Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

stage 1:

i finally got to begin preparing for my system today. with the help of a couple of family members stage 1 is complete. this basically involved a bit of digging and leveling off the ground roughly. once the lemon tree goes i will have 6x6 metres to work with.

feels good to get this underway. its been good to have a break from restoring my fibreglass tanks. just waiting on some disposable paint brushes to apply flowcoat to the first 5. then only 15 more. can't wait to get them cycling.

please feel free to offer me advice as i can take all i get.

tanks awaiting restoration.

That's going to be sweet!

I like those troughs/tanks. i remember you said that they were used for trees or something, but they remind of the formers that are used when throwing large suspended concrete slabs.

The slab guys bolt them together in a grid as an integral part of the formwork so that a regular pattern of voids are created in the slab when it's thrown. I assume the method is used elsewhere in constuction.

These things are only used so long as they are sound. Soon as the crack or warp theyre ditched. Might be a good source of cheap tanks.

BF where did you get the tanks from, they look ideal??

you know you might be onto something there. i think they may have been used for something similar, then when worn used as palm tree pots. they were then bought by the person i got them off ( a builder) and the holes were covered. what ever they were used for they are a solid as buggery and ideal for fish tanks. just dirty to repair.

got them from an old fish farmer who was selling due to the outragous land price in the area. i could see it hurt him to get rid of them but he was happy they were going to a good home. some tanks may become available to members here once refurbished. if theres no interest then i have plenty of other uses for them.

BF, get some Acetone to wash the brushes out, so you don't go through so many brushes, in fact you wont waste any. And mix the flow coat in an old ice cream container is the best. Sorry if I am telling you something you already know.
They look like good tanks.....how many litres ??? in each.

Muzza

Murray,
If it does not help BF, it sure will help some other members

if and when they become avalible please call!

nooooooooooo not the lemon tree

are you going to transplant the lemon tree?

Hey BF are you going to transplant the lmon tree to AP or just gonna leave it dirt?

thanks for the info murray,

i figured it would be a lot cleaner to just buy a bulk lot of disposable brushes from a boat shop. i got 20 for $42 shipped to perth, so about $2 per brush. flowcoat is nasty enough so the less work i need to do the better.

the tanks are 1 x 1 x .7 m so 700l at capacity. the fibreglass is a lot thcker then i have seen fibreglass tanks made. i think they are well insulated not to mention strong.

cheers

your on my list gnash06. glad your interested. i would love to see these in some other aquaponics systems.