Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ordered Tuff Scrim 8' X 100' roll. Not Cheap at 380 bucks shipped to my door. There will be enough for the 32' long 11.25" deep media bed then a DWC GB. I was initially planning on a 32' DWC but this roll leave me 30 feet of excess. Not sure if i should hang on to the excess for future expansion or build out the DWC to 64'. Any reason why i should go with a 32' vs 64'?

32' 957 gallons
64' 1914gallons

Pump will be 600gph to each GB. Should be good flow wise from what i have read here (DWC turnover 1-4 hours)

Air pump is 1744gph.

I have six 6" air stones.

Pre cast footers are in the ground. Tomorrow I will level the footers then stain all the wood for longevity. Ill take some pictures tomorrow and post up.

Lamannyr, As for a more refined look. You could always clad the sides of the pallets. Which means if done right it could look as good as Iceman's backyard system. As for your other question. As long as you had adequate filtration the longer DWC would work well for you.

As promised... Pictures.


Setting the pre-cast footers. Leveled, measured, squared. This has been by far the most tedius and most time consuming step of this project so far. oh yeah and this is the step I hated the most.




Next, the braced legs went into place. I had great help!!!







The GB sections went in next.










One end was closed and painted stained quickly just before dark. This is where the project stands today.




All the sub sections were completed in garage last week. The sub sections were all put together as seen in the last picture above today. Tomorrow the liner arrives and I will install Tuesday after insulation.

WOW!! thats a HUGE bed!!

Cookie, this first GB will be replacing the barrels you see in some of the pictures. Compared to the barrel setup, yes, it massive. After the barrel plants and media get transferred to the large bed, I'll build a equal size or larger DWC bed. So yes massive for sure. Just hope it produces well.

I'll continue to update this thread as things progress.

Nice looking grow bed.

Still need some advise on drain size to flow 600 gph easily with room for a bigger pump in the future with a few elbows to reach the sump.

Liner is in. How do I secure the liner to the wood frame? Staples ok?

Staples work fine.

Floridafishin,

Thanks for the response. Will regular do or are stainless needed?

For through the plywood plumbing......Uniseal or bulkhead? I have 2" and 4" Uniseals on hand from other projects but can easily order bulkhead if needed?

For longevity seeing it will be outside stainless would be preferred. For y o ur other question the bulkhead would be better.

That's a pretty big DWC bed. It will be nice to have it at the working height, but would pose a problem with any vines. You could maybe train them over the back and then onto a trellis?

The top edge sits at 28". Any lower and it would not be comfortable for me.

Wired in my well pump (breaker, new wire, timer) and plumbed it in yesterday. Need to test the water next. Is well water sulfur bad for the AP?

Also, for the media grow bed intake. What size pvc do you recommend I use on the perimeter to evenly spread the intake water?

600gph going to GB via 2".

Looks great, your workmanship is fantastic.

I used a bulkhead through the ply wall and it worked well and I think it gives you good piece of mind that it won't move and leak, especially if you have kids wondering around the system. I used regular staples for the top of my liner but I did nail down some capping over that but that was more for aesthetics.

I used a 50mm (2") supply to the DWC but mine came from the overflow of a dual stage filtration system so I sized it for ease of flow. Cant remember the L/h I running through it though.

I could have sworn I posted these pictures already but here they are. This is where the project stands today. 1.5" of side insulation and 1/2" on the bottom.




I installed my well pump (pump, wiring, breake, pipping) to my new iron free with sulfur well a few days ago. Still need to test the rest of the parameters to see if I can use it to fill the large growbed with it.

I plan on puting a perimeter egde pipe intake around the entire grow bed on top of the media with holes to evenly spread the water. It will go to the GB via a 2" pvc then "T" to loop around the bed is 3/4" ok to use for the loop?

I hope to have the liner installed and bed filled this week.