Hi all, great forum here and lots of helpful people which is nice. I hope in time that I can give something back, once I've completed my Jedi training.
I've had small vegie gardens in previous homes but we recently moved to acreage on the Mornington Peninsula (45 mins from Melb) and I'm keen to have a go at AP. It all looks/sounds like great fun, so I'm up for the challenge!
We have 90,000L of water tanks plus mains water, a small damn and we recently installed a 5.4kW PV system which should keep electricity costs down during the day.
At the moment I'm planning CHIFT PIST using a 1000L FT with 1-2 grow beds and yabbies in the sump. I'll probably add a few smaller tanks to separate the yabbies. I'm selling this whole idea to my wife on the basis that we'll have unlimited basil, coriander, chilli and tomatoes in the middle of winter. And lovely fresh fish once a week after it's established.
I was going to use IBCs after I found a place selling them for $60 but I haven't asked whether they're food safe yet. Then I thought more long term that I won't have a lot of spare time to muck around so rather than having to replace or upgrade the IBCs later, I might buy poly tanks to start with - at least for the fish tank and sump.
I have a quote from polymaster for their 1000L tank with tapered base for $902 + $132 delivery to Tullamarine. Seems reasonable I suppose. Are there any cheaper options available in VIC?
What about using circular grow beds or sump tanks, apart from the extra space required? For the GB, Polymaster has a 250L tank for $189 which is 420mm high (1st pic below) and a 500L tank for $295 which could be suitable as a sump - 2nd pic below. I'd need to make a lid for the sump, which is easy enough.
I'm yet to get my head completely around the plumbing side of things, but I'll post my questions in the relevant forum sections. Looking forward to starting my build thread!
