A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Liners for Raft systems

I have doing some price comparisons on pond liners and was wondering if anyone has used plastic sheeting? If so how long dose it last and are their problems associated with it. I will have a wood frame and I'm trying to get up and running on the cheap... thoughts.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by k edmonds on May 18, 2011 at 1:09pm

Have you considered retired billboard tarps? Often times a billboard company will give them away or they can be purchased very in-expensively.

Permalink Reply by Rob Torcellini on May 19, 2011 at 8:21am

One tiny pinhole a plastic liner and you have a mess. I don't think it's worth the risk. I use the rubber pond liners in my beds and they can handle a lot of abuse.

Permalink Reply by Patrick Roche on August 3, 2011 at 3:02pm

I built a system using reinforced polypropylene 36 mil liner for both the growbed and the tank. I the material and thickness because I was working with expanded shale and wanted to make sure that it held up. I'm sure that it will hold up to years of abuse, but I would recommend a thinner material. It is difficult to fold and bend. In the corners of your grow bed or tank, you have to do a fold to get the material to fit properly. In my growbed, which was much wider than tall, it didn't present a probelm. Howevever, in my tank - a large box basically - which was about as tall as it was wide, it was a nightmare. We needed two people and some serious elbow grease to get it to work.

I'm curious to know, are others using EDPM, Polypropylen, or PVC, and what thickness?

Permalink Reply by Bob Campbell on January 19, 2012 at 9:05pm

Patrick Roche said:

I'm curious to know, are others using EDPM, Polypropylen, or PVC, and what thickness?

I've used EPDM in my pond. I can even walk on it. I use 45 mill but it comes in many thicknesses. I have also used 10 and 20 mill. EPDM is tough and non toxic.