Eric Gerber

Yeah, I guess long and skinny would make for a lot of surface area. I was thinking that might help regulate temps in the summer, but I guess it might make it very hard to keep warm enough in winter. Maybe I'll go for a single round tank of about 1500 gallons. Then, if I built in a heat exchange coil in to the tank and connected it to a RMH, perhaps that would work. Thanks for the advice on the T for the flue. Will not do that.

Hi all,

I am planning my aquaponics setup. I am in Central Texas, where we do get a little cold in the winter, though intermittently. Occasionally (not this year, but last year), we had 3 days in a row where it did not get above freezing! Highs in the 20's, lows in the upper teens. I am planning to dig trenches about 2 feet deep, then build a ferrocement tank in which to grow Tilapia. I know they like it to be around 80 degrees. Being in ground will help keep the temperatures up, but I'm sure I will need additional heat, and I really don't want to run electric tank heaters. The whole setup will be contained in a hoop house, about 20 feet wide, 36 feet long. I'm toying with a couple ideas to heat the water in winter, and would love to hear your thoughts . . .

1) Build a solar water heater and have a temperature controlled valve to maintain 80 degrees. The problem with this idea is what would I do on cold, cloudy days? I've also seen quite a few DIY water heaters that get pretty warped if you use inexpensive materials (I would rather not use expensive materials for this project). Also, don't know if I could really get the temps up enough.

2) Build a rocket stove water heater like the one here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTnr8ua54Uw . Again, have a temp-controlled valve to maintain temp.

3) Build a rocket stove mass heater, where the stove pipe would be buried underneath the fish tank. Since the tank will be ferrocement, the bottom of the tank would be curved to cover the pipe, essentially encasing the pipe in cement. I like this idea, too, but since I've never had a rocket stove mass heater, I don't know if the stove pipe would get too hot for the fish. I certainly don't want to cook them in the tank! The tanks (2 of them) would be long tanks, about 24 feet, and about 750 gallons each, so that's a lot of mass to heat up. **Question: can I run a T off the rocket stove, then have 2 flue pipes? That way each tank will have a pipe underneath it, with a flue going to the outside on either side of the hoop house.

I'm fairly certain that the tanks will be cool enough in the summer, as they will be buried and the hoop house will have shade cloth rather than plastic, and plenty of side venting.

Eric

Sorry about that quote thing - I didn't see where it said "reply", only the quote button, but I found it now.

The reason I think the Separett will work better is that it is a urine-diverting unit, where just the poop is in the "bucket" part, and no cover material is used. There is a fan and it will hook up to my existing vent, so no smell. No heating pad, so more energy efficient. And their fan registers only 38 dB, while my SunMar hums along at a very annoying 61dB. The urine can simply go in to the grey water system and make my trees even happier. Since urine and feces don't mix, there is no horrible "tea" in the evaporation chamber. Apparently, the gnats will not be present without the moisture that makes the fungus grow on which the gnat larvae feed. Check it out. I have not been able to find any negative reviews, and they've been around over 20 years. The other nice thing is that it in a normal size, so will not be the immense presence in my small bathroom. Also, no step up. The only down side is that males either have to have very good aim, or simply take a seat to urinate. I'm cool with that if it means a quieter, smaller unit without gnats!

Ron Becker wrote:

Customer Service wrote:We are sorry to hear that you are having a problem with your composting toilet. If you have any questions regarding the operation of your composting toilet, please call us toll-free at 1-888-341-0782 Ext 218 and we would be happy to assist you. Your Sun-Mar service team.

I appreciate the help, it's my fault we got the little critters. I let the stack get too dry. Things should smooth out in a little while. It's very dry at 7k feet in central NM plus we are in a multi year drought here. Humidity is often in low teens or 20s a fair amount unless my weather station is lying to me.

Ron

Were you able to get of the fungus gnats? I've been battling them for two years and have never been successful. I'm thinking of dumping the sun-mar and going with a Separett. I can't take it anymore!

Thanks so much for the reply! Looking forward to getting some hugelterracing underway!

Our house is built on a bit of a slope, and we were planning on doing some terracing. I am wondering if it is feasible to use hugelkultur principals with the terraces? If one side of a hugelkultur mound is not a mound at all, but tapers out, will that work out? I just don't think big mounds in the front yard will give me the look I'm going for, but I really want to take advantage of the hugelkultur benefits. What are your thoughts on this?
Guitargerber

So, I just started my first Hugelkultur bed yesterday. It's just a small experiment. I dug down to bedrock, about 14-16 inches and about 3 feet in diameter, filled with fresh cut oak logs too big for my woodstove, then added a bunch of cut up branches in various stages of decomposition, no more than 2.5 years old, then covered with loads of soil. The whole thing is probably 4.5 feet tall. I'm planning on planting a peach-cot tree in the mound next year, once the wood begins to rot in earnest. In the meantime, I wanted to plant a good starter crop as a nitrogen fixer. It's gonna be a long, hot, dry summer, and I will be out of town for a good 6 weeks, so i'm interested in drought tolerant things that will do well and help the pile along. What suggestions do y'all have for Central Texas? I have some pictures of the hill I'll post here if I can figure out how to do it from my iPad.

Eric