Welcome to the Aquaponic Geodesic Dome Greenhouse tour.
Throughout the video, I will provide links to past videos that will detail each area.
This is a 32.5' 3V dome with a shed area built into the north side.
It took a little over 2 years to construct the greenhouse and setup the aquaponic system.
For a quick overview, this is the main entrance and a set of double doors which makes it handy
to bring in large supplies such as pellets for the rocket mass heater which is located
in the shed area.
In the north section of the dome, is the main stock tank which drains into buffering tank
that located in the floor.
Also in the shed area are a hospital tank, various supplies, and the electronics and
batteries for the solar setup.
The main dome has 2 media beds along the perimeter which drain into 4 rafts beds, and another
4 media beds in the center.
All the beds eventually drain into a central sump tank that pumps the water back into the
main fish tank
I added two windows into a surplus 1000 gallon HDPE tank and I currently have around 60 koi
and a few gold fish.
Once the system is fully ramped up, I'll double the population.
The water getting pumped back into this tank goes through a spray bar which helps to aerate
and circulate the water.
There's a 1" pipe that starts from the bottom-center of the tank and siphons the water and solids
out of the tank.
I made an automatic fish feeder to provide measured amounts of food.
The tank also has an emergency overflow drain and a net to prevent the fish from jumping
out....again.
The fish tank drains into a buffer tank which is used to compensate for water level changes
from the flood and drain grow beds.
It's also a handy area to add various supplements into the water.
There's a simple level gauge in the tank to let me know what the maximum water level is
so I can keep track of when water should be added.
The water swirls in the tank which makes the solids move to the center towards the pump.
The water is pumped out of the tank at around 900 gallons per hour and runs under the floor
to the grow beds.
The supply line also has a tee that sends some water back to the fish tank for aeration
and supplies water to the rocket mass heater during the winter.
The rocket mass heater was designed to burn pellets at around 12 pounds per hour and can
heat the 3000 gallons around 1 degree per hour and heats the building's air.
The water is heated by drawing the hot air through 2 radiator cores, and any remaining
heat is blown under the floor for long-term storage.
The remaining shed area holds the miscellaneous supplies, a 50 gallon hospital tank, the back
door, and electronics for the solar setup.
The solar currently has 2 kilowatt panels and is running at 12 volts, but will soon
be upgraded to 3 kilowatts and 24 volts to support some future additions.
There are also two electronic controllers.
The first is one of our own products which is being used to operate the fish feeder and
measure the water temperature.
And the second is a prototype 6 zone thermostat which is used to control the vents.
Each vent is set at a different temperature so they can open one at a time to keep the
building temperature from fluctuating too quickly.
There is a total of six media beds that are set up for flood and drain and are all filled
with expanded shale.
The media beds currently are growing green beans, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, tomato,
cherry tomato, radish, carrot, strawberry, cucumber, watermelon, cantaloupe, zucchini,
peas, celery, eggplant, bell pepper, sage, oregano, dill, rosemary, basil, and parsley.
Also there is one banana tree and pineapple plant.
Two of the media beds along the outer perimeter drain into 4 raft beds which primarily grow
lettuce and some spinach.
When fully operating, these beds hold around 1000 plants.
The six media beds use bell siphons so they can flood and drain.
They empty into the floor drains which flow to a central sump tank.
The sump contains two pumps with float switches.
The second pump is used as an emergency backup in the event the first one fails or is overburdened
in the event all the beds happen to be draining at the same time.
The two pump lines run back to the fish tank which is connected to the spray bar.
There are stranded cables strung overhead which are used to support the cucumber and
tomato plants and keep them out of the way of the other plants.
Thanks for watching the tour.
Don't forget that there are links in the annotations that will bring you to detailed videos about
the various components.
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