Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi I am seting up growbed's.
I have a 2500ltr undreground pond
growbed trays i can get 1080mm x 2040mm the bigest i can get from hidro shop
I will have 2 tray's and may add 1 more
the tray's will run in to a sump and then in to the pond

Welcome We like pictures. And Beer.

How deep are the trays? Most Hydro shop trays are not very deep and for flood and drain Aquaponics, deeper is generally better at least to a point. 30 cm deep is a pretty well recognized good standard depth. Shallower can be made to work but you don't get as much benefit to your bio filter. Deeper is especially good if you want to add some other form of plant growing like NFT or DWC or towers to your system since the deeper grow beds seem to give more solids filtering capacity.

Most hydro trays are 150mm... probably ok for lettuce and herbs...

Johnny5... sounds like you've got the large flood and drain tray.. 2040x1000mm


You can get a "giant" tray... that is 8ft x 4ft (old scale) - 2304x1115x118mm


Only 120mm deep... which will limit you in terms of what you can grow... particularly if you use flood & drain...

As you wont be able to fill with media much above 110mm... and don't want to flood above about 20-25mm below the media level...

is about 5in H
Do you know where i can get grow tray's from in au
so 30cm is good to grow lettuce & tomato

Johnny... you can get the BYAP growbeds... 2000 x1000 x 300mm from.. Dean (PM member "LiveBeyond) ... or go to his website ... http://www.growfresh-aquaponics.com.au/

BYAP sells grow beds.

Yes 30 cm or 1 foot deep is good for growing most things.

If you can't buy the grow beds, there are many people who have taken to building their own (what I did.) But you need a good source for pond liner since that cost quite a bit.

So... When you build your own using a liner of some sort - what's the experience been with the life of the liner? Does your typical media such as gravel end up putting holes in it or stressing it enough that it's only good for a few years?

If you use the high quality and tough EPDM liner, the gravel is not a problem for it. If you use something more like black plastic trash bags, it will have holes as soon as you dump the first bucket of gravel in it.

High quality liner is definitely a good investment when doing things with water and rocks. I had to replace several "plastic pond liners" that some one tried to use to build an ornamental pond for my mom. I don't care how many layers you use, they will all leak. High quality EPDM or PVC pond liner are what you want for a grow bed that you don't want to have to empty and replace the liner if it starts leaking.

Good quality EPDM liners will last for well over a decade...

Well a decade is certainly good. So, what can I build the frame/stand out of that last a long time, is cheap, and hopefully not to overly heavy (don't want it to be a permanent structure)?