Holmes-A-Court Project

RupertofOZ

Despite seemingly good interest at the various Sustainability Forum Exhibitions... to date, there hadn't been a single order...

Until now... Divonne & Peter Holmes-A-Court have decided to proceed with an aquaponics system... in fact a dual BYAP system.

The initial system was intended to be a 6 growbed "Deluxe" system... but for reasons that I'll outline later... it is now going to be a 4 bed "Family" system & a 2 bed "Entertainer" System....

The project has grown to encompass... a 7.5mtr x 12mtr greenhouse, 6 x 3mtr shed, rainwater tank, fish feeders and other components...

Here's the basic site...

Looking down the site - East...

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Existing dam running roughly North/South...

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Looking back up the site - West...

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RupertofOZ

First "sod" turned today...

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Levelled...

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Weed matted...

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RupertofOZ

Couple of trailers of crusher dust...

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Spread...

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Ready to be compacted...

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RupertofOZ

Now there's just ...

75mtr of trench/underground power...

Concrete slab for shed...

Footings for greenhouse...

And then the real work starts... :wink:

RupertofOZ

And here's one for you Nocky.... my site vehicle...

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faye

What a lovely, picturesque location!
I particularly like the site vehicle, I want one!
Look forward to seeing the progress Rupe

countryboy

Wow!

That is a beautiful site and a very nice build starting to come together! Gonna love watching these pics and reading the story line. Hope to see more like this!

CB

earthbound

So the shed and greenhouse are right at the same location there? Very nice location there.....

Have you done a layout in sketchup?

countryboy

I noticed you have your priorities right... The trampoline is out there before anything else!! (Or is that a cage to trap/keep kids in so they don't bother you while you work?? )

CB

RupertofOZ

earthbound wrote:

So the shed and greenhouse are right at the same location there? Very nice location there.....

Have you done a layout in sketchup?

Design went through various permentations, but ultimately ended up pretty much back where we started...

The (insulated) shed will house the tanks, have rainwater capture to a 3000L tank... and butt up to the western end of a 7.5 x 12mtr "igloo" greenhouse covered with Celloclim ... double layer, "bubble" film... to incorporate the climatic variations of the site location...

Cold nights, frost and even light snow... with cool days in winter...

Cool nights, with a month of warm to very warm days in summer...

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Celloclim bubble film is a French product with a thermal effect and light distribution that gives the plants an extended daily growing period. Thanks to the outstanding light distribution of Celloclim bubble film plants are benefiting from 100% usable light, 50-75 % diffusion charged naturally by the bubble effect (not mineral charged), a plastic that distributes the light more evenly through the plants, reducing the shadowing from other plant to plant and from the greenhouses structure. The thermal effect of Celloclim is between 10-20% and the gothic shaped greenhouse allows growers to use single skin film to gain maximum light to reduce heating costs in the winter months and in the warmer months of the year it reduces the plant temperature by 6-10 degrees once the temperature reaches 25 degrees. As light is one of the most important requirements for healthy plants Celloclim has helped growers achieve outstanding results over the past 4 years by reducing overhead costs and increasing production. Very few greenhouse claddings can achieve this result.

Like this, but with an extra bay and wind up curtains... oscillating fans...

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Haven't done a "sketchup" of the final design... as yet... :wink:

A greenhouse was an absolute necessity due to the winter temperatures... and thermal lossess/gains through the seasons posed all sorts of questions... hence the seperation of the tanks into a shed... which will be either fitted with an airconditoner, primarily to cool the shed in summer.... or have an attached water chiller... to directly chill the tank water... or both..

Plan is to run trout all year round in the main system... and other species in the smaller system, which is self-contained within the greenhouse, and which will ultimately be expanded... once some thermal data has been gathered from the greenhouse..

hazno shadow

Well done Rup We are busting to see the finished product :headbang:

desertrat

Amazing what can be done with a little (????) money !

faye

What time frame do expect for the completion of the system. What sort of fish will they be keeping?

RupertofOZ

Hope to be completed within a month Faye... timeframe is dependant on delivery/installation of the shed & greenhouse more than anything else...

Will be stocking trout in the four bed system, and probably Silver Perch in the two bed system...

chainsaw

What 500gram fingerlings to start off with:shock: Good score Rupe.

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