Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

(Sorry - laughing smiley overkill...wont do that again )

cool, yeah, definitely need the sleeves. My drains are getting quite blocked regularly by roots from my tomatoes at the moment. Only thing is I have 150mm pipe around mine as my freakish hands don't even fit into 90mm pipe !

Actually Chillidude, WAS thinking of something larger but was worried they would be too big - do you find any probs with them taking up too much room? Also if they are able to be spun, how much do they fix root invasion probs, or do the roots just wrap around and still slow down water flow?

Have another question to put out there that Im not sure what we are going to settle on yet... what do you use for standpipes in the fishtanks? Keeping in mind mine are polymaster cone bottomed tanks. I know you can get them from aquasonic etc made for that purpose, but is there a mesh that can be used - metal or plastic, or just PVC with a crapload of holes drilled into them?

Will post some more pics cause I can... and cause they are there

Hows this for recycling... using cut-outs from holesaw to cap inside drainage holes. (not glued yet, but it'll fix the problem of quite a few broken and leaky taps we thought!)

Up there for dancing netab...

100mm PVC fits in my polymaster tank sump hole. Just end capped a short length and drilled lots of holes. Also made sure there are a lot of holes level with the bottom of the tank so that crap can easily get out

No, I certainly don't think they're too big, but I have the BYAP GBs so they're a little bigger than yours. I don't have a lot of choice anyway.

Actually, I don't know if I can spin the outer sleeves as I haven't tried. Seeing as I can get my hand down in there to grab the roots, I haven't needed to.

I've been looking at your 2 tier tanks and wondering how well do the top halves sit on the bottom halves, do they actually lock into place?

I would like to do the same design if I get mine next week...but....want to leave the forklift spaces at the bottom along with the tap. (I rent so want to be able to load them on a truck when I move)
So I'm thinking about just cutting the IBC and the cage at the 2nd square down and flipping the top over....since you are now the authority in halving IBC's whatcha reckon

Hey Gnash, to answer... the IBCs are made to stack on to each other anyway, so we just took advantage of that by cutting them at the 2nd square from the bottom, then sitting the bottom onto the top - but pulled the larger plastic section out and spun it around. We did it this way as the top of the IBC cages are reinforced for strength anyway.

So if you wanted to, the top section could be forklifted as its still the origional base, but the lower section is just sitting directly on the ground with the frame over it - I dont know how you would go moving it unless you had a pallet under it - which is something we originally thought of doing.

Doing it this way makes the whole set-up really strong as the top GB does lock in to place at the corners. Hubby tested it by jumping on it, as well as us filling the first one with water and leaving the bottom one empty just to see how much movement we could get out of it. On top of that we placed the whole thing on a 30degree angle with what we felt was the weakest corner at the lowest point, left it for 4 weeks, and occasionally kicking... jumping... sledgehammering it to test - No movement whatsoever!

We were thinking of using a different design using the taps but the quotes we got for accessories were rediculously overpriced.

Just let me know if you would like any more close-ups of the cut IBCs - cropped one photo for a close-up view...

PS: made sure we chose the IBCs with the best bases out of the pile - most importantly the corners. The side bars can be a bit bent right at the bottom but they are easily hammered in line so that the corners can click into place.

Thanks for that, I usually have them in the yard where i work to go have a look at but none there atm.

Ahhh no worries. Even ones with corners that seem a bit shabby are sturdy once there is weight in them which is good
We were pretty rough with the test one just to make sure (hubby demonstrated with violent boot contact to ease my mind) mainly because one of the kids was found playing hide and seek in the bottom section the day after we filled up the top with water to the brim...and I nearly had a heart attack. still couldn't get the thing to budge tho!

PS we did originally spin the top section and push to the back to allow access to the bottom tank like some have set theirs up - if you do it that way by cutting 2 squares from the top and flipping over you would still have the forklift holes at the bottom to move easier - but as we were never planning to move them we just did it this way - seemed stronger and its easier to get to the back of the growbed if you have a bank of them as the bottom one isnt sticking out that extra 1/2 foot.

Thanks mantis, can you tell me what size tank that would be for, Im wondering if all polymaster tanks have the same size sump hole?

Thanks chillidude, I think we might experiment with a couple of different sizes to see what works best - love a good experiment
Will probably try leaving the sleeves loose so that we can turn them, not sure how difficult it will make it when filling GBs with gravel tho - will just have to try it and see what happens (standard AP catchphrase isnt it?)