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View Full Version : How to Plumb a wood GB from sides and bottom ?



OCAP
12-16-2010, 08:24 PM
Ok, so heres the new thread.

Don't want to pay silly money for the 4x8 trays at the moment, decided on building a grow bed. Im assuming to frame it out with whatever wood, 2x4 or 2x6 and 1/2 or 3/4" plywood, covered with a 20 mil liner (dont see a reason to go thicker ?)

Now how would i get the pvc through the 2x6 AND the 20 Mil liner to seal up all nice if i wanted to come out of the side of the growbed (Raft system) ?

What do you use for horizontal drain raft systems as well ? Say 6" from each side of one corner of the bed, if i want it to come out underneath the bed. My concern is where the pvc/bulkhead has to get through the poly liner and the wood. Im used to using uniseals that work great, after bad exp previously with bulkheads that led to uniseals being purchased lol. I just want to make sure i have a watertight permanent seal, so i have a clear head that when i go to bed my raft system wont turn by basement furniture into rafts...... Thanks for any info guys, will update other thread, and/or this one once i get it figured out here and build it.

jackalope
12-16-2010, 09:27 PM
I would use Bulkhead fittings if the Uniseals are too short .... if you're afraid of leakage, just use some silicone on the fittings when you tighten them up (this will make it near impossible to take them apart ;) . I've never used Uniseals, so I don't know if you can get any that will go through the 2-by .... In the alternative, you could make one of the 4' ends out of 1/4", 3/8", or 1/2" plywood if the Uniseals will fit one of those thicknesses, and then reinforce the plywood with 2x2's top and bottom (so as to not interfere with the plumbing). Use Torx-head screws, rather than nails, so if you need to re-do something, you can take it apart easily - also, they hold better than Phillips-head screws. My 4'x4'x8' tank is screwed together in case I sell out here and want to take it somewhere else! Just a couple of quick ideas off the top of my head ..... as a remodel carpenter, I had to visualize a lot of crazy fixes to satisfy people's weird wants and needs :roll: :roll: :lol:

davidstcldfl
12-17-2010, 02:14 AM
:lol: .....Hey OCAP, I just sent a 'PM' to you about bulkheads.....and 'now' I see this... :lol:

Sorry to hear about your bad experience with a bulkhead......(?)
I've use them with great success . Of course, on the inside of what they are being installed on, has to be flat.
Where as, with uni-seals, they leak (very little) about 1/2 the time. I've also used a uni-seal that has threads on the inside....they also had a 50 % succes rate.
I used the 2" economy bulkheads from aquatic-eco systems, when I built my wooden 500 gal fish tank and used them on the wooden troughs with liners also.

http://i931.photobucket.com/albums/ad157/davidstcldfl/bulkheadsinjustforpicture.jpg
The liner isn't in the tank yet....I was test fitting the bulkheads.

Comming out the bottom of your wood bed, shouldn't be a problem.
I've used rubber and dura-scrim as liners...in both cases, I used a brand new razor blade to cut 'each' hole, plus, I made the hole in the liner slightly smaller then the hole in the wood.
I've installed over 20 bulkheads ( in wood taks/troughs) with no issues so far.

For people that haven't used them yet....Uniseals are designed to go through thin material, like a plastic 55 gal barrel.
Once installed, you have to slide a section of pvc through them. It's a very tight fit....
putting some rubbing alcohol onto the pipe helps make it slide through the uni easier.
Also, beveling the end of the pvc, that your going to insert into the uni, helps a lot.
The bigger the pipe/ uni-seal, the harder they are to install

Something very thin, like an IBC, would be taking a 'beating' trying to install the uni...also, I wouldn't want to try to install one in a glass tank either.

OCAP
12-17-2010, 09:53 AM
lol yea just saw them pm. Ive actaully read that whole thread, nice setup. I forgot all about looking for other peoples systems to find the fitting. I just had it in my head as they were bad. Ordered a few last night, 1/2 and 1-1/2 for starting to play around, i have all types of that size pvc around.

