Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have read all the posts about the greatness of fiberglass unfortunately, I have never fiberglassed (?) before. I did notice that my local hardware store has some fiberglass panels that could be cut up and siliconed into a wooden grow bed.
Would this work? Has anyone tried something like this?

If you're making a wooden bed just put pond liner in it, no need for a rigid sheet like these. Should be wood or fiberglass, but not both IMO.

Can you expound? how would I make one with just the rigid fiberglass panel?

Fiberglass cloth & epoxy, although the epoxy might leech chemicals into the water. I once thought of building my own gb's with pvc panels, as I use them for signs and theyre available to me. Dropped the idea since there are cheaper and more practical alternatives, such as 1/2 an ibc!

I would love ibc but even if I cut it before I try to get it in my basement I still couldn't fit it
thanks for the comments... for the space I need to put this system there is not an easy and cheap answer. Easy and cheap don't often go together lol

How about a bunch of plastic tubs from walmart? I just bought a hunch for $5.00 ea.

I'd use epoxy and fibreglass matt to glue the panels together, instead of silicone... Way stronger. Still pretty easy to do.

Note that fibreglass panels are likely to use polyester as a glue, rather than epoxy.

I have some tubs but started pricing the bulkheads and figured, hey, build my own grow bed. Not being a carpenter, this is a little more difficult than I originally planned

I looked briefly at fibreglassing but it looked like it was going to be expensive.

I also looked at ferrocement, build a metal frame, cover it in chicken wire and then plaster it in cement. Because you can bend the metal and cut it to size you can get it to fit in any odd shape you have available to you. Fittings can be put in before the plastering which saves cutting inthe wrong place.

I just had to get rid of an old concrete sink, it was about 4cm thick and only had a small wire frame in it (no chicken wire) but it was solid.

Still not gotten around to trying it yet.

If you are putting this in your basement, I suppose your using lights.
That makes food expensive. What arrangement are you planning ?

One of the cheapest arrangements is a wood frame, with maybe plywood bottom, of almost any size, and covered over with 2 or 3 layers of standard 6 mil construction plastic sheet vapor barrier.

The hopefulls made their own fibreglass GB's, I had a quick flick through their thread and they made 3 beds for $150. Theres something written in there about coating them in waterproof resin. Flowcoat or Gelcoat or something along those lines.

Heres the thread viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1959&hilit=truck+cab

I was wondering about the cost of plastic sheeting and the comparisons.
I went to homedepot site and took what I thought to be the most appropriate products.
Please note the price / square foot , and thickness which I could only
figure it out in lbs / square foot. I could not find reliable thickness figures for comparison.


$.62/sq.ft. - .092 -lb/sq.ft. - - 6-feet-x-8-feet - - - $30.00 - pond-liner-black
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . homedepot.ca/product/pvc-pond-liner-black-6-feet-x-8-feet/935020

$.86/sq.ft. - .280 -lb/sq.ft. - - 10-feet-x-15-feet - - $129.00 - pond-liner-black
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . homedepot.ca/product/10-x-15-black-30-mil-epdm-pond-liner/935013

$.06/sq.ft. - .029 -lb/sq.ft. - - 10-feet-x-100-feet - - $60.00 - Poly, Vapour Barrier, Below concrete slabs,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . homedepot.ca/product/10-ft-x-100-ft-cgsb/959734


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This below is cheapest, but way too thin, expect any gravel movement to cut it.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . included for comparison only.
$.008/sq.ft. - .0028-lb/sq.ft - - 8.5-feet-x-177-feet - - $12.0 - Poly, Dust Cover, Paint Drop Sheet
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . homedepot.ca/product/102-inches-x-177-ft-ultra-light-clear/959728

I had to correct my figures, hope this works.
recheck my calculations before buying anything.
If thickness is most important, the best deal seems $.86/sq.ft.

The clickable Links for last posting.
I see that we are only allowed to edit a posting about 3 times.

$.62/sq.ft. - .092 -lb/sq.ft. - - - pond liner
http://www.homedepot.ca/product/pvc-pon ... eet/935020

$.86/sq.ft. - .280 -lb/sq.ft. - - - pond liner
http://www.homedepot.ca/product/10-x-15 ... ner/935013

$.06/sq.ft. - .029 -lb/sq.ft. - - - poly sheet
http://www.homedepot.ca/product/10-ft-x ... gsb/959734

$.008/sq.ft. - .0028-lb/sq.ft - - - poly sheet (this one way tooooo thin)
http://www.homedepot.ca/product/102-inc ... ear/959728

I recently built a 4 plywood tanks and posted this on my blog.
http://chicoaquaponic.blogspot.com/2013/02/building-plywood-tanks.html

They are more expensive than plywood with a liner, but I feel it is worth it. They look so nice, and bulkheads seal up easily to the smooth surface.

Fiberglass is fun, and not hard to do. Mix less hardener for longer working time until you get used to doing it.

My tanks are
2 -12"x40"x47"
2 -18"x40"x47"

Materials:
3 - 3.5L resin. = $150.00
1 - Glass cloth = $ 25.00
2 - 3/4" Plywood = $25.00 (seconds)
2 - Shipping boxes = $10.00

Total cost $210 for 4 tanks, or about $53 each.

@docscience
I live in upstate New York - this weekend we will have a sustained high of less than 20 F
If I put the system outside, I will have heating to worry about so for me, it is the lesser of two evils.
I know there are a few others on the forum that live in my general area but not sure how they are doing things...
Thanks for the links. I am sure I want to use pond liner. If I chose home depot, I would choose:
Total Pond Skins 7ftx10ft as I cannot get the pond liner you sent in Upstate NY.
BTW, The links you sent are for Canada and I can't get the same products

@Charlie
Thank you for the system link - very informative and I love their system!

@BC
Thanks for going through the details and the prices. I have realized for my first system coupled with my lack of experience with fiberglass and carpentry in general, I will skip the fiberglass tanks and just use a pond liner