Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello all!

New to aquaponics and frustrated beyond words finding suitable growing media in the small Montana town I live and work. I thought indoor gardening would be a fun hobby during the long winter. With discovering aquaponics, caring for, and watching fish swim appealed to me as well.

Well as I said, finding what I needed to build my small system from local suppliers was near impossible. I bought most of my equipment and supplies from mail order and for the most part did very well in terms of shipping costs. Most items were free. Where I got hung up was the media. I didn't want to use anything heavy like gravel or scoria and wanted some of the lightweight growing media I read so much about on forums as this.

The first time I bought a mail order media was through a hydroponic supplier on ebay. I decided on Growstones, for which I paid $120 for two 2-cubic foot bags. Unfortunately, I didn't get what I thought I was getting. I mistakenly ordered the Aerator. They are approximately 1/4" and smaller stones made from recycled glass. They had so much fine silt in it that despite washing two or three times before use, there was still quite a bit that settle through my system. I ended up removing it from my system and will end up using it as... well an soil aerator.

Well I think I finally hit pay dirt!

I found a product called HydRocks. Its an expanded clay pellet and soil enhancer sold by Home Depot of all places. Its distributed by Garick, LLC and is made in Louisiana or Alabama. The website wasn't specific. It differs from Hydroton or Plantit in that the product is unevenly shaped- almost like lava rock without the sharp edges.

It's $38 for 1.5 cubic feet- still not exactly cheap but right now Home Depot offers free shipping on orders greater than $45.

I previously found a product called Viagrow expanded pellets for sale at Home Depot. That product no longer is sold online and unavailable for shipping. Its was cheaper ($32 for 45 liters) and also offered free shipping if your order was greater than $45.

So hurry before they change their mind about the free shipping for HydRocks!

Expanded shale is also an option, if you have any quarries that sell sand and gravel maybe they also sell expanded shale. It is used instead of gravel to make lighter weight concrete for roofs.

If you have a small system that's fine but my grow beds are 1 cubic yards or bigger and any packaged media like that is just too expensive for my tastes.

My recommendation is to find a gravel/sand/landscape supplier and see what gravel, stone aggregates they sell and go buy it by the truckbed.

try to find something PH nuetral but if you cant... River rock is fine and dont get all bent out of shape by a little ph buffer.

Yikes. I pay $20/50L of Hydroton at my local hydro shop.

Yikes is right!

I would LOVE to use expanded shale. I've looked and can't find any. Nearest big town is Williston ND and I didn't find any there. So I'll take my lumps. My system is 20 gallon each fishtank growbed and sump basement system with artificial lighting

If I'm successful I'm seeing up a larger greenhouse set up and shale would be ideal

Because of your location, pebbles/gravel/river rock might be best. It will be available locally, and probably an order of magnitude cheaper.

has anybody tried Liaflor clay pellets?

Yep... been selling it for about 12 months and had it in my IBC system since May last year... it's as good as Hydroton was... and is worlds apart from the crappy cheap Chinese and Thai clays that are around.

Resurrecting an old thread... I'm looking for LiaFlor or similar quality clay balls in Melbourne or VIC, does anyone have a source? I may consider a pallet load from interstate if I can drum up some interest. I'm after 10-20 bags myself.