Is plastic ok to be used in aquaponics?
I received a number of questions about the type of material to be used for the aquaponics pipes and liners.
It puts me in a difficult situation as I don’t really know how to respond to those questions…
Obviously I can tell you what type of equipment I am using but I don’t know if it is the best for this purpose as I am not aware of any specific study on the topic.
So for the pipes I use aquarium/pond pipes. They are made out of different materials such as vinyl and other plastics. They are not supposed to release elements into the water. PVC is also a type of plastic often used in aquaponics and I personally use some in my bell siphon’s design.
Aquaponics plastic and sun exposition
Where we have to be careful is on the sun exposition. It is known that UV affect materials such as plastic. A pipe exposed to full sun with temperature variations will certainly release some elements…
In the same time we have to put things in perspective with what we are doing every day. When we buy water or other juices from the supermarket it is very often contained into plastic waters and the same phenomenon apply…
Glue
The last point where we must be careful is in the use of glue. When you open a pot of glue you can clearly smell a strong chemical odour. Here I highly recommend to leave your glue dry for 24 hours before introducing it in contact with the water of the system.
Silicon
There are different types of silicon available and I generally try to stay away from them but when I really need to use it I get the one adapted for aquariums as it is supposed to release less substances into the water.
So as you can see there are probably lots of improvement to be made on those points. If you have any expertise you are very welcome to leave a comment and to let us know what type of material you are using and for what reason. 🙂
You will probably be interested to discover Jonathan’s six steps to build and manage an Aquaponics system. Click here to access for free! Thanks and good reading 🙂
