Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

You could always use concrete instead of a wood frame although stout timbers would handle it.

The pipes should weigh roughly 870 lbs (370 kilos) apiece, so slightly less than that per half because you are cutting off the bells. So your looking at 12 lbs a foot (5.45 kg), per growbed + water and gravel.

limestone gravel commonly found in my area runs 1.65 tons (1.5 metric tons) per cubic yard or 125lbs per square foot (57 kg). you'll be installing about 1 cubic foot of gravel per ft of pipe. so were up to about 140 lbs (63.5 kg) a foot less water.

Water weighs approx. 8 lbs (3.63 kg) a gallon
to figure gallons per ft in a pipe
(pi)3.14 x (radius squared) 10 x 10 x (length in inches) 12 / 277.42 = gallons
approximately 13.6 gallons per ft (51.48 l) divide that in half per ft of growbed and
then divide it by half again because of the rock taking up additional space and you
get about 3.4 gallons (12.9 l)per ft of pipe growbed section so that adds another 27 lbs (12.25 kg)per ft
of fully loaded grow bed at approx. 170 lbs per ft (77.1kg)

1.5 tons per 1/2 pipe growbed (1.36 metric ton per 6m)

Yep thats pretty damn heavy

This is all based on assumptions and everyone knows what can happen when you assume something.
Something about making an A** out of U and ME

Well, since your fish tanks are high and you mentioned sumps, I expect that you don't want those grow beds too high off the ground. Perhaps half the height of the fish tanks. That way you could CLIFT PIS the system and reduce the number of required water pumps. I would definitely want one sump in each end of the green house and you could essentially have two separate systems running so if something happened to part of it, the other half might be untouched. This is so long as the sumps are big enough to handle all the water from the grow beds.

The exact layout of the grow beds might be of only minimal issue, I expect that I would run them with one end near the tanks and the other ends near the end of the greenhouse. Filling from a high water pipe in the tanks (ask someone running CLIFT PIS about the best method of doing this) The other end could have siphons or whatever dropping down to the sump. I have drain lines for my grow beds that drop down from the beds and run along on or just under ground and then pop up and over the edge of my fish tank and that seems to work fine so long as the edge of the sump/fish tank is a bit lower than the bottom of the grow bed. This way you can still have walk ways without tripping over pipes at the sump end of the system.

For supporting the grow beds, what materials are easiest there? Timber (how bad are the termites) or blocks, or site poured concrete? What about making some rammed earth supports by mixing a little cement into the dirt and pounding it into forms to cradle the tubes?

Your temp range sound quite nice for greenhouse growing! 25 C in summer would seem a rater chilly day here in summer. I would guess we spend much of our summer with daytime temps between 28 C - 36 C and yet the region is covered in greenhouses that must be air conditioned.

Spent the day cutting the last of the 500mm pipes for GB's. I have now placed them out (upside down) to get an idea of how I can most efficiently fit them all in. We are planting 2.1m poles into the ground and then supporting the GB's with cross-members after bolting them together in pairs. We are leaving the poles at full height in case we want to add another level or for crop support. My basic layout attached only leaves a passage of 700mm between rows. Will this be enough? To take out one 6m length might give us more working space but.... well it'll be 6m less planting space. As it stands I have 11 x 6m half pipes plus 2 x 3m This totals 72m on the one side and 72m on the other side 144 (gross !!) metres of grow bed space heeeeha !!

The wall thickness of the pipes is a massive 14mm and the drains that I am using JUST seem to have enough thread to make it work. I now have to work out how many drains I should have per 6m length to completely drain the bed in about 1/2 hr.

I also have 15 pipe ends that we cut off. What could we use them for as it seems a waste to throw them away?

Any comments would be appreciated.

The ends make great planters Ive used several for years for that purpose. Maybe uou could add a plastic bottom or landscape filter cloth bottom and hang them over the tanks and direct pump to them so the drainage free falls back into a bed or tank.

If my metric conversion is correct, this is 28" standard measure. For greenhouses, they normally use 2' (600 mm) between aisles but use larger aisles to access the length of the greenhouse with electric carts and wagons, usually positioned as a center aisle so they can make use of logistics for both sides. You won't have room for standard wagons which might make harvesting easier- time is money, especially if you're paying for someone else's time. Having said that, you could design a narrower wagon that would suit your needs.
Hey, if you want to know a simple way to lay down a weed/dust control that's cheap, level your ground, lay down newspaper and dampen it, repeat to add thickness. It's a great temporary fix for walking on, although I don't know how well it would stand up to wheeled wagons. Being mostly white, it is also reflective for light and heat.
And if the birds get to be too much, build a concreted metal frame on two sides of your dam. On top, run cable with turn-buckles and eye hooks to tighten cable and lay chicken wire over top of that. You can also use this same frame to tarp the dam to keep down algae growth, if you need to. I saw that design used at a Federal run salmon hatchery here in California. We have issues with a lot of fish eating birds here and they are almost all protected species. Up there, they also had river otters and I'm sure raccoons that would also take advantage. Make sure that there is still some sort of water source for the Babboons or they may destroy it to reach the water, maybe other animals too.

Was going to suggest a similar thing.....

Put planter bags like the ones pictured, (the large ones measure 230mm/230mm/460mm), or the ones they use in nurseries for large trees...into the offcuts....







Maybe place them over a box channel to collect the darinage.... use them for tomatoes or citrus trees etc

Yep thats what I was thinking here is another pic with filter fabric came from my search for upside down tomatoes

I still think a tiered system would be easier to deal with even if it was done as two tiers of three on either side of the tanks. Would allow a larger central aisle and two smaller aisle on the outside plus would have gravity working for it draining directly into the lower beds.

Are these draining to a central sump?

Any time you tier, you have two issues- shadows and access. Remember, it has already been estimated that these growbeds, when filled, will weight about a ton and a half each. You would use a lot of large wood beams for support. If he is concerned about losing vertical growth, he can grow plants that can be trained vertically (tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, peppers) or he can use another system like NFT, run it above the existing growbeds and grow strawberries which can stay in place for 6 months, get yanked out and re-planted. The ripe strawberries can be harvested from ground level, by hand or with a fruit picker, and if spaced right wouldn't interfere with the plant's growth below. Or even hanging baskets, a lot of greenhouses, use vertical space this way so they can grow multiple crops.

Today we dug 40, 500mm deep holes to plant the supporting poles for the GB's on one side of the greenhouse. Tomorrow is a Public Holiday (bloody commies) so on Friday we'll dig the other 40 holes and the concrete them in.

P.S Oops, looks like big rains have just arrived, so let's wait and see.

Looks like your putting in a covered vinyard
Have at it Mate.

I think leaving the poles full length will give me more options. I'm thinking (and dreaming) vertical systems at the moment and there is a HUGE amount of wasted space up there.

A good day at the commercial site today. Almost finished mounting the GB's on the one side of the greenhouse. Too tired now for too much commentary so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

And some images of the work completed by the end of the day. Note the gravelled walkways.

Looking good!