Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

We have some huge steel frame and glass greenhouses. I've posted some pictures in this thread

That ain't no green-house!..... it's a green-mansion!!!!

Once everything is finished it will be AquaponicLand

will there be popcorn? guided tours?

Of course Jaymie, and t-shirts!

Found the camera cable, so here’s some pictures of the fish in their new tank:

Neat job on the liner

Just a question about the the PVC liner. How food safe is it?

I'm planning to build a tank and can only find PVC. It'll be for an outdoor pond. I understand PVC isn't too UV resistant either.

The stuff I'm looking at is .25mm thick and looks very strong. Does this sound thick enough?

I use 5 layers of 0.2mm, this stuff lasts for years in the bush out here, so it will do the job in AP.

I'm pretty sure Nico is using the really thick stuff.

My liner is 0.5mm thick

Thanks for the answers on the PVC, I've now found some thicker stuff it's 1.5mm x 2m x 30m,

I think I'll go with this, it better to be safe than sorry.

Any thoughts on eating fish from a PVC lined pond? I've been drinking (filtered) water that's from PVC pipes for over a decade now and haven't noticed anything weird happening.

Seriously bad idea. All the flexible PVC materials that I know about are not food safe. By that I don't mean that they are not approved food safe like many plastics that many people on this forum use. I mean they are not safe to use. Their are many PVC fabrics on the market and they are popular because they are so tough and hard wearing but there is talk about banning them even for things like truck tarps and the like.

I was told by a manufacturer (tarp manufacturer) that one of the only reasons that they havn't been banned is that there is not a readily available substitute material that will do the job even nearly as well as the PVC materials currently employed.

Thanks, actually I read similar info from you when searching the forum. After Googling and checking many posts here, this is what I've found.
- There are moves to ban/phase out PVC, the main concerns seem to be environmental surrounding it's production and disposal.
- There are groups saying it's use 'could' be dangerous, however I was unable to find any study that showed evidence of dangers.
- It's about the most common plastic around, flexible PVC is used in children's toys (something that is being banned/phased out in some countries) and medicine (including flexible PVC used for tubing and storing blood).
- It's widely used in aquaculture (including 'developed' countries). There are several member here using it for fish tanks and GBs. The only 'food safe' pond liner I was able to buy is http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/968/PVC-Vinyl-Liner-30-mil/

The bottom line seems to be 'nobody knows', PVC was discussed quite a bit in this thread http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=156&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=pvc+liner

If I die from PVC poisoning - you'll all be the first to know

It is actually such an overwhelmingly huge problem.....

Read this article if you really want to get depressed. http://www.culturechange.org/e-letter-plastics.html

I don't know how we could get rid of plastic. It is everywhere and in almost everything.

I figure I will not use it in cooking if I can help it.... that is particularly contaminating..... and go forward bearing the facts in mind ..... buy wood or glass or whatever whenever I can afford it......but refuse to worry too much about it now. It has infiltrated our lifestyle so deeply that my contact is still so huge even if I do my very best to beat it.

On a more cheerful note : The way the world is going....... if we blow each other up it will not matter.

It IS a more cheerful note!!!!! Not much.... but definitely more.

Plastic is bad but some plastics are really bad.

The PVC used in rigid applications is different to the PVC used in flexible applications. For example the exceptability of using white PVC pipes to convey drinking water vs. the unexceptability of using lay flat flexible pvc hose.