Marci Nebgen

Al - Yes! Yes! Yes! I'm willing! Have been up measuring, staring, walking around - trying to determine the best way to go about it. Foam board between concrete pad and side walls? Full wall on sides in fish area? I like the water barrel idea, too. My tanks are 44 inches wide in the frames, but i do want to plan for a larger tank eventually - either home made or purchased. And the area looks empty right now, but add in biofilters, the grub bin and shelving, air pumps, etc. ... and still have room to work around my tanks. If I do a side wall in that area, i'll lose about 3 foot of space on each side because I'll have to attach to the first purlin. We're already in agreement with you on the wall between the fish and the grow beds / DWCs - making the fish area a separate room, essentially. The only reason we were thinking we needed to keep it open was for heat radiation. But if we close it off, and then have side walls, our area is then 12 x 20. Is that too small for a RMH?

Al, sorry - i certainly didn't mean for you to feel like you would be held responsible for my choices. I've given you all the information I have - there is no "start" date as we are already in production. There is no time that the DWCs will NOT be in service - but they aren't even built yet. The tomatoes will come out this week, and we will strip the poly and begin on the floors. I have considered the insulation - and every other recommendation you've made - carefully, and am trying to incorporate it into my plans. I already have - and have read several times - Ianto Evans book on Rocket Mass Heaters. That's why I had compiled my materials, as I stated before. I have also completed E&Es site planning page - very helpful!. I just still had some questions. Our objective is to be in and operational (tho maybe not productive) by mid November. Otherwise, I will be eating little tiny fish sandwiches with little tiny lettuce leaves for the next few months.

Hi Al, thanks for your comments. I'm thinking I can clear a few things up. First, the two rooms are not separated by any wall. The concrete pad is going to be installed simply to keep the fish tanks level. The drawing isn't to scale, but my hand drawn one is (with lots of erasure marks, too). The second row of DWC tanks isn't definite yet - just trying to see what can fit. The remaining floor i think will be stone of some sort - hoping to have something that will also retain some heat. And yes, it will be sealed up good and tight. Good idea about covering the straw bales with the old poly, we had already planned that they will be used as mulch bales next year.
Now, as for the growing season - we currently have extended seasons (thanks to the high tunnel.), and will begin offering a winter CSA share in conjunction with our regular season by the end of next year. The primary produce for that will be grown in our other tunnels/greenhouses using some of Elliot Coleman's methods. Our goal for the aquaponics is to grow all year - with the produce grown dependent on the season. I'm not expecting to grow tomatoes in December - but Kale and Lettuce should be able to handle lower temps. My fish need a fairly consistent temperature of 68 - 73 degrees, which I am maintaining now with tank heaters. That heated water is then pumped throughout the system every 15 minutes.
So, with that in mind, do you think two RMHs? Should they be head to head, with exhaust out to each end of the tunnel? Or further apart? And when you mention the moisture, I was concerned about cob being used in a place that - by its very definition - is wet, wet, wet. Will the heat keep it dry? You've been so patient and I appreciate it. I feel like I have SO much to learn.

Ok, I've tried to incorporate the suggestions you've made, Al. Michael, you inspired me - but all I have is Publisher so the detail is nowhere near as good. But here's a bit of visual.

Michael, what are you using to do your drawing? I need something like that!

