Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ok i'll bite again . I was thinking of your dilemma again lately, as it is better and far less painless than thinking of my own.

Anyway it occurred to me that the best answer to your window in a tote/ibc problem is to buy a cheep ex-aqurium 2ft?? and submerge a potion of it in the top of the tank. Instant window, no leaks, no bolts, no cutting. You just need to move the viewer not put a window in. Place the tank on an angle to suit the viewing angle and fix to the top supports. Then fill.

What did you want this for?

Cheers, sam

Hi ,here is a photo of my tank, I couldn't get one of a fish looking out at me. I have only used 3 sixteenth gutter bolts to hold it in. It doesn't need much to hold it in as it is on the inside and the pressure would hold it there You will have to clean the algie off it fairly often .The koi do eat a fair bit but you need to clean it to be able to see much.

I want to use these tanks for grow out tanks for fry. Its the volume for the money that is attractive. Plus the HDPE drums are pretty nice as far as taking hard wear and tear issues.

Building glass tanks to hold a volume of 1000 liters is quite a big heavy tank. Its no cheaper then the IBC system provided I can get a window into it without any issues relating to the window being put into the side of the HDPE drum.

I am slowly moving along with this. I found an average condition IBC.....








and.......had it powder coated to see how it would come up.












It came out pretty nice I thought. I am now looking into purchasing a laser cutter to cut the plywood frames I need to make the window support.

I need to be able to see the fish from the side - not from the top down. I need to very closely monitor the fry for growth and and any health issues as they happen and the only way to do that property is from a side on view with a BIG window so we can see them clearly.

A long road ahead yet and its moving slowly but I think its a doable thing. I reckon the powder coating looks stunning - these will make nice tanks once a window systems is figured out.

I know in the aquarium hobby people build tanks out of plywood with one acrylic or glass side, could be an option.

Yes that is an option. Hence the laser cutter I intend to purchase.

I have come up with the idea to build a frame out of plywood then fill in the panels with glass rather than an all plywood back/sides/bottom as glass is much cheaper then ply/epoxy combination....and you want epoxy not polyester resin/fiberglass combo.

However the IBC is still golden for its intended purpose. I can buy those IBC's locally and there are lots and lots of them around and the going rate locally is $60. As the powder coating shows, the frames can be made to look real nice (so not so great looking IBC's can be cleaned up very nicely). The powder coating will stop any rusting going forward.

The powder I chose for this test is an epoxy based powder that can be used as is as it is rated for potable water (not that it comes in contact with the fish water any way) or it can be used as an undercoat for more advanced UV resistant powders. The more coats the better the rust protection and the harder the coating is and more impervious to scratches etc over time.

For the money, there is no cheaper way to get a 1000 liter tank that is watertight then the IBC - just needs a window which has been shown it can be done. Just have to figure out a way to do it with 12mm glass and plywood frames (plywood coated in epoxy for waterproofing). I intend to setup my own powder coating setup - the tank above was sent out to a professional powder coating place - I just wanted to insure it could be done as lots of forum reading says its really really hard to coat galvanised - as the photos show, it is doable with the right prep and powder.

Frame looks nice

Hi! I remembered a thread on someone's system a few years, who put windows into their IBC's back when you posted this....But, I couldn't remember the name!
I came across it today.
It was Bcasey2703, and you can find it on page 16 of the thread.

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=21974&hilit=Bcasey2703&start=225

It seems very doable with Plexiglass, or polycarbonate. I don't know about glass though.

Check it out, maybe it will help!

I also really like the idea of powder coating the IBC frame. They look really neat.

Thanks for the link Will....i will check it out.

Yes the powder coating looks fab. It really cleans up an old tardy looking frame to something quite nice to look at. It opens up the number of IBC's that i can consider for my project as I can spruce them up to look nice by powder coating.

OK I am not you normal user - I am going all in on this and going to set up a powder coating oven and professional spray gear etc as I have lots and lots of IBC's I want to do. The main takeaway is it CAN be done over a galvanised frame - you just need the right powder ad prep. If you get on the powder coating forums many will tell you you can't powder coat gal steel -...well I proved you can. You just need an epoxy based powder which is OK as a final finish if not exposed to UV.

If the frame will be exposed to UV then you should overcoat the epoxy powder with a UV resistant powder. Two coats cost more money but it also will last much much longer and wont scratch easy and will stay looking beautiful for years.

It may not be worth it to some but to me my setup has to look good as well......part of the enjoyment is loving being in your work environment. I like eye candy and to me these frames coated just plain look nice. i know some won't care about it but thats for them to decide.

Sure its expensive to setup for powder coating these IBC frames as the oven needs to be big. But once the capex is swallowed its cheap enough to powder coat the IBC frames.

well in for a penny in for a pound. Ordered and paid for the powder coating plant. 18K USD. Just got to wait for lockdown to be over now to receive the shipment of gear. How long that may take is still anyone's guess.

Went for a 4m long oven with 3.8m usable inside space. I can get 6 IBC frames through per oven run (stacked 3 long x 2 levels high). Oven uses about 1.2kg of propane per run to cook the powder on. Its just the capex that hurts. Buy quality and cry once. I bought good high end powder gear. Could of purchased the same type of gear for half price going the China route but will many of us do that again?

So now onto the window. How to do this........ I am going to try glass but I may have to revert to perspex/lexan type material. We shall see.