Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I was wondering if making a wood grow bed out of counter tops and sealing the corners with silicone would be safe.

counter tops being made of Formica or similar plastic.

Also I ran into someone who made wood grow beds and used a laminate flooring and silicone in the corners, he has been using his tanks for almost 3 years now and hasn't apparently had an issues. That doesn't necessarily mean its safe however.

I guess if need be I could try to find thin acrylic or some other inert plastic and seal it with silicone.

Any other ideas to this method of thinking? I think I want to try to stay away from builders PVC sheeting and cheaper pond liners, and if I went with the 45mil firestone or similar I might as well buy large plastic grow beds.

im definitely no expert but im pretty sure in the glue they use on laminate bench-tops there is formaldehyde... bad stuff used to preserve dead stuff. Now they way you propose the bench tops being used its unlikely it will ever come into contact with the food or fish but all it would take is a hot day and some water logging somewhere to increase the risk of contamination.

This is IF its still being used in the glue. The bloke that did our kitchen just before christmas said they did.

Carl used a clear food grade plastic in his beds to seal them. It was a bit like greenhouse film, just clear plastic. It worked ok, but you do have to be a bit careful of punctures.

Good point about the chemicals in the glue, however i have a neighbor who just told me they have 10-15 kiddie pools so i think for now that's how I'm going to go.

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9685