bed liners

[Ron Becker]

Where do i get the heavy bed liners? I'm new and i'm trying to gather supplies to start my build. I also need a source for IBS's. I would really appreciate any help on this matter. Tks. Ron Becker

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

If you are looking for EDPM pond liner which is 45mm thick and a 75 year life expectancy, I had a good experience with:

The Water Garden http://www.watergarden.com/
5212 Austin Road
Chattanooga, TN 37343
Ph. 423.870.2838 Fax [phone]

They sell various widths by the foot and they are virtually down the block from you.

[Benjamin Udy - Super Genius]

A really great website that I order a large chunk of my supplies from is http://www.aquaticeco.com/ . I would go with the Firestone EPDM liner. Very good quality, UV resistant and fairly easy to work with. If you are looking for something that you can get an organic certification on I would go with the Dura-Skrim R20WW liner, I use this for all my systems, it great stuff. When you say IBS's do you mean IBC's?

[Kent Smith]

IBCs can be found at a lot of manufacturing companies, especially companies that produce food or beverages. My employer buys food grade gycerine, phoshoric acid, and some sweeteners in totes. Since we are big into recycling they let me bring empties home when I want them as long as I agree not to sell them. where are you located?

kent

[James Stratton]

I'm a cheap bastard and was put off by the expense of thick pond liners, so I opted to use billboard tarps instead. I'm not sure that this product would suffice for any commercial application and, I'm just a beginner, I'm also not sure how durable they are but they're about one fifth the price of 30 mil pond liner.

I bought a 12 foot by thirty-six foot, 14 mil, three ply tarp for about thirty dollars. The only downside is that shipping was almost another thirty dollars. I later found a local billboard advertising company selling their tarps at roughly the same price I paid on Craigslist. Live and learn I guess.

Keep in mind that the system I am building is hobby scale and mainly for family use. I'm building the whole system so that my grandchildren have easy access to the grow beds and view into the fish tank. I had to bury the fish tank so they could see into it.

Here's a link to the billboard tarps sales, if you're interested: http://www.billboardtarps.com/collections/tarps

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Keep in mind the monetary cost (saving a few bucks) of billboard tarps comes at a "price". Being a vinyl product, they are very much subject to possible leaching issues (pthalates mostly). And if your buying used ones, their mechanical properties are pretty much hit or miss.

[James Stratton]

Thank you for this information, Vlad. I'm new to aquaponics as well and I suppose my cheapness got in the way of using a quality liner. While I'll continue with the liner I bought for this small hobby system, I will definitely look for better quality in building a bigger backyard system. If this small system works out, I would eventually like to build a system big enough to truly support my family, although, as you have noticed, I'll want to learn more before attempting that.
 
Vlad Jovanovic said:

Keep in mind the monetary cost (saving a few bucks) of billboard tarps comes at a "price". Being a vinyl product, they are very much subject to possible leaching issues (pthalates mostly). And if your buying used ones, their mechanical properties are pretty much hit or miss.

[Alex Veidel]

I've found that bestnest.com has the best price with merchandise + shipping for Firestone 45mil epdm.

[Ron Becker]

kent; tks. i live in columbia, Tn. How about you.

Kent Smith said:

IBCs can be found at a lot of manufacturing companies, especially companies that produce food or beverages. My employer buys food grade gycerine, phoshoric acid, and some sweeteners in totes. Since we are big into recycling they let me bring empties home when I want them as long as I agree not to sell them. where are you located?

kent

[Ron Becker]

tks. jonathan I'll check them out

Jonathan Kadish said:

If you are looking for EDPM pond liner which is 45mm thick and a 75 year life expectancy, I had a good experience with:

The Water Garden http://www.watergarden.com/
5212 Austin Road
Chattanooga, TN 37343
Ph. 423.870.2838 Fax [phone]

They sell various widths by the foot and they are virtually down the block from you.

[Ron Becker]

tks I'll check it out
 
Benjamin said:

A really great website that I order a large chunk of my supplies from is http://www.aquaticeco.com/ . I would go with the Firestone EPDM liner. Very good quality, UV resistant and fairly easy to work with. If you are looking for something that you can get an organic certification on I would go with the Dura-Skrim R20WW liner, I use this for all my systems, it great stuff. When you say IBS's do you mean IBC's?

[Ron Becker]

I guess i do mean IBC's

Ron Becker said:

tks I'll check it out
 
Benjamin said:

A really great website that I order a large chunk of my supplies from is http://www.aquaticeco.com/ . I would go with the Firestone EPDM liner. Very good quality, UV resistant and fairly easy to work with. If you are looking for something that you can get an organic certification on I would go with the Dura-Skrim R20WW liner, I use this for all my systems, it great stuff. When you say IBS's do you mean IBC's?

[Ron Becker]

are your IBC's 250 gal or more and do they have the cages for support?
 
Ron Becker said:

kent; tks. i live in columbia, Tn. How about you.

Kent Smith said:

IBCs can be found at a lot of manufacturing companies, especially companies that produce food or beverages. My employer buys food grade gycerine, phoshoric acid, and some sweeteners in totes. Since we are big into recycling they let me bring empties home when I want them as long as I agree not to sell them. where are you located?

kent