Aquaponics Float Beds

Aquaponic raft pattern - one pattern to rule them all . . .

The wood pattern is cut from 1/2 birch plywood left over from another project (cut to 2ft x 4ft to match our raft size). The pattern has a 105 2 inch holes. This allows for many combinations of raft spacing. Driving that many holes in a 1/2 inch plywood took much longer than I expected, so another material may be more ideal. The pattern should last for many years, however.

The raft with 105 holes will be used for seedlings only. The other has 55 holes and is intended for lettuce production.

In drilling the foam, I used high rpm's and drilled them with slow, steady pressure. This builds up heat and lightly melts the hole edges leaving the hole edges less crumbly. The circles I removed will be modified and used in place of clips to hole the plants.

This project should be done far away from your system and care should be taken to make sure the rafts are clean before use. The little foam shavings will clog up filters on pumps and could do costly damage. Not as much of a concern for us as we use an air lift pump that would take far larger particles to clog. I am sure the fine particles are not healthy for the fish if you using this in a aquaponic system.

I'll update again once the sytem is running!