Aquaponics - Media screen and standpipe

To try to keep all my gravel from grinding into the pump in my new system, I'm going to need a large media screen.

The media screen's task is to prevent any gravel from flowing out with the water. The easiest way to make one is to make it out of PVC. PVC is turning out to be my favourite material to use for all kinds of things during my time spent so far learning 120 things in 20 years.

The screen needs to be big enough to put my arm into in case I need to adjust something, or remove a snail or something. The PVC I'll be using is around 200 mm in diametre.

I cut a length at 400 mm because the plan is to make the gravel 300 mm deep, and to prevent gravel falling in when I'm digging around, it needs to be around 100 mm above the gravel.

I concentrated all the holes at the bottom, because if this device doesn't work well at the end of the cycle, when the tide is low, it wont work. Any holes at the top are not really needed if there are enough holes at the bottom.

Then Cleaned it up with a small hand held rotary tool. Any wire brush would do, or you can use a file, or even a drill bit a few sizes larger. If you use the bigger drill bit method you can just twirl it around at each hole even by hand. You also get very nice bevelled edges and it's quicker, but I didn't have a bigger drill bit.

The next task is to place it in my new grow bed, and fill the grow bed with gravel.