Bulkhead through EPDM

Method # 1

I was not sure how well silicone would stick to EPDM until I tried to remove my previous attempt at installing this bulkhead. Rest assured silicone sticks very well to EPDM and Acrylic.

This is a 3/8" piece of acrylic plexiglass fastened with ample amounts of silicone to the EPDM.
Silicone was applied about 1/4" thick on both surfaces and then pressed into place.  I then left about 20 lbs of weight on the glass for 2 days to be sure it had cured.

This is so much cleaner than my first attempt.  Click here to see a job gone wrong.  

The bulkhead tightens down to the acrylic, not the liner.  A hole larger than the nut was cut in the liner and the plywood so that the bulkhead would seal directly to the acrylic.  The silicon makes the seal between the EPDM and the acrylic.   I used nearly half of a large tube of fish safe silicone.  This is no place to be skimpy.  You can see in this photo how much squeezed out.  After two days this connection was cured and extremely strong.

One thing to consider is the size of the glass should allow your bell to sit firmly on the glass.  If you cut the glass too small the bell will have a tendency to tip.

When you tighten the bulkhead go hand tight and then a 1/4 turn with a wrench.  Do not over tighten as this will squeeze the soft washer out of round and you will have a leak.

Method # 2

For the fish tank overflow I used a different method.  It worked equally well and provides a more stable fit.
In the example above the bulkhead will move with the liner.  For the overflow I wanted a study connection had would not flex.

This method requires a little more care as the hole in the liner must be cut round and just slightly smaller than the bulkhead.  Its not as easy as it sounds.

The seal is made directly to the liner with this method and there is no silicone used.  The acrylic provides a smooth surface for the bulkhead to tighten down on.   In this picture you are looking at the back side through the glass.  A small section of the tank wall was cut out and this piece of acrylic was installed with screws to make it a solid inset.  The acrylic is part of the tank wall and this photo is looking into the cavity of the wall from the outside.  You can see the bulkhead nut tightened against the glass.  The soft gasket is on the inside of the tank between the bulkhead and the liner.  The liner is pressed against the glass, but the seal is made at the soft gasket and the liner inside the tank.  An added benefit here is that I will be able to see any leaks if they occur .  But this is a very secure bulkhead installation and should be free of any problems for a long time.

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THE MONDAY EDITION OF THE AQUAPONICS DIGEST

I was asked how come I call these digests Monday, Wednesday and Friday editions when they are dated Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Quite simply, Im in the "Land Down Under" and we are reasonably close to that line that separates today from tomorrow. So in order to put it out at a time that sort of coincides with the middle ground, I decided in my moments of stupidity to do this thing at around midnight. But I have a feeling that this really isnt necessary so I do believe Im about to have a change of heart and put it out earlier.

Now to work:

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Farm tourism in full bloom in rural San Diego -- Some local farm tours to try, too...
By Don Curlee and Ah-Ha Farm Beat
    San Diego County contains more small farms than any other U.S. county, according to the county Farm Bureau. It’s home to about 6,000 farmers and 6,565 small family farms and is the country’s top producer of avocados and nursery crops. Farming contributes $5.1 billion in annual value to the county’s economy, according to the Farm Bureau. It takes the $1.5 billion value of the county’s crops and multiplies by 3.4 to obtain a total economic value for agriculture.
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From the forums
Hello from Tokyo
My Name is Alfred and i live in Tokyo.
I am Austrian ,30 years in Japan and very interested in Aquaponics since last year.I think there are no Aquaponicer in Japan(maybe i am wrong)so please correct me.
Worked for 30 years in the Restaurant buisenesse in Tokyo.
Lately i talked with some people about Aquaponics and found a view friends.
I am thinking about a commercial system wich will be succsesful.
I running allready a 1000 liter system and looking forwards to a bigger one.[MORE]
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Future vision elaborated, I hope.
I will try to get some more detailed thoughts into my line of discussion around driving forces for aquaponic production.  I’m not sure if this was EXACTLY the section that I was asked to expand, but if it is, I hope this helps.

By now many people know that I think the world has gone mad and that in some way, I blame the marketing crowd for that.  Humanity has ended up on a treadmill of 24 hour production and income generation, but for all the wrong reasons[MORE]
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Amagazines   
Search Results - aquaponics system
Oh Yes, plenty of information HERE

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Aquaponics will change how we get our food
By: Ben Scheelk

It’s that unremitting sound, the endless gurgling of water as it runs off the improvised rockwool filtration system, which always reminds me that my roommate is saving the world. Well, maybe not directly, but he is experimenting with an old idea in a bold and innovative way that has the potential to revolutionize how much of the world’s population gets its food.

