Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Now thats what i call recycling

Nice. Al - I also have second hand Aquasonic tanks as does Aussieponic. I have seriously considered putting in a window on one of my round ones and agree that it would not be hard. What I am not sure of is what thickness of perspex to use and also how big (maximum) I could make the window without risking the structural itegrity of the tank.

Awesome greenhouse Alchemist! How long did it take you to build that?

Classy

Hi Veggie Boy,

Yes, you make some good points there. I used a small old plastic rain tank cut in cross-section at about 2/3 height for my first biofilter (operates lying on its side) and had to seal the hole in the end with a perspex plate and this has worked without leaks but cutting into an expensive fish tank is another matter.
FYI the perspex plate used is 6mm thick and is 460mm square and attached to the inside of the tank with a 50mm perimeter leaving a 350mm square aperture. The fasteners are at just under 100mm spacing. There are 16 in all. They seem to be a plastic self-tapping type?? I used stainless steel nuts and bolts for my work. Since you have dealt with Aquasonic maybe someone in their lab will give you more definitive guidelines? They seemed a friendly lot.

Y'know, this is pretty ironic. Aquasonic tried to ask a higher price because the second-hand tank had a window. I said what do I want with a window?? Funny really. It clearly has marketing value. I've attached a photo of the fish through the window and a photo of the tank when I bought it home together with a larger factory second. You can see the very curious drain plumbing I had to contend with and that was all in pressure pipe and I use a gravity plumbing system (mostly).

Unfortunately, I don't deserve your comment. I tried to use recycled pallets but the spacing of the slats the integrity of what was available and the huge variety of designs did not allow me to do that. I am fortunate to have a pallet maker close by who made both standard 1160mm and custom pallets up to my needs for a very competitive price. (under $10 in many cases). Then I simply had to remove slats where necessary and chainsaw some down to get the "H" section I wanted to assemble.

Thanks. It was a single man job but I am semi-retired. It took quite a while. Maybe 20 to 30 person days in total but I built it when I had the time and inclination over several months.

Incidentally, I had already built an all-wood (and plastic) 11m x 6m seed house for my wife who is a passionate gardener (she is also the plant growing part of the team) so I had some experience, particularly on the coridor spacing and door design at the ends. For that I used a plan which I got off the net.

Cheers.

RE: WINDOWS IN YOUR POLLY TANKS IT WOULD BE BETTER TO USE POLYCARBNATE THAN ACRYLIC PERSPEX AS IT IS LESS PRONE TO CRACKING AN STRONGER.

Thanks Lungy. I think I've got the hang of "resizing" now.

I notice that flood and drain systems are popular. as i am new to this site do NFT systems get used much in Aquaponics?

Thanks for your comment about using polycarbonate rather than PMMA Hydrotech. You are quite right and I'm not sure that Aquasonics used perspex (but I did on the biofilter).

I'm a newbie, too, and there are many others more knowledgeable than I that may respond to this question....but since you asked the question on my thread..... my current knowledge is that flood and drain is great for a backyard operation which is what this forum is all about. With the pea gravel or similar, you have a medium to plant in and a ready made biofilter and solids filter. For larger scale, a deep flow system like mine has some advantages such as being able to avoid clogging by suspended solids more easily and ease of planting out (but also has disadvantages). Not currently aware whether anyone is using NFT in aquaponics.

Alchemist, I like the looks of the pallets for that greenhouse layout/design. Really cool, too bad recycled didn't work out for it.

I believe there are some out there using NFT and modified NFT with gravel in the channels.

Thanks. I tried the forum (full system) search tool under NFT Aquaponics and got 24 hits so there must be a number of members using NFT.
I was also looking at the Vic meet and it seems that NFT was being used by the host (Food and Fish?)

Allas i am not the host jim was those ones in most of the photos are hydro nft theres a small section of nft aqua [with mixed results ] stuff seems to grow best in flood &drain

You don't need an "envy" icon Stuart when you have this bugger or maybe this would convey the message better



Just crank up the AP chainsaw to cut out the window area and cover with one of Wollies recyclable plastic bags...finish with a touch of silicone around the edges vb

Al, nice setup