I've previously mentioned our soon to be completed grow room. Well, after many delays, I can now say it is completed. We have just a little fine tuning yet to do.

It started out as a portion of an 8 foot deep by 50 foot wide covered porch that stretches across to back of a ranch style house. We inclosed the center 30 feet in order to make the grow room. By the time we were finished insulating and putting in interior walls we ended up with less than seven and one half by twenty nine and one half feet of interior space. The narrow dimension made it a little tight but we still have twenty two inches of grow bed walk around room.

The six foot diameter 320 gallon main fish tank had to be pushed against the back of the house under a protruding kitchen window, which meant not being able to place two grow beds on either side of it but instead three grow beds on one side and one on the other side. We were able to squeeze in another 120 gallon fish tank at one end by shoving it partially under one grow bed. That tank will be for breeding and brooding. It is located below and to the right of the camera, so it is out of sight in the picture below.

The square grow beds have an outside dimension of 45 inches and a growing area of eleven square feet each, for a total of forty four square feet of grow bed space.

The grow lights are 2 X 2 foot fluorescents with eight T5s. They are really too small for the size of grow beds they are illuminating and setting their height took some time and use of a light meter to get the best compromise of light near the edges, which is half that at the center.

We started with two fluorescents and one halide, but after measuring the light output and power consumption of each we decided to sans the halide in favor of all fluorescents. The halide footprint was rectangular, which was problematic with square grow beds. Its light output was twice that of the fluorescents at center but the power consumption was 435 watts at the wall while the fluorescents were 145 watts each. It was a no-brainer to get ride of the halide in favor of another fluorescent. The fluorescents appear to have more blue light, which will be great for the green leafys we plan on growing in this room. The fourth grow bed will eventually be lit by LEDs, but that will have to wait for a little while due to their cost, so we added another fluorescent for the time being. We already had the fluorescents in stock and had been using some to sprout seeds.

Also, not shown in the picture, to the camera's right, is a rack with five shelves that we use for sprouting. Each shelf has, or will have, a fluorescent fixture mounted underneath the shelf above. I'll post a more pictures as we complete the details.

The main fish tank is heated by a standard 40 gallon natural gas water heater set to about 100 degrees F, a hot water circulation pump powered through a thermostat and the water pumped through 1/2 inch stainless steel tubing in the inside perimeter of main fish tank. I set the water heater's temperature with the circulation pump's thermostat turned way up so in case it malfunctioned it wouldn't boil the fish. The fish tank will reach a maximum water temperature of 85 degrees F if the thermostat fails to turn off the circulation pump.

There are currently no fish in the tank. We hope to be getting some before the weekend is up. In the meantime, I have been using pure ammonia that I purchased a couple of years back from a chemical supply house and have been keeping in the refrigerator. I add a little every few days and watch the chemistry. The nitrates are currently up to over 10 ppm.

We transplanted some lettuce from our greenhouse, as we sprouted a bunch thinking the grow room would be finished before now. We planted what we could very densely in a grow bed in the greenhouse and have since moved some of it into the grow room. It didn't like the move but seems to be recovering nicely after looking all wilted for the first few days.

The picture below shows all but the 120 gallon fish tank and the sprouting rack, which is out of the camera's view (this camera has since been lowered, see below). This is a live shot so it will change with each refresh of the page.

Oliver