Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am looking for a place to get those plastic barrels that you guys/gals have. I am in the state of New Mexico so it might not be local? But any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Also does anybody have any ideas on how to build inexpensive Metal Halide lighting? I just am having a very hard time bringing myself to spend 500$ for a 1000watt lamp..

Just go for a drive around your nearest industrial/dense commercial area until you spot some of them. Give them a ring and they should be able to sell/give them to you or tell you where you might get them from....

I will give that a shot thanks

ebay. seriously.

Try eBay for the lamp and for the drums.
Tony

slicer,

i got mine from a guy that works for a company that provides bleach to companies that run those huge industrial chiller air conditioners. those huge chillers (the size of large buildings) are filled with water that's evaporating, condensing non-stop and they use bleach by the barrel full to kill the algae. i was cautious at first because the barrels had sodium chlorite (chloride?... can't remember the real chemical name right now) but it's just everyday bleach. talked to a number of people and they seem to think it's fine as long as i've rinsed them well and can't smell the bleach anymore.

oh, i've another one that i bought from a used barrel place ($25 is still a lot though, in my opinion) and it smells of worcestershire no matter how many times i've rinsed it lol

Place a request on your local or near craigslist.org location. I did this and found some for FREE. An local auto auction was giving them away.

I'm in Florida and I found barrels on Craigslist. It seems everyone in the chemical business has these things. I found a company that only uses barrels with food grade products.

mrgrackletx, just be double sure of the previous contents (a placard on the barrel helps )


Don't now around there, but here in oz there is some down right nasty bio control chems used. cant tell you exactly as i don't work on cooling towers, but a spate (2 out breaks ) of legionnaires has seen the whole industry locked down.

We have a local salvage yard near here that sells the things for $10 each. A friend used sixteen as floats for a dock... I think there was soda concentrate in them originally, so a local bottler might be a possibility for you.

I recently pick up two at the dump that had been filled with cork wax for bottling wine. ("So, what do you do for a living?" "Oh, I, uh, wax corks. Professionally.") I'm not sure about suitability of these for fish.

It doesn't help that mauser drums (aka blue barrels) are used for both food grade and toxic chemicals - same drum, very different uses. It's just not worth using a drum with an unknown heritage.

It doesn't help that mauser drums (aka blue barrels) are used for both food grade and toxic chemicals - same drum, very different uses. It's just not worth using a drum with an unknown heritage.