Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Your welcome DW. We want to see some of 'your pictures' soon.......

Sounds like an elegant and inexpensive solution. Do you have some pictures and more details on construction? I'm curious what you used to band them together. And is the 1/4" blue insulation like a camping pad type material or is it stiff?

The 1/4" blue insulation is basically a thin version of the styrofoam blue board used for insulation. Relatively stiff but thin enough to be easy to make fit in a round tank.

Pictures of my big tank are in my system thread. Hum, I'll have to check but I think around the page 90 area
Sorry page 80
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2640&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=1185

http://12.162.169.9/products.asp?cat=235

might be something to consider. Have been looking at them myself.

After building several wooden growbeds and buying liner, I found out I could have paid for the plastic ones and had a lot less trouble. The same probably holds true for the wooden tank. The liner costs comes close to the plastic tanks. Also you dont have to worry about fish fins poking a hole in the liner with the plastic tank.

Thanks DWilson,
After reading your post you got my interest and I just finished a 900x1200 new grow bed made out of pine and pond liner. So far it's worked so well I'm going to do up a few more bigger ones for the pool. Going to look for some wood a little cheaper than dressed pind this time though.

I like plastic tanks.
Two problems exist with plastic tanks - 1) they break down under UV light over time (and some of them admit light which we know will turn it into an algae ranch) and 2) the outlet/drains that are preinstalled are less than optimal for cleaning and CHIFT PIST.

But it's not all that hard to make one into a fish or water storage tank that will outlive you. The following is paraphrased from a half-page in the book "Water Storage" by Art Ludwig. I can't recommend this book highly enough for any of us who want to hold water, move water, and especially design/build parts of our own systems to keep expenses down.

Issue (1) is solved by applying plaster over the outside of the tank. Wrap the tank with chicken wire, fill the tank with water (to prestress/get the shell the right shape) and trowel on a cement-based mix the color of your choice. Light won't get in, and unlike raw plastic tanks, your neighbors may actually compliment you on the aesthetics.

(2) and I think this is brilliant: install a bottom drain in a sloped, smooth concrete floor. Cut your hole in the top big enough to get in. Install an output pipe in or near the middle of the floor. Plug the pipe and pour some concrete and slope it toward the drain in a cone. (This method also works to raise the floor toward an existing side outlet, but there are advantages to a middle drain for solids collection) Finish the floor to mirror-like smoothness (to make cleanup day much easier) and cure it well so leaching doesn't hurt your fishies.

Just make SURE it's where you want it to be, and on stable, level, drained ground. It ain't going anywhere during your lifetime.

I'd tend to think almost all plastic tanks would be UV stabilised these days...