Ive introduced my aquaponics project, and talked about the magic of the bell siphon.

Now I want to cover what I used for containers, the construction, and what went into each. Please keep in mind this is simply how I did it. There is no correct way, there is what works for you, and what doesn’t. Use what I say as a guideline, and take everything with a grain of salt. I’m no expert in this, I’ve just done enough to want to talk about my successes and my failures.

Here we go!

Container choices

For my fish basin, my biggest challenge was cost, so I knew I’d not have a concrete basin, a weatherproof container, or even a stock tank to use as my base container for the setup. Having started into this as a complete novice, I couldn’t justify dropping hundreds of dollars for a setup that my never work. I have enough failed projects around to keep the wife mildly annoyed with me. No need for another. Plus I like to re-purpose things, so I looked at less expensive options.

In addition, I needed something to act as a grow bed as well. I have seen concrete mixing basins that would work, and they were priced under $20 each, so they were a possibility…

Another option was “bus boxes” the rubber or plastic tubs carried by busboys at restaurants. These I found after getting started, otherwise I probably would have gone with one of them.

What I ended up doing was using 55 gallon blue plastic, food-grade barrels ($15 each!) instead for both the base unit holding the fish, as well as for the grow beds themselves. By cutting each barrel into thirds and discarding the center section, you get two 18-ish gallon containers with flat bottoms. I could have cut them top to bottom, leaving me with two 27 gallon containers, but they would have had rounded bottoms, a nightmare for stacking.

For the fish container, I simply cut the top out. I also added an overflow that would allow me to add in fresh water daily from my sprinkler system running off of my well. You can see the small black line running across the top of the fish barrel and the clear hose in the front used to take away the overflow, so it wouldn’t undermine the fish barrel. This keeps the water level topped off at all times without needing me to do it manually. There is also a bilge pump plumbed in at the bottom of the barrel (bottom right in the pic), though bilge pumps have proven to be unreliable for 24/7 operation (see tomorrow’s article). With a 55 gallon barrel, I can grow out 3-4 panfish to harvestable size.

Additionally, on top of the fish barrel, I placed a rectangular platform made from 1×4 pine to hold the grow beds.

Inside the Grow Beds

For the grow beds media, I had several options, the ideal answer being expanded clay pebbles. They are lightweight, pH neutral, reusable, and durable. However, the price for them is more than I’m willing to spend, when there are other options.

I opted for volcanic rock as my media for a couple reasons. First, it was the least expensive option. Second, it was mostly inert, though did require a good wash down first. Third, it was lighter than river pebbles, my other local option.

So I set up my two beds with a bell siphon in each one, added volcanic rock to just above the level the water at its highest, and simply sprinkled mixed lettuce seeds across the grow media.

I fired up the pump, and in roughly a week, I had sprouted lettuce. Three weeks later, I had this:

Not a bumper crop, but it’s working. I’ll not complain. And since its powered by my solar panels, it’s almost cost-free to operate. I can easily expand it, and have plans to do so. I’m just happy that what I’ve done works.

My fish feed the plants, the plants clean the water, and I get salad and fish from my backyard. Everybody wins…well except the plants and the fish, at least in the long term.

Tomorrow, I’ll go over the solar panels, the batteries, the charge controller, and the pumps I’ve tried. The pumps are my only point of reoccurring problems so far. Everything else seems to be relatively easy to resolve. Mother Nature is a pretty smart lady, organizing everything to work so well together…

Peace,
db