Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Gawd you'll get sic of me.....

For those that have their IBC fish tanks above ground, many are covered to protect from both UV & heat.

Some use shade cloth but with a carpet shop across the road, how would covering with carpet work? Id guess yes for the UV but would it be more effective than shade cloth or timber ?

I cover the sides with blue tarps from harbor freight. The last one had the growbed up top and some wood to finish it off.

My new one won't have the growbed up there so it will probably be a piece of fence with shadecloth on it.

Carpet will hold dirt and will get moldy over time. It's also heavier.

I used old fence palings. Check out my system thread for photos.

Or old pallets ripped up which you can usually get for free


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If it was in outdoor type carpet, it could work well. You could just stick it to the outside with some adhesive spray and make a few relief cuts as needed. It would be more of an astrofurf type then an indoor, which would be very hard to work with and not weather proof.

Normal carpet would rot and fall apart too quickly and end up being more hassle than it's worth.

I used left over plinth boards to clad mine, but old pallets can look really nice, there are a few good examples here on the forums.

I clad my IBC's by cutting out styrofoam and inserting between the cage bars and then used recycled colorbond roofing to clad the outside. Some lengths of fence capping completed the top edges. The system seems to stay below 30 degrees all year. Hopefully, when the IBC tank wears out I will be able to slip out the old one and put in a new one....

I used a roll of black garden underlayment around the sides then covered it with bamboo fencing. The underlayment on top of the tank helps to heat the water.

I just made corners and top rails out of 2x2's and then surrounded the tank with cheap 1/4" plywood. I then wrapped the whole thing with a bamboo screen. Here's a pic shortly after the system was put together and before I finished adding the bamboo around the grow bed skirts.