Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Probably over-engineered then C1, so I can hardly fault them ;-D

Ok I have finished my daughters cat house, yes a cat house to keep it in, last thing I needed around here but she bought it and im stuck with it, but today I started elevating the growbeds, pics below
I have muscles that are sore in places that I didnt know could ache

I do still have to put timber under the beds yet, forgot to mention that

Looking good Bree

Attach wood from the timbers diagonally to the center floor each side or centrally if the timbers are locked, inside the blocks. IMHO possible problems on an end push.

i am glad to see that you have half the 4 sale sign in the cat house before you go any further with your ap finnish that sign hehehe

Good to see, you're getting on with things Bree....

I'll reply to your PM later.... in the middle of HSM at the moment ....

Yes endpush could be a problem, thought about lowering them a little but I would then have to bend, still thinking about my options, I think they will be pretty stable when the weight is on them but ..............

one more question all, how close in height do all the grow beds have to be ? They will all drain back to the 1000 litre tank in one of the pics, who lives close and is good on a pick and shovel. The last person who owned this place must have dumped loads of chitter and rock in here to fill the land and the 60 foot pine with 15m radial roots is proving a challenge as well lol

the heights of the GBs are unimportant. Place a valve on each of the outlets so that you can regulate flow for different heights, as well as longer distances from the pump and extra corners. All these things effect your flow rate.
Also to keep Frank happy, for efficiency's sake, make sure at least 1 valve is left 100% open, or you're restricting the flow for no gain.

Regarding your stands, if they're just blocks stacked atop one another then end push will be an issue. you could fix this by driving a star picket inside the blocks, and filling with concrete, or the quicker way of putting a bracing timber diagonally from the top of one pillar to the bottom of the next. you could also get some wire, and double brace, forming an x from the top to the bottom of both pillars. Did that make sense?

Whatever suits, the weight will help, but wont be perfect I wouldn't think. There's a lot of weight there so if it gets off balance, it doesn't need to by much before HSM

thanks for the advice
I have been out digging and the tree roots have one, to big and too many, I have been trying to dig in my fingerling tank and get it lower than the grow beds for a gravity drain into it, so te next question is - the bottom of the growbeds will be around 700mm off the ground, i really dont want to make them taller, and the fingerling /drain tank will be i think around the same height, do i need a straignt run into this tank or is it acceptable to have a flooded drain into this tank, the bottom on the growbed will be higher than the water level of the drain tank, help please - thanks

If they are not siphons a flooded drain is fine.

they are the standard drain that comes with the backyard aquaponics systems

Generally, as long as the bottom of the growbed is higher than the water level... no problems Bree.... standard BYAP set up...

Doesn't even matter if the drain pipe returning water to the tank is actually angled upward slightly ...

Tis all good then, go for it.