Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

This issue of empty/or less than full containers tending to burst up out of the ground when heavy rains happen is one of the reasons I decided to put the fish tank in ground. I figured it would be easier to deal with a in ground container that doesn't get close to empty.

Digging is easy here as it's sand but if a hole is dug and then it rains heavily, the hole is usually almost gone leaving a bit of a depression around where it used to be as the rain tends to wash and fill in the hole as the sides collapse.

Good luck with finding a drainage solution!

OK, being an engineer I'm really embarrassed about this.
I too have sunken sumps, but no, it didn't pop.
I needed to make some alterations, so drained the sump tank and removed it.
Can anybody guess what happened? - Remember that the hole was soggy, as the rain has nowhere to go...

I can guess! haha! That's funny! (because it didn't happen to me!)

Did you have fishies in your FT? Did they survive alright?

yeah all was well, only lost 200L of water
drained the top one then, moved fishies to next tank over.
small HSM but all well in the end :-)

Thing that really upset me was that I decided the 45degree angle of ground between tanks was unnecessary as the tank below would act as a retaining wall for all that dirt! Then I went and Pulled it out!!! needless to say the sheet of corro iron wasn't enough to support all the dirt with a ton of water on top

Soo embarrassed, and that was before I told anybody too

that why i dont recommend becoming an engineer, if you make a *frack* up like that you've not nothing to be embarrassed about!

Somehow I busted no pipes! anyhow, enough of a Hijack, sorry Skygazer.

and then there is the risk of bird flu.

things have dried up so now the works starts to find a solution to my floating wheelie bin sump.

My latest idea is to concrete the sump into the hole and attach things to the side of the sump to keep it in the concrete. I am thiniking of attaching the plastic concrete re-inforcement lifters (see attachment) to the bin. they are about 7cm long, cone shaped. the idea is that the concrete will fill the cone and 7cm of concrete all around the bin (up to about 50% of it height) will be enought to hold it in place.

So any ideas on the best way to attach the plastic cones to the side of the wheelie bin sump? What sort of glue?

Why not try using some stainless steel screws and run some silicone over the heads to seal...screw from inside outwards

If the sump ever needed replacing you`d have a devil of a job getting it out
Maybe cast a concrete pier at each corner and bolt a frame or a couple of beams over/around the lip of the sump to the concrete?
Unbolt the beams or frame and lift the sump out.

Simple leave the wheels on once the concrete gets around the wheels and axle it will never move

that would have been the best idea yet, but I removed the axl/wheels when I first put it in the hole 8(


this may be my option. I am just paranoid about not being able to seal it properly. Would the standard aquarium silicon type glue be ok?

This is what we all using for sealing around pipes etc...if you screw from the inside, then you can unscrew and remove the sump tank and leave the saddles in place (may take a bit of jiggling to get it back after tho )

Can you put the wheels (or even just the axle?) back on?

Or a bit of bar anything a couple of large bolts through the holes once its under concrete it dosent mater