Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,

I am new to Aquaponics, just 3 months old. I have a 40 Gallon Fish Tank with 4 very small Goldfish in it. First I started with DWC setup with tomato plants in it and it went well. i can see happy plants in it growing really well. However when I saw tomato plants doing really well I became greedy and added an NFT setup too with PVC pipes for Spinach and Lettuce. This is when trouble started. All my PVC pipes started leaking very first day. I tried to use M-Seal epoxy to prevent leaking and that fixed it temporarily. however when i saw on the packet of epoxy it was written not for drinking water. And when I tried to move the pipes a bit then epoxy gave way and it started leaking again. At this time I called a plumber and he, to my horror, has made everything even worse. Now it's leaking in every damn joint and he then advised me to again apply epoxy over it.

I am concerned about epoxy and pvc leaching harmful chemicals in my system.

Can anyone suggest what to do now.

Do you guys too face this leaking problem?

A friend of mine has suggested me to use HDPE Pipes as they are considered Food Safe. I am not sure how I will join them together.

Any suggestions guys?

Besides the obvious thing that you are probably going to run out of nutrients with such a small fish load on the system. If you are just using PVC pipes why don't you just use the normal PVC cement? Granted once you put it together there is no changing it. But it will not leak. At this point I should backup and ask some questions. Where are your pipes leaking from? Any pictures would help. What configuration are they in? Side by side, horizontally staggered like on a A-frame. Maybe we could just simplify your plumbing to stop the leaks.

Thanks for replying.

1. Since I am new to Aquaponics so I decided to go slow. I have just 3 small tomato plants, 100 spinach plants, 25 Lettuce and 3 Cauliflower plants growing. And I still see Nitrates about 80 PPM from API Test Kit. Not sure why. May be because Goldfish are heavy waste producer.

2. I have NFT channels in shape of L. So I 90 degree elbows to form L. Pipes are leaking from elbow joints. Some joints are not leaking but some are. So may be the plumber didn't apply PVC cement well on these leaking joints. Today I am going to try to apply some more cement on these joints and let's see what happens.

Very annoying when it leaks.

I am also unsure about PVC pipes as some people say that they leach chemicals into the water. I have heard about HDPE pipes but I don't know about their cost.

PVC is approved for water pipes in houses. Unless your house is old you are drinking through PVC. If you look at all the systems on this site. 95% of us are running PVC with no ill effects.

Hi,

I was reading this article and for some reasons they say PVC is unsafe.
http://www.organicagardensupply.com/hyd ... -plastics/

Hi abhinav1986,

I asked somewhat a similar question last time, please take a look might be somewhat informative. i myself went with silicon sealer and white plumbing tapes (thread seal tapes, not sure if it is food safe thou.)
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15332

I only used silicon sealer on parts i have no intention on taking apart. Pipe works on my system where just normal plug and play (in that sense, can't think of a better way to describe it now ) did have some small leak at first but it went away, i am guessing due to the build up of bio film at the joints between the pipes.

If it is not a bad leak i am thinking you can wait it out and see. I personally will hold back and don't over use epoxy. I am more worried about the chemicals in the epoxy compound to the PVC pipes.

I might be wrong, don't take my word for it, maybe others with a better knowledge will add on.

Can we get some photos please, everyone here loves pictures.

Regards

Hi Curious,

Thanks for your advice. yes, it's a minor leak and i will wait for a few days for it to stop leaking. I have removed epoxy from everywhere and I have resealed all those points from cpvc cement. the company said that this cement is ok to use in garden.

Silicon is a good option. I will use it from next time.

I have just started aquaponics so it's a bit small and cluttered right now but I think I will make everything neat and clean as days pass. I am also planning to make a blog where I can post my progress. That way I will be able to recall things after many years and others may too learn a thing or two.

Here are three images of my setup. Tomato plants are planted very close to each other. i will shift them as soon as I buy a new HDPE bucket for them.







And this is a time lapse of my tomato plant.

At the time of replanting.


After 4 days


After another 10 days


After another 5 days


After another 8 days


After another 6 days

@abhinav1986 - Hi, what is the update to your system? Did the leak stopped?

Regards

Hi,

Leak is almost stopped because I think of bio film that has grown inside the pipe. So no worries there.
And in just 10 days my tomato plant has grown from half foot to 2 feet and I can see early flowers already. I am very happy as this is first time i am growing something by myself and that too successfully. Spinach and lettuce are growing like crazy.

I have over 100 spinach plants and 50 Lettuce plants with 3 tomato plants and all are growing like crazy. i have only 4 Longtail Goldfish and I feed them twice a day. All plants are looking very healthy and happy.

Great Experience.

Thank you all for your replies and help.

Regards

@abhinav1986 - Great to hear, now i will need to pick your brains on how you grow your spinach and lettuce, how did you start and where did you place them? (condition of the media and the time in the sun)

Pictures please

Reagrds

Hi Joel,

1. Seeds were sown in grow trays indoor with moist coco peat and daytime temp 21 C and night temp 18 C.
2. Seeds germinated in 3 days.
3. Trays were then transferred outdoors.
4. Replanted them in NFT in next 3 days when they had 2 leaves each. Growing media is Expanded Clay balls (Hydroton). I have also added 100 ml seaweed extract in water for micronutrients as my system is new.
5. Growing really fast with 8 hours of full sun and day temp 28 C and night temp 20 C.
6. Spinach grew full leaves in just 30 days.
7. We ate them all and replanted them. (Very tasty I must say).
8. Pics now shows Spinach only 16 days old. So in next 15 days we will have them ready again.

Now I am going to plant them every week so that we can have constant supply of Spinach every week.

@abhinav1986 - Thanks for sharing, and i am not Joel

Regards

Your welcome. Oooooops you are Curious. Not sure how I got Joel.