Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

That block of beds seems fairly wide Brian - do you think you may have toruble harvestign from the centre?

VB Big is better I agree. I want to provide as much as possible all my veg needs and not rely on the BIG supermarkets. As well as not all the chemicals it takes to grow them. VB and EKB The space from the wall to the growbed is .700m both sides. I know the drawing looks funny but it went that way when I converted the file to jpeg. To the correct scale it is good with enough room around the beds. VB It will be 1m to the centre of the beds accecable from both sides. I am not sure if I will put the beds at .800 or .400 high. I think it will be easyer to harvest and plant at the lower hight.

Aussie, an easy guess for the height is the have the top of the bed at hip height. That way you can bend right over the beds to reach the centre.

Thanks Jaymie sounds good. Hip hight for me is about .800

AP

Excellent work AP,
Couple of questions
1 - why do you have 4 grow beds in node 1 and 2. If you are making them from timber, could they just be single grow beds in each node made to the overall size? I say this given that I have 8 half barrel gb's at the moment and have issues with maintaining the same filling level in each bed without overfilling etc.
2 - Also on the pondliner front, is this the best/easiest way. The drinking quality metal rainwater tanks are lined with "aquaplate" (i think), which just looks like a silicone product that is squeegeed on. If you are making the gb's, could this be a solution. Not sure if we can get the stuff or not or if it is any cheaper etc. I was thinking for my next AP system (2010) I would follow with a similar green house about this size with the grow beds custom made from roofing metal in an oblong shape, so 8m by 1m looking at the cross section of them would be \__/ . I figure this could be built and lined with aquaplate quite easily.

3 - What are you planning on having on the ground? pavers, soil, concrete or something else? what are people's thoughts on this matter. Obviously concrete would be the cleanest, lack of weeds in cracks/soil, may have some heat retention benefits, level but expensive and ugly.

4 - If space isn't an issue would having the fish tanks in a seperate enclosure (GH or Tin shed) provide any additional benefits. One drawback would be pumping distance. I guess, I am just trying to maximise the growing space of the GH, heat retention in winter for the fish, as a small tin shed could be insulated and also used for storage of parts, additional aquariums for either breeding feeding fish or even eating fish etc.

Sorry this is so long, it is just your design has sparked so many ideas for my next project.

fizzyj, Hi welcome.

First the 2node growbeds are made of poyy and each is 1m x 1.8m. x.30

Second the custom grow bed is on the 1000L tanks system. I was thinking of timber and pound liner, but I like your idea of roof sheet metal 1m wide by 8m long. What is that product called?

Thirdly, The ground will be some kind of gravel 5mm with cement mixed and watered in.

Forthly, space is not an issue but price is. It will cost about $3000 to buy and install the Greenhouse. It can house the tanks and the growbeds. To put in another shed would be more expence and more pleading with the council to relax the regulations. Heat will not be much of an issue here in Brisbane. I plan to heat the water via solar similar to hot water systems. Also to place syrofoam on the surface of the water during winter.

Thanks for your questions, I hope I have answered them all for you.

AP

fizzyj



Actually most soils retain heat better than concrete. From memory concrete holds <1000j/kgK soil under some compression/compaction around 1200j/kgK. Heat retention of greenhouse floor surface may be irrelavent considering water holds around 4000j/KgK

Stuart

Excellent,
I was planning on just using standard roofing iron, either the standard corrugated stuff or possibly the stuff you more commonly see on fences in the shape of \__/```\__/ not a very good depiction but the sides are more flat and may make it easier for the tank man to make.

SC - good points on the concrete/soil

The concrete floor in my shed seems to soak the warmth out of the water in my polytank. The smaller fingerling tank sits on polystyrere on top of the copncrete and seems to hjold its temp better. I may be way off here, as I am no scientist, just an observation

I belive this is the Trim deck Profile as aposed to the standard Orb profile of coragated Iron
might help in explainling to the tank man though i would have thought that he would just make it usign his own prefered materials

havign said that ive never bought a tank, im still in the planing (read wating to move and convice wife i should get a bit more money form the budget to spend at the new house ) stage
CHeers
Pete

The tank man will have a rolling machine that makes tin round. I'm not sure they will be into making a rectangular tank.

Here is a picture of the metal I was thinking of. I found a piece and was able to fold to form what could be one side of the bed, another could be the base and a third could be the other side. Quite simple really, no sheet metal shaping machine required, only a couple of pot rivets and then the sealant. However I do think the sides will be too flimsy for the weight, so some straps would be required. Also the ends would need to be cut to shape, but these would be the only pieces cut.

Will see if I can find the aqua plate stuff.

Also I folded the metal at 3/4 width, but should have done at 1/2 width as this would then provide grow bed depth of 350-400mm.

hmmm, looks like aquaplate refers to the treatment of the steel, which I think is only done in orb shape and not this shape, see bluescopes site for more details.
http://www.bluescopesteel.com.au/go/pro ... ater-tanks

Before all you aquaponicians go off and have orgasems about rolling all these different profiles and types of tin i think you will find tank makers use only a special type of tin and only in the corrigated type pattern if you can find one who will do specials it will cost big bucks

You're a real buzz kill, F&F. I thought somebody was going to get lucky!