Al, I've been a subscriber to the Bigelow Brooks Farm YouTube channel for awhile now - so many fascinating inventions! In fact, after i successfully ran my aquaponics for awhile, my original plan was to do a geodesic dome (I wanted to copy Rob's everything!) - but then our plans changed and I was given the high tunnel. I am still reading much about the J-channel, but haven't quite wrapped my head around it yet. I had already started gathering "stuff" for the RMH - so I have an 8" heavy metal pipe and access to as many fire bricks AND red bricks as needed (thanks to a friend who used to work for a brick yard - he's been storing them in his garage.) and about 6 - 55 gal. drums. Fortunately, my husband is a tool-maker and one son a welder, so I'm sure I can get one of them to weld the drums together for me or whatever needs doing. But I have to be able to tell them what I need done as they have their own projects going on. Can't someone just make me an instruction list, and say "do this first, then this....".
As for going under the fish tanks, my tanks will be sitting on a concrete pad. Should I run the exhaust under the concrete? We were picking and packing this morning, so I didn't get a chance to do pictures - but if you can picture a 26 ft. wide hoop house, 96 ft. long, the first 12 feet in length on the N (ish) end will be a concrete pad. That end will be closed in with a plywood/insulated wall with a door. (The concrete is not in place yet, so if I'm going to run heat under it, I need to decide that prior to ordering the concrete.) The only thing on the concrete will be my fish tanks and filters. Along the left hand side, past the concrete end, I will have 3 ft x 60 ft of 18" deep water "tanks" (really just concrete blocks covered with Dura-Skrim) on which my rafts will float. Depending on where I put the RMH and how much room I need for it, I could do more of these beds as lettuce and kale are our primary production crops. Along the left side (which is the wind/coldest side) I had planned to run a row of straw bales for insulation, and then to have my grow beds (expanded shale, hopefully), the total of which will take up approx. 30 ft in length and 6 feet in width. These plans are all I've gotten so far, and are based more on production needs than anything else. That leaves me a lot of space for playing around! Maybe I should section off the end? The far end - which would be South to South West - is polycarbonate panels with a door. The existing plastic (now 5 years old) will be taken off the entire tunnel, and i'll be replacing it with a layer of 6 mil IR poly and a second layer of 6 mil, with one of those little pump thingys inflating the air in between. The tunnel is designed to have roll up sides, but obviously for the winter i won't be doing that. I have thought about some pop-can solar collectors on the south end as well - that end is the furthest from my fish. I will have electricity available for my tanks, air supplies, pump, etc., but really don't want to depend on it for heat. Yes, fans are a must - my youngest son has been studying quite a bit about air-flow dynamics in a greenhouse and he said I must have fans. I said, "Yes, Sir!" I haven't even settled on my "floor" yet as right now there are still tomatoes growing in the high tunnel. The tomatoes are coming out this weekend so we can get moving. But I'm thinking my flooring choice can help with heat as well. Anyhow, those are my thoughts. Much to do - and appreciate any thoughts and suggestions.

On the J-Channel type, is there also a bench for thermal mass?

Al, by aquaponics, I mean fish with vegetables. I currently have two 300 gallon tanks (IBCs) with tilapia in them, and plan to get more. I will be setting up a combined system with primarily deep water raft systems (3 - 20ft x 3ft), and a few grow beds filled with media. (My prior system was much smaller, but we did well, and now i've inherited the high tunnel. ) For the RMH, I've read Ianto's book - but am not sure what you mean by a "J-Channel". I searched it on permies, and ... wow! It looks really big. The bigger BTUs sounds good, but i'm concerned with the height. The high tunnel is 13 ft. high.

My location is Central PA. It gets pretty cold here. I don't have any pictures yet - I will get some tomorrow of the high tunnel. Right now it is full of tomatoes. We've used it to extend our season for several years now (we grow commercially). But have never tried heating it through the winter.

Hi! Newbie here, looking for help and information. I've already learned so much reading these forums, and you folks have given us the inspiration to proceed.
We have a 26' x 96' hoop house that we are converting to an aquaponic greenhouse. We'll have double layer poly, and the first 12' x 26' will be a cement pad to hold the fish tanks. We are hoping to use year round. When looking for heating methods, we started reading more and more about RMHs, but I'm confused as to where in the "tunnel" to locate it. Should I build it right on the concrete pad and do a straight run? (That's a LONG distance to go!) Or build in the middle of the tunnel and straight run out the North wall (over the concrete pad)? Or what? I'm comfortable with a large cob bench in the middle, but how much area will it heat and where should i run my flue? This is a plastic covered hoop - with only the end walls as solid material (N wall is plywood, S is polycarb panels). Suggestions? Comments? Help?