I didnt even take the glass tank or the ibc into consideration with the uniseal problems. Glass would be a failed attempt. Works great on all the plastic bins though, makes life a piece of cake for the small setups. Im gonna go back and read that thread again with your box. Any input on 20 mil vs 45 mil in a raft tank ? Dont want to spend double for a liner if i don't need it.

Figerlings arrived today via overnight mail with a heating pad lol. 24/25 white nile fingerlings from TilapiaSource arrived and are doing well. Built them a mini cage so they can stay away from the one 2" and 4" Koi when they want to. This is going to get interesting in the next month or so, i can see it already..

davidstcldfl
12-17-2010, 02:51 PM
Cool.....your fingerlings came in. I'm excited for you... :mrgreen: ...I remember when I got my 1st ones too.

The dura-skrim I use is a 20 mill polyethyelene....3 layers with strings in between the layers. It certanily seems plenty strong enough, for raft set ups. Might work for gravel too, as long as the rocks werent sharp.
I order the roll thats just over 6' wide....works great in my troughs. Which are 4' wide and 1' deep...the little extra width comes up and over the top.

If you want to check it out...here's a link...
http://www.americover.com/20_mil_reinfo ... 4_prd1.htm (http://www.americover.com/20_mil_reinforced_white_804_prd1.htm)

tem1160
12-19-2010, 07:12 AM
I had the same idea using 2x12's to build my grow bed(3'x12'x11"). I used a pond liner from HD to line theGB and at one end cut a hole in the middle of the GB with a 1 1/2" hole saw. place the liner over that and screwed done a piece of poly tank 8"x8" with a 1" bulkhead fitting made from pvc conduit fittings. used lots of silicone and stainless screws. Seems to work great. Only time will tell.

davidstcldfl
12-19-2010, 07:46 AM
Thats a neat idea.
I haven't used this my self yet....a guy I know, recomended a caulking made by 3M, it's for boats. He said he really likes it. I did a search and saw there was a slow dry and a fast dry. The slow was 7 days, the fast was 24 hours.

Has anybody had experiance with it ?

jackalope
12-19-2010, 10:10 AM
The bulkhead fittings that I use are for an agrucultural application. I've got the catalog - from Fleet Supply
in Lewistown (a farm supply store), cost for a 2" was $4.00 or $5.00, which I used for my auto-siphon. I used smaller ones on my GBs - they're inexpensive, they have threads inside so you can thread the pipe, rather than gluing etc. I didn't have leak one!

They're made by
Banjo Corp.
150 Banjo Dr.
Crawfordsville, Indiana 47933
ph:(765) 362-7367
fax: (800) 458-0232 or (765) 362-0744
sales1@banjocorp.com
http://www.banjocorp.com

Just my 2 centavos ......

OCAP
12-19-2010, 10:26 AM
Nice looking bed, i like the poly plate idea for that little extra seal up. Fingerlings got attacked by my koi in the dark, that bastard. He was about 4-5" and had the fingerlings come (smaller then i thought at about 1") I guess they never look as big as the number. Koi was being good during the day, then i argued with the girlffriend at night, shut the light off in the room by accident, and he gobbled 15 of them by the morning....Sucks. Pulled out the one koi and put him in a 5 gal pail until i can build a screen in the tank. The remaining 7-8 tilapia and one shubunkin seem to be doing well though.

Tem1160 - now that is for a raft setup ? Or was that going to get filled with hydroton for some reason ? How often do you exchance the water in the tank, cycle it i mean, continually ? Any added aeration if that is a raft tank ? thanks

jackalope
12-19-2010, 12:20 PM
Nice looking bed, i like the poly plate idea for that little extra seal up. Fingerlings got attacked by my koi in the dark, that bastard. He was about 4-5" and had the fingerlings come (smaller then i thought at about 1") I guess they never look as big as the number. Koi was being good during the day, then i argued with the girlffriend at night, shut the light off in the room by accident, and he gobbled 15 of them by the morning....Sucks. Pulled out the one koi and put him in a 5 gal pail until i can build a screen in the tank. The remaining 7-8 tilapia and one shubunkin seem to be doing well though.

