Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Guys and Gals

hey has the question of food-grade verse non food-grade grow beds, plumbing and tanks been raised recently? i had a search around but the shear number of posts is mindblowing!!!

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks all

Regards Porter

Food grade, UV stabilised HDPE is preferrable...

Definitely Food grade..

I'm actually going to contact the person I got My initially lot of IBC's from and see if they have more..

So if anyone is after 1 or 2 I might have some spare..

Juergen

Have never used food grade stuff, and I know a bunch of others that dont also.

One of my IBC's had a concrete accelerant in it, highly toxic, even burns your skin when in its liquid form. Steam cleaned about 10 times with the aid of pool chlorine. Havnt had a problem yet, if my missus has a baby with a third eye or something Ill let you know.

Friends of mine have used IBC's that have had coolant, hydraulic oil, engine oil, round up and other types of chemicals without any issues at all for many years.

Theres plenty of other dangerous things in this world, this issue is very low on my list of things to care about.

Everyone to there own.

Remember non food grade tanks will leach toxins ino your water, nasty, nasty toxins

Is there a way to tell whether an IBC is food grade plastic or not?

Not recommended I know FB but my fish, plants and myself are doing fine. So is everyone else I know using non food grade IBC's. Cant be too nasty.

What about the plumbing and pumps that are used? They wouldn't be considered food grade. So are we contradicting everything by saying that the FT and GB should be food grade but then leaching toxins into the setup with the plumbing pipes and pumps?

Wasn't that the same approach to asbestos many moons ago?

My understanding is that toxins etc. build up over time, so you probably wont taste/notice anything untoward...

I think the point is to reduce any toxins in the system. Ideally everything would be bamboo, but that's not practical. As things get easier/cheaper they also come w/ more risk of contamination. We all have to find our balance I guess. The most surface/water contact would be the FTs and GBs, so they would leach the most if they were an unsafe material.

It seems to me that all (most?) IBCs would be made from food safe plastic as they are prob only made be a few manufacturers and are widely used for food. It would be the previous contents that might be a problem. Mine previously contained olive oil.

Yep it all comes down to risk management i suppose, while there is probably some small risk of contamination/toxins etc, at least you are able to control many other factors which you would be unaware of buying produce from elsewhere

Thats a little like saying, if you can't stop smoking you may as well smoke 3 packets a day rather than cut down as much as possible.

ok, so we agree that by taking as man precautions as possible, we can definately reduce the risks of the chemical poisoning that we are all trying to avoid from the bulk suppliers.
Excellent.

Irrigation pipe, it should be a given that when we say irrigation, it SHOULD be if not foodgrade, then at the very least, it shouldnt be UNsuitable for food right??
Given that its the nature of the pipes construction.

Bamboo, now thats an interesting thought!

i have to say tho, when it comes to feeding family and friends, i seriously, would be taking a real hard look at myself, no offence Charlie, about ex-petrochemical storage containers.
I have to agree with Freoboy and Junkie, you just cant tell what seepage or build up will occur.
Thats a gamble to big to take. especially with Kids.

Thanks eveyone

Porter

Only if you use non food grade gear in a system, that will be true.

On our recent community project we had a minor issue with some in ground tank supply, they had not been made. The supplier offered me the non potable water version as they had it in stock. I asked what it is made of and what is the risk to the fish. He checked with their technician and came back with, "we can not guarantee what might leach out of the tanks so we do not recommend you use them".

Pays to check and hopefully, the person you are dealing with is honest about the source of their product...

Not a major issue with high quality pumps and plumbing can be food grade. You drink water in your house?

There is a fundamental flaw in all the reasoning so far. The assumption that food grade is 100% chemical free.
Who decides its food grade? Same people (fat bureaucrats) who decide that some "level" of radiation is safe (no level is safe, its all proportional. In Japan the govt increased the safe levels, because the levels went up so much)
BPA and Pthalate containing plastics are all considered food grade, even suitable for babies.
BPA has been shown to directly cause mutations in breast milk producing tissue, and indirectly cause brain development issues in baby mice.

Just so we are on an even playing field

So many people say/think "Ive been using this for years, and I'm fine!"
That statement means nothing. None can tell if their predisposition to getting late onset cancer is changing, or if their likely hood of developing Alzheimer's (or just worse than they would have gotton) is changing as well. Cancer rates are increasing, not just in old age but also childhood cancers. So is Autism, so are many other things.
We just live in a much more toxic world (and we eat more crap)

Anyway, my approach is just do what you can without killing yourself getting there
In the absence of the 100% bamboo/wood/glass? AP system I guess we do the best we can.
But we are all free to use recycled roundup containers too, its a free (well it should be) world