Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well done Petesake. How does the HDPE plastic feel around the stretched areas? Does it feel at all brittle?

Well done Pete, it's a lot more concaved than I thought it would finish up, I can't wait to see how it performs, I'm sure it will work a treat and you'll have a lot cleaner tank.

You could use expandable foam underneath for support, just box the metal cage base up to take the foam, put a bit of water in the bladder to keep the shape, squirt the foam in and you'll have solid support over the whole base. You could use a bit of Gladwrap on the bottom of the bladder to stop it sticking if you ever wanted to remove the bladder later.

Thanks Guys.

The factory temp has been 14-16*C but because of the shape the IBC seemed slow to cool so I let it cool down overnight.
The conical shape has rigidised the base although I can by hand push the apex through to the inside... if there was any reason we wanted all the muck on the outside edges and corners . And yes I think you could use it as a mould for support material. The PE doesn't feel any different when pushed around still kind of flexible but strong.

The next task is to attempt to create a 50-60% tapered base on a spare FT in the fish house.

its a bit of a holy grail, a tapered IBC. Something I'm wanting to attempt at some point also, mainly for a mineralisation tank though. I've recently acquired a plastic welder, so I'm inclined to cut and reweld which I suspect will be easier than trying to remold.

I'm currently building a spray rig, and as part of this cutting an IBC down to 2/3rd the height, so that's my learning course currently.

Hi Pete, any update on the Tapered bottom IBC?

Not yet, just last week ago I consolidated all the remaining fish into Sy1 tank and I'm running Sy2 tank on Powerfeed over the Summer to keep the Sy2 veggies going. When they're done I'll make the alterations.

Thanks Pete

I Was wondering how i can knock some big dents out of some salvaged 650 gallon conical bottom fish tanks and i tried asking for help on a thread i started and didn't find anything useful so i thought i'd ask here where there are a few folks with some knowledge about heating and manipulating plastics. I Have 3 tanks that were crushed when a roof collapsed on them and need to figure out how hot the water needs to be to soften the dents and give the plastic it's memory back. I'm thinking hot water poured in to cover the entire area would be more effective and even heating than trying using a heat gun or something else and struggling to get it all heated evenly.

Here's a link to photos since i can't resize my pictures to attach here.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/rockhillfarm.lubecmaine

During the March seasonal change over period I converted the SY2 FT to a tapered bottom IBC.
I simply emptied, cleaned and lifted the tank high enough to remove the plastic corners and place the mitred timbers described above around the inside edge of the cage. Lowered the tank and filled to below the SLO then cut a new outlet and replumbed the outlet.
The tank works well no cleaning required as the outer 50% delivers to the inner 50% which gets sucked up the SLO.

Very good job pulling off the tapering of the ibc. I like the idea of heating and forming/ manipulating the plastic.
I've tried my hand at plastic welding with limited success. It is trickier than it looks.

This is as on topic as I tend to get.

I've messed with PVC and heat quite a bit and made it do my bidding. Other than aquaponics stuff, I've also flattened it to make knife ... holdy...knife jacket... things (I cant spell to save myself) make them to fit your knife, then add a tiny bend in the PVC so your knife will never fall out. You can even make it click satisfyingly into place with a bit of messing around and the right shaped handle.

I love PVC.

https://120thingsin20years.blogspot.com ... /label/PVC

What ADD?

I feel I can link to my blog now since google saw fit to de-monetize my greedy capitalist self after I had skinned them of nearly $500 in beer money over ten years of dutiful scribblings.

I've had success welding, bending and contorting pvc as l had to do it in trade school and other places but never poly ethylene other than stretching it with a little heat.