Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am at some point planning on digging a pond and using a liner to create a large ap system. the success of my current little system has convinced me it's a viable way to produce a good chunk of my fresh vegtable needs.

since i won't be able to afford a massive backyard, the pond is going to need to be visible and that means astheticly pleasing.
I was thinking of folding the liner under jarrah blanks and staining the planks with decking oil to preserve them, that way providing a nice neat border around the pond.
the problem, is it looks like decking oil is toxic to the fish and there will be run off into the pond from the deck. is there non toxic oil you can recommend?

also, i've found pond liner 0.8mm thick for $52/m in 4m wide sheets - is this a good price? it's UV stablised and has a 20 year warranty on it.

its the price i would have paid if i bought it. I oped for the proliner EPDM for the bit extra cost. robus stuff

http://www.creativepumps.com.au/zpumps/ ... _liner.htm

Hey Timmy, have you seen my thread? I used wood and pondliner as well for my system (1mm EPDM for the fish pond, 0,5mm PVC for the GB). I wanted to use treated wood, but that's toxic, so then I thought of treating the wood myself with oil. There's some discussion in my thread about cooking oil and linseed oil, and such. In the end I found it easiest and cheapest to just buy hardwood and leave it untreated..
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... c&start=19

timmy, why not use bluestone blocks as your pond border? They will hold your liner in place and give you a bit more design flexibility. Can't comment on relative costs. You would be able to plant things near your bluestone and in time you won't see the blocks, just the growth. Watchyathink?

the design idea is that the edge of the pond will double as a bench to sit on, so hiding it isn't the aim so much as making it neat, tidy and functional.
there's something called tung oil that looks promising

whole lotta lines there............

Tung oil is of course from the tung fish. Pretty expensive I thought though. Is often used in interiors - is beautiful.

As long as there are no drying agents in it, it is supposedly non-toxic. There is debate about this.

Don't know so much about aquaponics yet, but I do know about woodworking

there is toxic and then theres toxic. Most essential oils can be considered toxic if taken internally

Yeah, right you are. I was trying to give the general flavor that I wouldn't eat anything off of it.

its all good. I knew what you meant

If you want a sitting area/bench the idea of using stone or pre cast retaining wall blocks with a cap on top would be the most doable and durable. If you want you can use wood to make the bench seat on top of the wall, just look at some of the landscaping books to figure out what you want.

Kevin

Tung oil is a natural product, but not form a fish - it is extracted form the nut of the tung tree

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tung_oil

gg

[quote="mokevinb"]If you want a sitting area/bench the idea of using stone or pre cast retaining wall blocks with a cap on top would be the most doable and durable. If you want you can use wood to make the bench seat on top of the wall, just look at some of the landscaping books to figure out what you want.

Kevin[/quote]

that was the general idea, but i was concerned with the water run off from rain etc off the wooden bench. the wooden bench seats will be secured to the blocks using masonry screws, and the pond liner folded and samwhiched between the 2.