Aquaponics - System build - media screen

My first PVC screen I made to keep the media out was full of round holes.

To keep clay balls out. Round balls (like balls tend to be).

It didn't work so well.

So I thought I'd better make a new one.

I started by cutting a length of PVC lengthways so I could mount it against the end of the blue barrel, to surround the stand pipe.

It's difficult to tell, but the good bit is the bigger bit on the right.

The blue barrel has a curved face where the bung is, so I had to distort the base of my media guard to fit.

I drilled a couple of holes so I could get a jigsaw blade in there.

The plan being to cut long slits rather than my original holes. The slits should be able to be blocked, and should actually work.

The final result looks like this.

Neat isn't it.

It wont matter because it wont be visible.

Then just to be sure, I thought I'd stick some gutter guard on as well. Gutter guard is just a plastic mesh you can buy in a roll to keep leaves out of your house gutters.

I tied it on with some rubber bands to hold it in place.

The forced some silicon into the gaps.

The gutter guard seems to be made of the same stuff as black poly pipe. If that's the case, silicon wont stick to it, but I'm hoping that the silicone surrounding it should hold it well enough.

Only time will tell.









Doing 120 Things in 20 years, working on my new aquaponics system build, and making a media screen out of yet more PVC, you may feel I'm developing a PVC addiction. But it's always reassuring to know I have a long way to go. Take Theo Jansen for example. He's got it bad.