Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

In answer to your question Gnash - GRATUITOUS amounts of silicone!

Bought 5 tubes so far, will probably need another 5 by the time we finish!

If we completely stuff up we have a mate thats a plastic welder who is hoping we need him. (His mouths already drooling at the thought of payback - in the form of fish of course!)

Hell, and this is your 1st system.
I wish I had that kind of space, and didn't have to answer to a higher power ...

Really nice work.

Well if I were you, I would have got the plastic welder mate to get it done right the first time and promise him payback after the fish grow out... probably cheaper than the silicone in the long run.... plus you might get yourself some free labour for the day... hopefully...

Good point ivansng, only thing was he offered after we had started siliconing
Besides he's so busy we are saving him for any IBC repairs we may need.
At the moment tho it looks like we will have about 8 IBCs left over anyway.

Actually thought I would show you why weve used so much silicone to this point - pic...



With the IBCs we had quite a few lids that were missing the breather caps, so hubby came up with the idea to try the tank outlet fitting over the holes - they JUST fit with about 1cm leeway. So we have only used the silicone in this area so far but its actually being used to backfill the hole so is about 5x5cms thick. We are hoping this will do the job.

Actually finding out about the big differences between silicones - were using roof, gutter and cement which works well and says not to be used where it will be immersed in water if an expansion joint. The three I bought the other day which I thought were the same but a different brand are roof and gutter and cannot be used in a full immersion situation.

Im now tossing up between sikaflex (sifting through over 500 products) and selleys aqua which Ive been told is the one used for aquariums (making and fixing) but interestingly that also says product should not be kept fully immersed?????

So as we toss up what to do with the 90mm stormwater fittings for the yabby tanks, we are working on the middle growbeds...plus some more yabby tanks in...

more pics to update...

Wow, ambitious setup there netab32 - will give you an amazing degree of flexibility when up and running. Will be watching this thread keenly !

So will I....

Thanks for the encouragement guys Its appreciated considering Im secretly waiting for someone to jump on and say "That will never work."

We can forsee some probs - mainly that we will need a stand-alone suction pump for cleaning out the yabby tanks - I know they are going to be messy but at least we have GBs to pump the water onto!

The sump size is a concern, but we are setting up floats - one to cut off flow from the growbeds if the sump pump isnt keeping up or breaks down, and one to cut the pump to stop it running dry (that ones going to be the test I think), and would probably be needed if the FT to GB pump stops.

We are also going to put a float into one of the fish tanks so that if the water level drops too far it will cut that pump out (which would be at a level where we know it could only get that low if the sump has stopped.) So hopefully with those failsafes in we can minimise some probs! Ive probably explained this earlier but thought id add it again as we have been discussing it just yesterday - which is also when our spider valve arrived (Thanks Rupe!!! ) another toy to play with... he he he

more pics...

Impressive as always netab

Yeah, never let that stop you - they may be right, but it's seldom something that can't be fixed

Yeah true to be honest, even if 'they' did - its way too late to stop now!!!

This is an inside shot if the 2nd bank of GBs with standpipes in...

Just trying to work out how low we need to put drainage holes. would like to put them into the PVC pipe so that they can be unscrewed and changed if needed but unsure if thats too high?

If so the holes would end up about 15-20cms above the base(havent measured it - Im guessing - the GBs are about 50cms high.

Otherwise we could just drill into the black threaded section on the tank outlet but would make it harder to repair or fine tune once the gravel is in. Thoughts appreciated.

netab, you do run the a small risk of having some stagnant water in the system with the lowest hole that high, though this would be mitigated to a fair degree by the regular influx of fresh water.

However, in you case what I would so is put one 6 or 8mm in the black thread as it is most likely that this is a minimum requirement anyway, unless your inflow rate to the GB is very low. This will then allow all the water to flow out eventuall, during the drain phase.
There is a odds-on chance that you'll actually need more than just the single 6 or 8 mm hole, so any extras could be drilled into the white pvc pipe to fine-tume the outflow.

While I'm here, I assume you're putting a larger, perforated sleeve around that standpipe ?

BTW, I realise that the GBs dont have to completely drain when that deep as water is still being changed - not stagnating, but was just curious about thoughts - if holes were max of 20cms from base, would leave just under 30cms full drainage. I think maybe it would still be worth putting 1 hole into each outlet for a slow drain to ensure no root rot probs if pumps end up turned off or fill times extended at night, or over winter, if we decide to do something like that down the track?

Sorry Chillidude, submitted post then realised you had answered for me!

Glad Im thinking along the right lines, and yes am going to put in a perforated pipe over standpipes, just waiting to see how much 90mm stormwater pipe is left once yabby tanks are done.