd like to know all about it. Suffice it to say, there is very little you could post that would be non-interesting. Greenhouse frag farms are still out-of-the-norm.

Is all the water in one system, or is it broken up?
How much daylight does it get, and does he have to shade it? Any PAR measurements?
What return pump and skimmer(s) is he using?
Does it need to be heated at night?
What's the temperature in the greenhouse usually? Does it need heat or a/c?
What does he do about humidity? Is it automated?
Does he keep fish in the coral tanks?
Why is he growing these? Is it to supply the local club or local fish stores?

First let me answer the questions I know about offhand.
There is more than one system in the whole set-up.
He also raises Koi & all manner of freshwater pond plants.
I`ll post about that section later.
He has a reef tank, fish only tank, freshwater tank & pond, maintenance business.
Rather than buy wholesale & sell retail to his customers, he decided to do all facets of his supply side himself.
Everything is plumbed in 4" PVC to the different systems in the saltwater sections which take up all of the greenhouse.
It gets full sunlight all day.
You can see a gauge in one of the photos. Temp 79 humidity 42. (this was at approximately 2:00 pm)
Yes he does shade some sections & has a few fans for circulating air.
I noticed an air conditioner but don`t know the details, yet.
Yes there are fish throughout the many tanks in there.
As I mentioned, Kevin is out of town, & I did not want to start shutting off pumps or checking systems without him being there, this time.
I have open key at his house, & I`ll be able to get stats on the whole system when he returns.
I`ve been working together with him for years on water projects, including reef tanks for my clients, ponds & waterfalls, salt water Jacuzzis etc.
I`m posting a conglomerate shot that should be clickable to the individual shots for a better view of them since I don`t want to over load your site.
I will soon know if that`s possible.
If it does not link to the individual shots, I hope to be able to add a link to them, or I will post some individually.
I posted this blog to show that a back yard grow tank can save plenty of cash to all you sunstate dwellers.

Obviously that didn`t work.
Let me try a link.
This should take you to the individual shots &/or a slideshow of them.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37knuck...7623893872842/

I'd love to try a greenhouse myself, but in Texas it gets blazing hot. We have a coral farm about one hour north of my place, and it is all indoors. He's got something like 20,000 frags I think. He's supplying the local fish stores with sustainable corals he grows out.

Don't worry about putting too many images on our site. I realize you've got tons, but if they are saved for web, they aren't space hogs. Of course, if you post images like you email to me, that's a different matter. When images are 2-5 megs each, that makes it take a long time for others to read your blogs because they have to download those megs. I try to always Save For Web (at 52% quality), which keeps images between 90k and 160k in size. That's roughly 10 images per meg of download time.

This is separated from the Frag Ranch by another pond for plants.
This Koi pond to supply his clients I built for him about five years ago.
It`s 24' long 12' wide & 3' deep.
Besides the fish, It`s also surrounded by plants that also are for clients who have ponds.
If they don`t have a pond when I start a project of any kind for them, they have one when I`m done.
The sunlight shown is what the frag greenhouse is receiving.
This is about 75 degrees mid-day so about 70 at night.
In the greenhouse, that would be about 80 degrees day & 76 night.