It’s called aquaponics, and the idea is to create a[MORE]
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My future vision for aquaponics
For the photo competition, we were asked to select up to five different pictures from members that we believed represents the future of aquaponics.  This got my head going, and I eventually selected some pictures that represented the following trends:

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Online Introduction to Aquaponics Workshop

Time: March 8, 2011 from 6pm to 8pm
Location: online
City/Town: anywhere USA
Website or Map: http://www.coloradoaquaponics…
Phone: 720-470-7007
Event Type: training, workshop
Organized By: Tawnya Sawyer
Latest Activity: 13 hours ago
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Event Description

March 8th and March 10th, 6pm - 8pm MT - online training

The interest in aquaponics is growing rapidly, but not everyone gets a chance to attend a class. During two evening web based sessions the Introduction to Aquaponics workshops will cover :
Benefits of Aquaponics
System Components
System Designs
Fish Selection and Health
Plant Selection and Health
Bacteria and the Nitrification Cycle
System Design Ratios
System Startup Procedures
Ongoing Maintenance Procedures
Tips and Tricks For MORE
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Aquaponics?Integration of Hydroponics with Aquaculture

Aquaponics is a bio-integrated system that links recirculating aquaculture with hydroponicvegetable, flower, and/or herb production. Recent advances by researchers and growers alike
have turned aquaponics into a working model of sustainable food production. This publicationprovides an introduction to aquaponics with brief profiles of working units around the country.
An extensive list of resources points the reader to print and Web-based educational materials forfurther technical assistance.
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In restoration, hands get wet and brains fed
By ILIMA LOOMIS, Staff Writer
LANAI CITY - While conservationists work to restore the native watershed on Lanaihale tree by tree, theyre getting some help from students at Lanai High and Elementary School.

For the past two years, science teacher Lisa Galloway has been getting her students out of the classroom and into the greenhouse, where they learn ecology and also grow seedlings for the watershed restoration effort.
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Tropical Aquaponics
E-Books
Challenges and Opportunities for Aquaponics in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources Clyde S. Tamaru, Bradley Fox, Marissa Lee,
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 Now this new section, where we try to find articles that nare primarily of interest to the everyday gardener, which however we feel could be of interest or help in broadening ourunderstanding of what, why and how Aquapods do things.

Lets Talk Seeds
With warmer weather just around the corner (we hope), many of us turn our thoughts to gardening, and to those lovely seed catalogs calling our names. Learn more about seed saving from a professional, and meet two new bloggers, Amy and Lawrence, who both talk seeds in their first posts. More...
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Where There’s Muck There’s Brass
In this newsletter, we’ll discuss various types of compost and whether or not to feed seedlings – are we killing them with kindness?
Compost – the earth in bags from the garden centre!
Where there’s muck there’s brass – the old saying is true when it comes to buying compost. It is expensive and large pots and containers need lots of it!
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Thats it for another day
See You Soon
Take Care
O Z Z I E

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Connecting a bulkhead to an EPDM liner

I want this to be done! But this bulkhead is giving me a lot of grief. I get that it was not designed to connect to EPDM, so heres the solution I have come up with.

 I cut a piece of 3/8" plexiglass and applied a lot of silicone to the underside. Then I washed it, and the EPDM with denatured alcohol and applied this fish safe EPDM seam tape.

One thing Ive learned is that if the bulkhead is over tightened it will squeeze the soft inside gasket out of round, and cause the seal to fail.  Im not sure... this might be what happened yesterday, but if this does not work Im just going to smother the fitting with even more silicon until it complies.

This has turned out to be a lot more difficult than I ever imagined and Im tired of dealing with it!

UPDATE

I found the source of my leak.  In my attempt to squeeze all the bubbles out of the silicone I literally stood on the acrylic and jumped up and down on it.  Apparently I caused a small crack in the plexiglass, and the leak.  
To view my repair which was done with much more silicon and care click here.

Im taking no chances.  This hole saw fit over the bulkhead and the two lead weights and a 3 lb hammer will keep the pressure on over night.

I might be overly optimistic, but I have faith, and have begun to shovel gravel into the grow bed.

