Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 17
  1. #1
    Members
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Orange County, NY
    Posts
    9

    How to Plumb a wood GB from sides and bottom ?

    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.

  2. #2
    Moderator jackalope's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Montana, USA
    Posts
    878

    Re: How to Plumb a wood GB from sides and bottom ?

    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
    I use the Linux Operating System ...... Free as in beer!
    You're never too old to learn something
    Aquaponics - food'n'fish at your doorstep

    Helena, Montana - Home of the Northernmost Monument to the Confederacy

  3. #3
    Moderator davidstcldfl's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Saint Cloud FL USA
    Posts
    2,029

    Re: How to Plumb a wood GB from sides and bottom ?

    .....Hey OCAP, I just sent a 'PM' to you about bulkheads.....and 'now' I see this...

    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.


    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.
    "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." - President Ronald Reagan

  4. #4
    Members
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Orange County, NY
    Posts
    9

    Re: How to Plumb a wood GB from sides and bottom ?

    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..

  5. #5
    Moderator davidstcldfl's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Saint Cloud FL USA
    Posts
    2,029

    Re: How to Plumb a wood GB from sides and bottom ?

    Cool.....your fingerlings came in. I'm excited for you... ...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
    "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." - President Ronald Reagan

  6. #6
    Members
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Deep South Texas
    Posts
    45

    Re: How to Plumb a wood GB from sides and bottom ?

    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.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	IMG00014-20101219-0804.jpg 
Views:	288 
Size:	38.5 KB 
ID:	2723   Click image for larger version. 

Name:	IMG00015-20101219-0804.jpg 
Views:	301 
Size:	41.9 KB 
ID:	2724   Click image for larger version. 

Name:	IMG00016-20101219-0805.jpg 
Views:	288 
Size:	48.0 KB 
ID:	2725  
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Lord, grant me the ability to change the things I can,
    The tenacity to change the things I can’t,
    And the ignorance not to know the difference...

  7. #7
    Moderator davidstcldfl's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Saint Cloud FL USA
    Posts
    2,029

    Re: How to Plumb a wood GB from sides and bottom ?

    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 ?
    "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." - President Ronald Reagan

  8. #8
    Moderator jackalope's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Montana, USA
    Posts
    878

    Re: How to Plumb a wood GB from sides and bottom ?

    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
    ph765) 362-7367
    fax: (800) 458-0232 or (765) 362-0744
    sales1@banjocorp.com
    http://www.banjocorp.com

    Just my 2 centavos ......
    I use the Linux Operating System ...... Free as in beer!
    You're never too old to learn something
    Aquaponics - food'n'fish at your doorstep

    Helena, Montana - Home of the Northernmost Monument to the Confederacy

  9. #9
    Members
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Orange County, NY
    Posts
    9

    Re: How to Plumb a wood GB from sides and bottom ?

    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

  10. #10
    Moderator jackalope's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Montana, USA
    Posts
    878

    Re: How to Plumb a wood GB from sides and bottom ?

    Quote Originally Posted by OCAP
    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 ....
    I use the Linux Operating System ...... Free as in beer!
    You're never too old to learn something
    Aquaponics - food'n'fish at your doorstep

    Helena, Montana - Home of the Northernmost Monument to the Confederacy

Similar Threads

  1. Treated Wood - Not sure!
    By Jeff in forum Want To Know HOW TO..?
    Replies: 11
    Last Post: 03-27-2012, 11:36 AM
  2. PT wood ???
    By kneedeepinwater in forum Want To Know HOW TO..?
    Replies: 11
    Last Post: 08-03-2011, 03:01 PM
  3. Heating With Wood
    By Scupper in forum Want To Know HOW TO..?
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 11-13-2010, 06:55 AM
  4. Insulated Wood Tanks Anyone?
    By mommyhen42 in forum Want To Know HOW TO..?
    Replies: 14
    Last Post: 10-30-2010, 09:06 AM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •