Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Your not planning on edible fish?

As for the growbeds, I'd say cut in half and make them round still.

The bottomless tanks look a little weak to cut in half like a blue barrel. Resting on their side, they are already deforming. With gravel in them, they may just flatten out.

Maybe weld a circular bottom on, and use as cylindrical fishtank, or cut in half, weld 2 bottoms on, and use as 2 (or 3) circular growbeds.

That was the way I was intending my post to sound like

Thanks for the suggestions. They are 4 feet tall and 3 feet 6 inches across, so I could get three grow beds out of each and then just source the bottoms or use a liner as Dave suggested.
Thinking a bit more on it before I start hacking. I like the idea of an oval grow bed or perhaps even one big fish tank. Cut and weld all of them together. Probaly not the simpilist approach.
Outback, I am planning on and have edible fish why do you ask?

The copper would hurt the fish more than humans; they would die before it got high enough to hurt GF, right?

I wouldnt use copper in a system that I was intending to eat from.

It is toxic to fish, and to humans.

http://www.drlwilson.com/articles/copper_toxicity_syndrome.htm

It may not kill you, but will make you sick.

Copper is an ESSENTIAL part of plant and human needs ,, it's THE AMOUNT that has to be controlled. If you drink 5,000 litres of pure clean water you WILL die.
Eat enough carrots and you die from too much Vitamin A ..... well betacarotine.

Getting the amounts correct is the answer ,, you need to assess how much copper will be in the water and therefor in the fish and ....., in you.

recommended daily allowances of copper are larger than that for Vitamin B1 , B2 ,, same as B6 etc etc etc etc etc.

My thoughts on the copper in the collector, are that if the guppies live thru it then the levels will not be a problem. I top off all my water with tap which goes thru copper pipes and hope the little bit from the collector will not make a difference.
I am seeing a degree in temp increase so far each day so the demo is giving about 300 BTU output. 1 btu for each gallon of water/degree increase. Day two and the test guppies are doing fine.

The problem with the copper, it is concentrated to excessively high levels in the fish, which you then eat.

Also the collector will dissolve in about 6 months

The copper in your household water pipes is not acidic (hopefully). Your AP water is/will be.

The general consensus in this forum has been that copper is bad in AP.

Didn't have the time last time I was up at Natfish, but I'm returning end of July...

I will make a point of scanning a definitive scientific paper regarding toxicity of copper, specifically in relation to yabbies (and crustacea as a whole) and other research regarding fish....

If you look on any crayfish site... research on oysters, mussels etc... you will find that it states IMPLICITLY that the effect of copper in miniscule amounts is lethal to crustacea... and the LD of fish while higher is still remarkably low....

Copper Sulphate was commonly used in aquaculture for many years... it is now a banned substance here in the Australian aquaculture industry and in most other countries...

The effect of copper on aquatic organisms has been known for years.... that's why it was the principle ingredient in anti-fouling treatments for boats.... even in that industry it has now been BANNED.... and councils throughout Australia have explicitly banned copper based antifouling susbstances from use in marinas, the reef areas etc etc..

What more needs to be said... RIP....

A bloke i know painted copper antifowling on an alamium[spelling ] boat and one day he jumped in of the jetty and went through the bottum

Seeee... told ya it was dangerous....

I am by no means suggesting that copper is a good thing with fish. I am just attempting to find out if enough will leach out of the collector to be harmfull to the fish. I would and do think that they will act like a (canary in a coal mine). If the guppies die then the collector can't be used as a direct fish water heater. If they live then I have another option in heating the fish water.
Certainly if they live the copper levels in the water can't be enough to cause any people harm from eating the fish. Agree? Disagree?
Outback, why do you think the collector will disolve in six months?