Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just as a bit of a teaser, I thought I'd post some info here about the new growbeds that I'm producing.

They are made from food grade HDPE, the same material they make rainwater tanks from. Dimensions at the base are around 2m x 1m by 0.3m in height, at the top outside edge they are about 2.16m x 1.2m, because of the rounded tops and the flared shape. The flared shape allows for stacking to keep down transport costs, while the rounded tops increases the strength and stability of the bed. The "cut out wedges" in the side also offer the sides of the bed extra strength to stop the sides bowing under heat and weight, these "wedges" will not be visible when the bed is filled with media. There are support ridges in the base as well for extra support in the base.

I've just tested the volume and 500L fills the bed to about 30-40mm from the top edge, a comfortable height to have your media level so that none spills over the sides while planting and harvesting. Because it's made from the same HDPE plastic as rainwater tanks, it will be available in a range of colours, though there will be a couple of standard colours that will be more readily available.

Check with us for current pricing.

The beds will be widely available in the next few weeks, and I'm building a couple of systems using the beds in the next 3 weeks, so I'll take lots of pictures and post them here so that you can see how they look and perform.

between your growbeds and AP's greenhouse, I'm having trouble focusing....

great looking beds - almost sexy

They look hot and the price seems reasonable for something that is purpose built for what we need. so each one would be about 4 times the size of a blue barrel half?

Yep... But if you take into account the total volume, it's more like 6 or 7 times.. You don't fill your 100L half barrel to the very top, just as you wouldn't fill this to the brim...

you need to place a dog/child/ mouse (computer) or 50c coin in the pic for size comparison

can I get them in hot pink? I'd really like hot pink grow beds

Is that a standard rainwater tank colour..? Gees I hope not....

I'll throw my dog into it tomorrow and take a pic, it's not a dachshund, but it's all I have..

very sexy

Nice!!!!

I suppose you don't ship to the US, huh? (Sniff, left out again.)

just a thought before I turn in ...

if the ideal depth of gravel is 30cm, doesn't it make sense that the beds should be a little deeper than 30cm? even if just to keep it all in the bed...

Lenny the 30cm is an indicative figure. The important thing is that:

1. bed is deep enough so that the bacteria are well protected from the sun and heat.

2. bed is deep enough to provide for good root development and to give adequate support to plants (my 30cm deep bed - which has say 25cm of gravel in it, is succesfully supporting some 2+ metre high sunflowers and a 2 metre high paw paw tree).

Janet, I think EB wanted to ship to the US,.....

but "Rubbermaid" reckoned that US AP belonged to them....

You are a cruel cruel man, Rupert.

I just did the math, and if I had EB's growbeds instead of my Rubbermaid growbeds, I could almost double my growbed volume in the footprint I have available. I lose a lot of volume with the ovals.