Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have almost got my 6 1/2 barrels up and running and tought I might put this out there.

When you look at the cost of one of EB's growbeds compared to the 1/2 barrels. 5 times as many fittings and standpipes plus stands and time to put it all together, i don't think there would be much difference in the final cost.
So far;
6x$15 = $90.00 barrels
6x$12.5 = $75.00 stands (and these were a real bargain)
assorted stuff for putting together $50
fittings pvc around $150

TOTAL $365.00 this doesn't include the beer, grinder blades and bandages.

I hear ya Bazz. I was all set to go with a heap of stainless bitumen painted drums for my tragic greenhouse. Had cut the drums, washed, painted. The plumbing looked like being a killer cost wise, despite the initial cheap barrel cost.

Yea TT
For me, the next time will be the beds from Joel I think. But its been fun and i got sum good lurnin frum it

Ahhh the joys of half barrels....

It was the plumbing job that turned me off the half barrels. Well, that and the fact that they bulge if you dont put a frame around them.

Total cost of ownership, fittings add up fast.

How much are the ready made Grow beds and do they come with stands?

I found that the 1/2 barrels don't seem to be bulging when I built the stands like the barrel ponics manual does with the angle bits to hold part way up the sides of the barrel.

I think my cost to build my entire Barrel ponics system was around $263 complete with pump and gravel (and that included having to buy 10' of each type of pipe and a full boxes of screws and other hardware etc.)

The barrels themselves were $15 each.
Looking at building my Big pond/tank system I realized that the barrels would take over the yard to get even a 1:1 ratio.
When I started doing the math about how much it would cost to make stands for the blue barrels I decided to look into making grow beds out of pond liner. I decided that would be cheaper. (partly because I can make the GB rather big and reduce the amount of plumbing involved and the stand will be really cheap stacked up pallets.) Also, the liner option gives me more gallons of grow bed for the footprint.

I don't know of any handy pre-made/plumbed grow bed on a stand available around here. Even the Hydroponic trays need plumbing and a stand so spending $300 on a fancy tray would not save me any over DIY barrels. The fancy stock feed troughs with stands look really cool but they are pricey and still require plumbing.

I'm finding that nothing is really cheap, even the free stuff usually requires some spending to make it useful. (thought the free aquarium, stand, air pumps, lid and light are pretty close to perfect.)

I paid $5 a piece for my barrels, recycled. The frames where all built from scrap wood and painted it with left over paint. I found a good bit of 2" PVC for my drain pipes. The only part of the plumbing that I thought was expensive where the ball valves & $7 (i think) a piece.

There is no cheap option for rectangular beds, IMO pond liner or otherwise is the way to go (that's the reason for the DD AquaPatio). Definitely not the hydro trays - I always consider the $ per gallon ratio when pricing stuff and I don't think those would come close to $1 per gallon, which is still not cheap.

The feed troughs aren't an ideal shape, kind of like using a long barrel.

Which is why I bought a PVC welder.

We can get feed troughs, 6'4" x 3'4" x 1' for USD$115 at the moment.
It took a lot of looking from me, before Kennour from this site show me these.
According to Bazz and Al, they got 1200L of GB in blue barrels for AUD$365. 2 of my GB = 1200L and has a much smaller footprint.
2 x AUD$125 = $250
heavy steel stands will cost me $60ea in steel. = $370
Fittings + pipe will cost $10
so $390 all up.

So not much more really.
I definitely prefer these troughs over pond liner. I'm sure building a frame and lining it will be more expensive anyhow, for the same reasons, of hidden costs.

The only cost for me was the PVC fittings, Pipe, glue and tek screws.
Barrels were free so was the wood for framing, biggest expence so far was for tank (even then got it cheap coz I know the guy).
I've kept reciepts for stuff purchaced and when finished building I will tally up to see how much its cost.

with a lot of things the true cost is usually hidden.
for me the barrels look like a lot of work, which means time i don't have.
plus if i started sitting bright blue barrels around the yard my g/f would kill me.
i'm going to go with a terraced design and use pvc piping. best use of space for $ value.

How about building grow beds from plywood and painting them with epoxy paint? You'd have to frame in the outside for support but I think if they where 2' deep it shouldn't need that much support on the sides. an 8x4x2 would hold 475 gallons.... hmm... that's 3800+ lbs...

I am planing to use wood to frame out grow beds and line them with EDPM pond liner (instead of trying to seal with paint as it would probably crack at the seams and leak.) So the bed will be about a foot deep 3' wide by 8' long. Those wood beds will be placed upon a pile of pallets (two pallets end to end is 8' long and they are a little more than 3' wide. So long as the pallets are not completely falling apart, they don't need to be perfect. If the bed needs to be higher up, just add another layer of pallets. I can get pallets for $2.50 each from the guy across the street.

Anyway, I'm working up a price list of what it would cost me to go with the blue barrels compaired to the cost of doing lined beds.