Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Your system looks great. I was thinking about building my growbeds like you did, they look great by the way. how think was the liner that you used?

I used Firestone 45mil EPDM pond liner.

I'm thinking the next bed will be more like this:



2x4/2x6 legs. 2x8 sides. 2x4 floor joists with galvanized hangers. Should be around 10-1/2" deep with a 1/2" plywood floor. Not the ideal 12", but close enough I think. If I keep the bed 3' x 6', it should still allow me to use a 5' wide roll of EPDM to line it.

Looks great. I was going to make a very similar GB but the pond store quoted me kinda high. How much did you pay per sq. ft if you dont mind me asking.

I bought the pond liner from http://pondliner.com. Got two 5' x10' sheets for $32.50 each. So that's like 65 cents per square foot. And with the 3' x 6' beds there was minimal waste.

I also recently found a source for 20 mil HDPE from http://www.halfoffponds.com. I have a friend who runs a commercial greenhouse and he lined all his beds with HDPE.

Good looking looking system

If you are ever doing anything with wood again you can sometimes get away with using a piece with a knot in it if the knot is on the side where the load is coming from. In the case of your GB would be the top.

Any updates would love to see photos of how your rafts currently are and their roots.

Here is the most recent shot of the over abundance of kale I have at the moment. Sorry, no recent shots of the roots at the moment.

And here is a shot of the roots:

No problems there.

Which is great news for me. I'm planning a large DWC bed and it looks like I've been overly concerned.

On the other hand I have to ask why Ryan felt the need to invest in his Rotating Drum Filter. It is not as if he doesn't have any experience with DWC before he begun Chatterson Farm.

Nice work, those curly leaf Kael are going off.

Nice looking system Jeff. Did you use treated wood? I did in my DWC bed, but some people say that it can be a problem?? Stuart, I think Ryan's drum filter is based on his pushing the capacity for fish density and mineralizing his solids and reintroducing them. I think in a smaller, less intensive BYAP system, you're fine with a RFF.

Yes, I did use treated wood. And lined with EPDM. No problems so far.

Don't know much about Ryan's system, but according to the published research the UVI system is capable of producing 11,000 pounds of tilapia and 1,400 cases of lettuce per year. And they use two large clarifiers combined with bird netting filtration. Nothing overly complicated there . . .

Complicated is the amount of labor involved to keep the UVI model running. Ryan's use of drum filters curtails a lot of the maintenance as they are self cleaning. He switches a valve and out comes the sludge. Off it goes to one of various mineralization tanks.