I'd never mix Koi and Goldies with my Tilapia, carp are very susceptible to diseases that other fish may be tolerant of, then, in turn, the other fish may contract the disease because of an abundance of the disease in the tank .... that's why I always recommend that people start the nitrogen cycle with guppies ... they're hardy and they provide the tilapia with a tasty snack when the Tilapia are introduced.

I don't know how large your tank is, but a good screen can be made from the hook-rug plastics at your local craft store. I think the largest I've seen at "Michaels" in Billings was 18"x 24". If that's too small, you can hook several of them together with tie-wraps.

Also, I would never mix large fish and small fish - I have heard that a good rule of thumb is that if a fish can open his mouth enough to get the tail (or even a goodly portion of said tail) of a smaller fish into it, he will eventually eat the smaller fish!

Just my 2 centavos ....

tem1160
12-19-2010, 08:53 PM
Nice looking bed, i like the poly plate idea for that little extra seal up. Fingerlings got attacked by my koi in the dark, that bastard. He was about 4-5" and had the fingerlings come (smaller then i thought at about 1") I guess they never look as big as the number. Koi was being good during the day, then i argued with the girlffriend at night, shut the light off in the room by accident, and he gobbled 15 of them by the morning....Sucks. Pulled out the one koi and put him in a 5 gal pail until i can build a screen in the tank. The remaining 7-8 tilapia and one shubunkin seem to be doing well though.

Tem1160 - now that is for a raft setup ? Or was that going to get filled with hydroton for some reason ? How often do you exchance the water in the tank, cycle it i mean, continually ? Any added aeration if that is a raft tank ? thanks

I will eventually fill it with gravel to use as flood and drain bed. It will be a continuous flow flood and drain. The black tank you see in the pic is the future sump. I'm in the process of upgrading my system. Building a 12 x 25 shade house with four 300 gallon tanks and two large grow beds with some smaller raft beds also. I hope to have it ready to go by mid January.I'll post some pics as I build.

OCAP
12-19-2010, 09:03 PM
Looking forward to your thread. Any reason you would fill it with medium, versus growing on rafts ? Different types of plants ?

Technically could i build a raft system in that same size tank and run the water through it ?

Need to build a bed in my basement to move forward, just trying to decide on size and depth, depth is more of my concern for the raft system, i should be able to just use 2x10s or so with about 6-8" useable depth for a raft system ? Is one depth better then another in raft system ?

Thanks

OCAP
01-04-2011, 10:17 AM
OCAP -

I'm really sorry to hear about the tilapia getting eaten by your Koi. If the remaining aren't enough to get your going, just let us know. I'm sure Sarah will give you a deal. If she doesn't offer to, tell her Kellen said to! hehehe :)


lol thanks - she was pretty helpful and followed up several times. I have the mini system in my basement doing well, and will be attending UVI Aquaponics course in March. After that i want to come back to NY and open a 5k square foot "food factory" as i've been calling it, so i will need to figure out what to do for fish...but working on that now to whether to breed or buy ready to go. I can worry about that in a few months though, should be great ! Thanks again.

jackalope
01-04-2011, 06:56 PM
Keep us apprised on what all you learn at UVI ;)

OCAP
01-04-2011, 08:21 PM
yea im quite curious to see, deposit getting sent in next week, after that theres no turning back lol I need to use my powers for good. Forums have given me a pretty good idea, as well as small practice and a couple books. Before i go renting a factory moving 5-10k gallons of water, i think i need to see it in operation. I will be sure to keep a detailed log and plenty of pictures when i get out there and report back. Wouldnt be going if not for the knowledge gained on these forums.

joebob
02-02-2014, 03:36 PM
Hey so I dont mean to poach, but I dont know if the question was ever clearly answered that a bulkhead fitting will go through a 2x6? I kind of assume they would, BUT, can anyone with definitive experience let me know?

misterguppy
02-03-2014, 08:02 AM
I built my raft bed from 2x12's with a 3/4" plywood bottom. This sits on a table built from 4x4 legs and a 2x6 frame underneath the raft bed. I used a piece of 35 mil roofing material that was used. I plumbed it with bulkhead fittings I got at my local farm store. I have found most farm stores have them, but the employees do not know what a bulkhead fitting is. Just look in the tank or implement plumbing areas of the store. That is where I find them.