Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

If you made a mold then you could do normal concrete first the pervious just for the bottom section. Assuming you are doing the mold upside down...

That is exactly what I was thinking. I would just have to build the mold stronger to be able to handle the compaction stage.

I did a materials search yesterday, I think I can get this thing built for about 20 bucks.

lest see it! I have been coming up against a wall of cold in my BSF opps... BSF don't like cold

This weekend is a holiday weekend here, so I am not sure if it will happen this weekend.

I did a materials run today.
94 lb bag of Portland cement $7.76
.5 cubic foot of red cinder (for aggregate) $3.68
50 lb washed plaster sand (for the sides and top) $2.94
Rebar tie wire (the ferro in ferro cement)$3.98
Total $18.36
Tools
7"x3 3/8" steel gauging trowel $4.87
5 gal buckets 2@2.28= 5.56
Today's total $28.79
I am going to pick up some corrugated plastic tubing to provide a place for eggs, but I get a discount on that so pricing might be misleading...

Hey Ron,

You might be interested in this;

http://www.blacksoldierflyfarming.com/f ... -composter

Very interesting! My idea is still different, but I like what he has done. I will be doing a pervious concerts base, and ferrocement for the rest.

That's good going Ron... overshot the $20 mark there a bit but still cheap I guess. In the meantime I went out and bought 100 cement bricks. I have stone, sand and cement lying around.

Having seen what becomes of soldier fly in the winter, I have been thinking of what can be done to overcome the cold issue. Been thinking of building a small greenhouse fly shack kind of idea. Build the concrete bug rearing contraption on the floor and build a small well insulated greenhouse over the top. Warm Moist and smelly. Does it not just sound fantastic

It does sound fantastic.

Okay, so I got the mold made. What I did was dump 15 gallons of dirt into the center of a tarp.

Then I pulled up the sides, and closed the opening with rebar tie wire.

Then I hoisted it up, so it would round out more. It wanted to stay pretty flat, so it took some good whacks from the shovel.

Once it was the shape I wanted, I duct taped it so it would not flatten out again when I lowered it.

Then I taped a tube around it to be the mold for the ramp.


Next weekend I will set up a base to pour the pervious concrete into, then place this on top. Then I will trowel cement onto it with the rebar tie wire acting as reinforcement.

A 70 quart (17.5 gallon) muck bucket for horses might work for the base. Usually can be had for $20 or less (I think I've seen them as low as 8 and as high as 35). I've also seen these at box stores under different names. Guess that would significantly increase the cost. It would give you a nice smooth outside surface and probably could be reused. Here's an example of what I mean;

http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/Pr ... ItemDetail

I was just going to make a ring of bricks, lay a tarp down, drop in the pervious concrete, push in some wire, plop the mold in, lay a scratch coat of cement, wrap the mold in wire, lay more cement on.

Just

Sounds like it'll work Ron. I am looking forward to this, I thought your method for shaping the dirt was clever so it will be interesting to see how this winds up

Cheers

But but but.... what happened to the flat 200mm deep tray with a shallow exit ramp into a trough like collection gutter.

You are making yet another pod like bsf breeding thing.

We are looking for surface area with limited depth...and no complicated spiraling exit ramp nonsense. Well at least that's what I was going for.... am going for...when I find the time.