I'm looking for a good, heavy-duty, rigid 1020 tray

[hush]

Does anyone know of any? I keep looking online for various nursery flats and everyone carries the cheap ones. I did find a particular tray out there called the Perma-Nest tray, but I am finding that all my usual retailers don't carry it. It seems to be marketed to the orchid community, I think. I might end up taking a chance and ordering one of those, but I was hoping someone could give me some recommendations based on personal experience.

I need a standard sized nusery tray, the 1020 kind, but I need it to be rigid. I don't want it to buckle when it has runofff water in it, and I have to carry it over to the sink. All the ones I've ever used are as flimsy as those disposable paint tray liners, and they just don't cut it for me.

Who knows of any?

 

[Treetroit City]

They are out there. A local farm supply shop carries them. They are sea foam green colored and retails for eight bucks. Sorry don't know the brand name or anything

 

[hush]

Sea foam green-- that describes the perma-nest tray that I mentioned above. So, farm supply shops, huh? I don't know why I didn't think about that. I did check out a bunch of nursery wholesale suppliers, and greenhouse suppliers, but not farm suppliers. I'll check that out now...

 

[hush]

Yeah, literally the only ones I'm finding are this Perma-Nest brand. They actually appear to come in foam green and tan. I might have to go with the tan ones. But it's looking like it's all I can find. Some sites have a listing for a "heavy duty" propagation tray, then when you click on it and look at the picture it's Hydrofarm's flimsy one. So I don't know, I guess Perma-Nest has the market cornered.

It looks like they will run about $10 a piece, plus about $10 shipping. Oh well. I'll give it a go. This is what they look like, btw:

 

[Treetroit City]

That looks like the one I've seen. Can't mistake that color haha.

 

[hush]

Thanks for the confirmation. I went ahead and ordered some today. I found a set of 4 for $40 on Amazon with free shipping. If they work out the way I hope they will, I'd like to turn one of them into a mini flood-table.

 

[hush]

The trays have arrived! They are definitely heavy duty... Just as rigid as a typical flood table... in fact I just built a flood table out of one:

The frame is made from 3/4" PVC. The reservoir will be a spare aquarium. Also, I think the trays look better in white than in green.

 

[GeorgeSmiley]

Just noticed sunlight supply now has a double thick and quad thick 1020 flats on their new products page.

http://www.sunlightsupply.com/p-14690-fhd-double-thick-tray-insert.aspx

http://www.sunlightsupply.com/p-14691-fhd-quad-thick-tray-insert.aspx

GS

 

[hush]

Here it is all setup, running tests:

It works great, but this is not the aquarium I'll be using. I plan on using a standard 10 gallon, but the legs of the table are too short, so I have to cut new ones. In the meantime, for testing, I used a 2.5 gallon I had laying around. It's short enough to fit under the table.

 

[hush]

Well, the first thing I discovered is that the tray doesn't drain very well. I expected this, though, and already had a solution in mind... simply drilling a tiny pilot hole in the middle of each of the 3 recessed channels where the water was hanging out. So now the tray drains properly, and the amount of water dripping through those 3 small holes doesn't compete with the force of the flood pump, so it still floods properly too.

The only thing that sucks is the lack of an access hole, which means anytime I need to get into the res, the tray has to be removed, which means the pump has to be disconnected, and it kinda sucks. So I need to come up with a modular way of connecting the tray to the pump. I'm thinking of using PVC pipe instead of tubing, and figuring out a quick disconnect method. Not sure yet.

But anyway, here it is with its permanent reservoir:

I plan on blacking out the sides and back of the aquarium and throwing a sponge filter in there.

 

[hush]

Here it is with an aerated powerhead:

 

[Treetroit City]

Nice idea. So is this just for cloning?

 

[hush]

Yes, but I do plan on making one of these for bonsai moms. This one will be for establishing roots, and then vegetating clones for a week or two.

 

[mr.shiva]

How well does the dome fit? I bought some trays kinda like that in the 90's and that was the only hitch

 

[hush]

Yeah, the domes for the standard 1020 trays don't fit so well... I just have to sort of balance it in place, and it does the trick. If it ends up being a problem, I'll just order the dome that is designed for these trays.

 

[hush]

Oh yeah, by the way, I fixed the problem of having to disconnect the tube from the pump every time I needed to get into the reservoir... all I had to do was shorten the tube so that the pump just hangs, hovering a few millimeters above the bottom glass. Before, the suction cups on the bottom of the pump were holding it down. Now they don't get to suction anything! And the weight of the pump helps to keep the tray above nice and level.