Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I found that the feeding troughs were more expensive than the grow beds - three totes like mine will set you back about R360, I bought twenty all in all - the other option is to go for half pipes like synaptoman - but I tried for a long time to get a cheap supplier in JHB with no success all were over R5500 a 6m length... I have found another trough supplier in Welkom - I'll try to get hold of them tomorrow and see if they are more reasonable as the next system is going to be BIG. (i think around 60 000l)

Those pipes look really good, I too will build a jig - did this lot with a small gardening spade - long time - lots of swearing , you're welcome to visit any time - I will be down East London way in the next month or so - I could possibly make a small detour as well.

Hey Synaptoman

Nice jig. How does it work? Do you need to heat the plastic pipe before bending it?


Thanks

Chris Schilling

Midland Michigan USA

Cut the pipe half way through, measure 150mm, turn 180deg, cut half way through etc all the way up. Then heat the pipe where it will bend in (the heat gun is showed in the image) Insert square in jig and press firmly and steadily until it touches the back wall. All the slots will then look identical. You can experiment with various depth and intervals of cuts but this works for me.

Sorry for the hijack, Axle.

Hi Axle,
For sometime I have been working on a cheap GB design and for what it's worth have come up with the following.

A trough shaped in a V. Each side of the V is 500 mm or 18 inchs and 700 across the top or twenty eight inchs. This could be made with timber, ply or fold a 1000mm wide sheet of light G gal. A heavy Gal sheet would require less bracing.
This gives you a 300 depth of gravel but due to the V shape less gravel is required than in a normal say sheep water or feed trough.
This GB could be as long as you like only limited by the space you have.
You would line this with a plastic liner and as it is well supported only a light liner would be required. As long as the gravel is not sharp enough to put pin holes in the lighter plastic sheet.
The ends would be ply or gal sheet with drain holes fitted.
Good Luck.
Alex

Hey that's a good idea Alexmac - have you tried it yourself? I would think the V would need some bracing either side.

Howzit Synapto - been following your systems - I lived down the road from you a couple of years ago on Kamdebo - had the best time of my life in Knysna - I could move back anytime.

Axle - didn't realise those troughs were so expensive. I got a price on the JoJo's at Ferera's the other day R1600 for 2000 liter tank. I see JoJo is opening up in Western Auss soon - must be a good market for rain collecting!

Hi OBI,
no have not yet needed to do so as I have enough GBs for my current system.
I do intend to go a lot bigger with a 1700lt SSteel milk tank as a fingerling tank and a 15000Lt concrete pit FT. So I will need a number of GBs hence the need to research a cheap method.
Yes they will need bracing. With one V you would have a M shaped brace say 600mm apart with the V sitting in the V of the M. You could put two Vs together with each bracing the other in the middle and an A shaped bracing along each side.
The space between each brace would be determined by the type of material used in the forming the V.
I hope this makes sense
Alex

Hope were not hi-jacking Axle's thread here - but yes makes perfect sense also thought of the double V being a good idea - wonder if there will be enough gravel for the Bacteria to thrive and just have to find a gravel with not too many sharp edges and maybe run a French drain system down the middle in case of clogging - but definitely a cheeper GB system. Will play with a few planks this week-end - you live and learn every day on this forum. Your system sounds massive - I'll be happy if I get a 1500lt going. Cheers.

I'll join in the hi-jacking

A bed shaped as a small V will have troubles with roots blocking everything up. You really need to give the plants room to grow, without getting all clumped up.

1. Plants will need less external supports.
2. They will be healthier.

A simple|_| shaped bed, flat bottom, flat sides is easy to build, and gives the plants more room.

I have done the squash plants into really small growbeds idea, and had to rebuild the whole system. A narrow bottomed bed just concentrates all the 'solids' in one spot, causing a nasty anerobic area.

Squares are so boring - gimme round beds, V beds, curved beds - BTTDB (Back To The Drawing Board) but if you only plant in the middle of the V? Okay I'll get over it!

Rounded beds are ok too - just harder to build, the solids get distributed ok.

Synaptos large 1/2 pipe are ideal for a rounded sort of shape.

Synapto where do you get those pipes? How much do they cost and what lengths do they sell them at - I've only got 3m x 6m area to play with - cheers.

OB1
Go to my thread Alexmac for more info on another method I use for GBs. this will give Axle's a rest.
Alex

Jee gods, you guys have been busy, I must say that I didn't go the V route as I was sure that you would get a lot root 'compaction' near the bottom, I reckon half rounds are the best but once again your costs are enormous. Synapto managed to get some good pricing on cable grade pipes from Petzakis (6Metres) - another manufacturer is DPI - but I have never been able to match his pricing. If I get into a bind with this next system I may get him to order a couple and then take one of our trucks to fetch them.

If you do research on systems used for rural / upliftment projects the guys do tend to go the square box out of wood with liner method.

FYI - Hydrex also sells troughs for around R800 but I'm not sure of the size.

Some more photo's - greenhouse cover on - that was great fun - had all and sundry involved to lift the plastic over the frame. I couldn't believe how fast things started to grow when the cover went on. Always great to sit inside it during winter as it was quite warm, tempreture of water went up a good couple of degrees.