Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

If you do insist on paint it I would find someone to sand blast the inside to remove the metal with oil in it after torching it. I saw a fuel tank for sale the other day and was thinking the same thing as you, but decided that it would only be worth it if the tank was free.

Nice tank !!

Sand blasting should work too, but I'm thinking the liner should be easiest. The tank's dimensions are about 73" by 48"

thanks for the explosive old diesel reminder I'll be sure to take precaustions, such as having my friend cut it BUt honestly, my older brother had an experience with diesel a few years ago and fortunately only lost his eye brows, eye lashes, and goatee; so, safety first!

healingdeva- are they indoor or outdoor tilapia?!

thanks synaptoman! i'm pretty excited about it myself

I'd like to ask for a quick vote, on making it a verticle 400 gallon tank, maybe putting the bottom foot in the ground so I can still see my fish, OR making it a horizontal tank with maybe a 2 foot wide open top, which will probably put the capacity at around 400 or so too.

thanks
Justin

What a friend

One method of rendering a tank safe for welding & disc cutting (not cutting with oxy) is to feed the exhaust from a Petrol engine into it. The CO in the exhaust does not support combustion so explosion would not occur. Just do it outside, with plenty of ventilation, so you do not suffer from CO inhalation.
Don't use diesel engine exhaust, it has lots of O2 in it.

Tony

Our system is inside the greenhouse so the tilapia are inside. We buried our tank, an IBC, and left about 6"-1' (15-30cm) above grade. We insulated around the tank so we don't lose heat into the dirt around the tank. Net result is that with a little heating, we've kept the water in the upper 70's F (20's C) for several weeks now, in spite of this crappy cold weather we've been having.

Personally, I'd turn the barrel on its side and cut a hole in the side of it. Then you only have 3.5 - 4 feet (107-122cm) to get to fishies. I know some folks have very large systems and likely very deep tanks, but personally, I wouldn't want to have to fish out the fish at more than about 4' (122cm).

DanDman - Being a fishing guide has its perks, I'll take you fishing if you use explosive gasses to cut fuel tanks for me deal?

Tony - thanks for the great tip its been over 10 years since this tank held deisel, but the water that came out still smelled like diesel, the tank is outside so I'll just load it up with exhaust fumes (not from my diesel truck tho!), and then let Joe have at it

HD - The four inches of snow we got LAST WEEK was a little disheartening, but it looks like spring is still coming. So far the the votes for horizontal tank far outweight the votes for tall skinny tank ( 1-0 ). I think I'll try to have it cut up this evening

My gowbeds will hold about 150 gallons. If I have a 400 gallon tank, how many growbeds should I have, 2 or 3?

thanks all,
Justin

Justin,
Your question about how many grow beds should you have really depends on the stocking level you want. If you want to max out the amount of fish you can put in that amount of tank, then you will want to put in twice as many gallons worth of grow bed. That would be for the 2:1 ratio of Grow bed to fish tank. Most people don't start out with that much gravel though. Most people seem to strive for a 1:1 ratio to start with plans to add more grow beds in the future. The less grow bed you have, the less fish your water quality will support. Fewer fish to start out is a good thing while the system matures and you learn about caring for you system/fish.

So did that completely confuse your question?

How many grow beds should you have. For the "ideal" ratio of 2:1, you would need 6 grow beds that size to get there (you would be a little beyond but that is not a bad thing.)
For a 1:1 ratio 3 grow beds will do.

So long as you size your pump properly, you can add more grow beds later. keep in mind, if you do enough grow beds to get far beyond the 1:1 ratio, you may need to think about a sump or some other way to keep from dropping the level in your fish tank too much when you fill the grow beds.

Thanks TC! its that information that you guru types know so well that neophytes like me lilke to find out


Have the tank cut, now hunting liners

with no safety gear

tank looks nice though. How are Joe's eyebrows?

Yeah I know, I told joe he should ate least have some welding goggles or something, and he said that he only wears them when welding.... "Joe thats bad for your eyes", I'd say. " Shut up", he'd reply. " hey Joe, thanks for ruining your eyes just for my fish tank", I'd say. and then I only heard torch noises after that He seems fine tho!

Sounds like some other people I know. Nice job on the tank. That will be a very nice fishie home.

For sizing your liner measure circumference of the tank and add a couple feet just to be safe, that will be one dimension of your liner. For the other dimension, measure the length of the tank plus the height x 2 and then I'd add 3 extra feet to that.

Then search on the internet for pond liner (go for the heavy duty stuff that will resist being punctured. 45 mil EPDM is good stuff, Firestone pond guard is a good brand.) I found fairly good prices at this link
http://www.justliners.com/aboutus.htm
You might be able to find better with some searching if you are so inclined. If you figure out your plans for grow beds ahead of time or anything else you might want to use liner for, it is often cost effective to order a large roll of liner rather than small chunks (provided all your projects want the same width of liner.) If what you order is under a certain weight, the shipping can be UPS or Fed ex which is cheaper than Freight.

Good luck!