Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I think the gripset51 costs less than that.

It seems that gripset51 (or other such products) are used for painting sail boats.
Internet search on the products lead to discussions among sail boat owners.
It also says on hot days, it may become soft.
No problem if underwater, but would be a problem above water.

1] making it: good instruction here
Web4Deb
Post subject: Strawberry Towers
Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8800

2] Media discussion:
BNDYBEAR
Post subject: Ready to go Perlite Strawberry Towers!
Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7966
[strong opinions against perlite.]

I think perlight has a bad reputation for breaking down to dust.

Can anyone else shed any light on perlite?

And are there any pH problems with perlite?

And those are great instructions, but more work than you need to do if you are going to put your towers over grow beds to catch drips.

I now think I'm going to use my towers again by just putting grow beds under them. I think I'll go and buy a blue barrel in the next few days. to make the new grow bed, and move my fish into an IBC so I can use their fish tank as another grow bed.

Before trying to make 3 grow wooden grow beds myself, I decided to ask someone who was willing to make them for me to give me a quotation for price. I have been waiting for a week.
My leave from work will finish in one week. Perhaps, I should have started making them myself since I now know roughly how much materials will cost me.

Patience, Patience.

Meanwhile, I am collecting more wisdom from this forum.
All readings and no action.

I had been running some trial runs of floating raft with several different vegies for four weeks.
They hardly grew!
In response to another person who had a fish pond, someone suggested removal of all water lilies.
No healing then.
I want to have aquaponics with healing garden.

I show you what I mean.
I took a picture of my wife on pondside.

Sejin

It's nice to see your wife still lives there after coming back from overseas to see what you have done to the healing garden

I dont think I was the only one on BYAP that was worried for you

I told her that metal shelves and metal fence would eventually be all covered with green, and we will have meals in a conservatory like setting on a table next to the pond surrounded vegetables and flowers.

That was my big talk.
But I will have to deliver it in reality.
i have no doubt i can deliver soon or later, but i am getting impatient because i may become busy soon.

Sejin

Just tell me when, and I'll sneak into your back yard and replace all the plants and fish with some fully grown ones

That guy from the hydro shop that said Adelaide water was at pH 8.0 was correct. I just lost a fish by adding water from a container I filled a few days ago and it reads ph 8.0

It seems to be back to around 7.6 now, but it might change again.

I've think I've got a pH test you can have if you still dont have a full test kit.

While waiting for a quotation for costing of made to measure grwo beds, I came across in a big Bunnings store a ready made, fiber glass pond that was nearly perfect for my purpose. 150 x 75 x 30 cm and $235 Australian.

Well width is not 90cm that I wanted, but better to be a bit smaller than a bit larger if it is to fit into my metal shelve frame.

UV protected? Yes, since it is a pond.

Food safe? Not sure, but may be OK if vegetable is growen in there rather than as a food container. Made in China? I would not trust plastic or fiber glass material made in China at this stage China's social development since it has a very poor environmental consciousness. But, it was made, of all places, in USA!! Well, even if it is made in USA, it was made for a pond, not for grow bed.

But for $235, it saved me a lot of trouble.

There were two of this size, but I got only one first, just to see how it fitted my my frame. Then went back to get anther one. Now I have two of 150cm x 75cm. This is a fair size for grow beds. By placing them a bit to one side of my 5m long pond, I still have nearly 2.5m of pond uncovered by metal frame and grow beds. This is perfect.

Colour? It happens to be black.

Together with black metal frame, it now looks almost as if the choice of colour was deliberate. I do care of colour coordination, but this combination was unintended.

Now it looks like the plan to get three large grow beds is abandoned. Tall metal shleves will now be fitted with smaller grow trays. Metal shelving also allows to have one more layer below the main grow beds. More than half of this area is shaded, but having one more layer will be useful.

perfect.

I had no internet for last five days.

It was difficult to live without internet for five days, especially when I am home, being on leave from work. I depended on the information from BYAP forums. I had to plan for my next move, which was plumbing. Having never done any plumbing except for the most basic gardening jobs, I am following other people's experience. Of course, work related e-mails need also to be checked even if I am on leave.

Initially, internet was on and off several times for a couple of days, then went off entire day for four days. The place I live, Lochiel Parl, is not only a "Green Village", but also a "fibre estate", which means not only internet, but also phone and TV are based on optical cable. So, I had no landline phone and TV while I had no internet.

Four days is a long time. Long enough to experience the full impact of life without internet and TV.
It does make you think about the level of technical dependency our lives have on communication network.

On top of this, a sudden storm around 7pm last night cut electricity, and light came back only at 2pm, 5 hours later. I was not too worried about my fishes because my pond was big enough (5000L) and my fishes are still small. But I was thinking of increasing fish stock and the 5 hour long black out experience made me think about the need to prepare for future emergency.

My solar panels must be generating a lot of electricity and send it to electricity company.
I feel some of the surplus electricity should be stored at my house.

Life without electricity!

5 hours without electircity in evening made me sleep and sleep.
8pm without electricity lead me to sleep in sofa because there was nothing I could do execpt to listen to some audio book. After half an hour, I fell into sleep until light was back at 2pm. What to do at 2pm? Go back to sleep. For the first time in many decades, I slept for 12 hours when my normal sleeping time is 6 hours.

Thinking about life without electircity: I better sleep earler and wake up earler too. My normal pattern for many years has been 1-7am for sleep all seasons. It should be 9-3am in summer.

As a suggestion..

Put some timber underneath the growbeds to brace them..
I'm to sure how strong they will be..

they might sag..

Juergen

Yes, I thought about the 60cm gap between the metal frames where grow bed is not sitting on anything. I think i am at the limit of allowable gap size, and am hoping it is ok.

I could try to reduce the gap but decded against it. This can be done by adding one more shelve which i do not want for aesthetic reason.

Not sure how strong this grow bed is though it seems strong.
Timber under grow bed will raise the height of the grow bed if timber is not thin.
But i am reluctant to make the height of the grow bed any taller for functional reason.

I am bound by factors other than physics.