Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

well I have started making grow beds for aquaponics system , using totes .Using pipe clips I find it easy to adjust when making sides etc. ,far easier than bolting to frame work ,saves time? small piece of information .hopefully it might help somebody ,I found drilling very hard ,saddle clips much easier size 15 ml , fitted the I b c tube quite well .the grow beds are four feet by four feet twelve inches high ,to take hydro ton media ,not sure how many bags I will need when ordering ,information would be useful? also price. .I B C will cut down with angle grinder .

building grow beds, keeping to standard size ,

Almost completed grow beds just needs syphon's fitting .facia boards fitting painting

Reference Grow beds

Grow bed almost finished.

reference

reference started top coat .painting sands grow beds .

reference finished grow beds ,will start to make fish tank in march, I need footings by greenhouse to be laid to house fish tank.

Nice job mate, very neat..

I'm panneling the sides of IBC's with corrugated iron sheets and a bit of upright timber on the corners (a very rustic rural look), but nowhere near as nice looking as this

PS a small tip - if you do ever need to drill through the IBC steel frame again, hunt down a carbide drill bit (designed to go through stainless steel - the hardest steel to drill through) from your hardware store, and it will go through the mild galv steel on the IBC like a knife through hot butter

or a hot knife through butter

Thanks for information on drilling steel ,asking a question if were to take two inches of the inside syphon pipe would the syphon still work ,reason little to high for grow bed .

It depends.

Just to clarify, are you referring to shortening the standpipe or bell siphon? (eg usually you have a 25mm wide standpipe, 65mm wide bell siphon which sits over the standpipe, then usually a 100mm media guard over both)

I've generally found you need at least a 30mm gap (50mm ideally) between the top of the standpipe and the lid of the bell siphon, as if you ever get the chance to watch the siphon effect form (eg I've used a clear see through bell for a demonstration once) you will notice that when the siphon action forms, a tornado whirly effect rises ABOVE the top of the standpipe. You need to allow space for this to happen, or else the auto-siphon may not work correctly.

The standpipe can be any height really. Same with the media guard.

Thanks for information on stand pipes ,there would be 100 cm space at least,so hopefully stand pipe should work That would give me a dry zone for plants ,if i wanted i could always fit extension pipe ,to take up water level ,growing seeds etc giving me about 10 inches depth growing space ,hopefully that would suffice growing lettuce etc. Growing strawberry's, tomatoes green peppers, i will make a pipe system on the side of grow beds left of greenhouse gravity fed water returning to sump tank ,just waiting for weather to improve ,start again in march hopefully .

cleared out logs to make room for fish tank housing .* reference

Reference Making up path on Monday ,working on fish tank, hope to start housing fish tank soon. Looking into hydroton stones for use in grow beds