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Mid Week Blank

This is great, my mind has jacked up on me. So we wing it Again. Or just say nothing and go straight to work. Which of course is the easy option and probably the best one from your point of view. I probably will have the opportunity down the page to sound off about something, so I might as well go that way.....

Farming inside the box: Urban agriculture of aquaponics
by Emily Gadekand Michelle M. Schaefer
Snow falls outside a nondescript one-story warehouse on Chicago’s South Side. But inside, its the growing season. Hundreds of fish swarm and fight for food in tanks surrounded by beds of basil, rainbow chard, and mint.

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Green power to grow greens
by Emily Gadekand Michelle M. Schaefer
Vertical farming indoors presents a promising solution for some of the challenges of agriculture in Chicago’s cold climate. However, these solutions also come with their own set of concerns. 

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312 Aquaponics develops advanced aquaponic technologies for commercial urban agriculture.  The application of our systems will usher in a new era of sustainable food production and distribution.                                                ...oooOooo...

Aquaponics Makes My Basil HUGE!

Ever since our trip to the Big Island last August, we have been working on our garden.  We have been applying great tips from experts at UH and local farmers to our backyard garden at the Lahaina Bungalow.  

 Check out the size of that leaf! One of the most impressive plants Ive seen with Aquaponics is Basil.[MORE]
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Welcome to the factory of the future: Fish farming
by Emily Gadekand Michelle M. Schaefer
While many recent college grads are searching for their first jobs or taking time off the see the world, Andrew Fernitz, Brian Watkins, Mario Spatafora and Arash Amini founded 312 Aquaponics, a for-profit company creating aquaponics systems.
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Micro-Aquaponic Sculpture
When I was in high school I read about research at the University of Hawaii in small scale self contained ecosystems. The idea fascinated me so I started doing research on how I could build one. In Des Moines, Iowa, where I lived, there is a small rain forest contained in a geodesic dome called the Des Moines Botanical Center. A scientist at the center helped me with a design for a miniature version of the center with the addition of a cave environment below the terrestrial and lake environments. My design, which I built with help from my dad, was a Plexiglas dome mounted atop a box with a cylinder in the middle that served as a lake environment.
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Ahead of the Class
To have your class, workshop or presentation listed, e-mail information 10 days prior to publication to kehau@mauinews.com. You may also submit it to The Maui News Virtual Newsroom at [MORE]

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OUR PLANET EARTH
Dont give up on Japans kids
By STEPHEN HESSE
Last March, the president of Harvard University, Drew Gilpin Faust, visited Japan to find out for herself what has become of Japans once-vibrant contribution to American academia. The numbers of Japanese students enrolling in Harvard have declined steadily over the past decade, and in September 2009 that renowned universitys first-year intake included just one student from Japan.
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Discussion Forum - Aquaponic Gardening
A community site with forums, blogs, photos, videos and more for both new and experienced aquaponic gardeners. Lets learn together!
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Evan M. Schwartz

Thanks for adding me to the group. We are in the process of finishing our four tiered raft system. Thanks Grow it right for the help. Anyone have experience with a mixed bed that use a combo of deep water culture and media? Id like to introduce worms and snails to my system. Any info?

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NOW, ONCE AGAIN WE GO LOOKING "OUTSIDE THE CIRCLE"
Make Your Own Lavender Laundry Detergent--for Pennies
laundry detergent
Lavender-scented laundry detergent is a breeze to make. Photo by Povy Kendal Atchison
According to our grandmothers’ wisdom (and verified on thenewhomemaker.com), Monday is Wash Day. After Sunday’s day of rest, homemakers traditionally took on one of the week’s most difficult tasks: the laundry.


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Soothing Homemade Lip Balm

From our friends at Natural Home magazine: Leave your lips feeling luscious and quenched — naturally! — with this simple recipe for homemade lip balm.

Lips, au natural!
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Garlic Recipes: Garlic Dip, Soup, Ice Cream and More

Celebrate this healthful, scrumptious herb with these recipes for everything from simple garlic dips to more elaborate garlic soup to out-of-this-world garlic ice cream!
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Could Plastic Really Be the Greenest Bag Option?

An unpublished British study reports plastic bags are a greener option than paper or cloth.

Tell me more.
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OK Guys Thats a wrap...
Happy splashing N planting
Take Care
O Z Z I E

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