Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello Friends, I'm still working, trying to get my barrel system, literally off the ground. I had four one half barrels set up and was filling them with rain water run off from my roof. The weight of the water was greater than my platform and it crashed. No harm done. Just starting from scratch. This time I'll install a concrete slab and then build up from there. So much for a $40.00 Aquaponic System, but I'm fully behind these ideas. By the way, should I rinse my clay pellets until the water runs clear? Thanks, Gil Jones

G'day giljones

Your not the first to overload there platform
It helps to get your clay pellets as clean as you can otherwise all that dirt ends up in your tank and your system will take longer to clear

cheers Wolly

I guess I over engineer my stuff. I've over 2000 pounds in my small system just counting gravel and water. I had a structural failure on my wooden frame and didn't loose anything everything stayed good. The recycled lumber just gave out and it was a quick repair. I was glad to see that even with the failure the system didn't suffer at all. I was worried that the old lumber may be weak so I went a little crazy for structural support.

Is it safe to say no one was harmed? Barrels are cheap, people are priceless.

I would use the clay alone, but I'm wanting to keep my cost down as much as possible. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Check out the media pros and cons thread.

I currently use gravel on the bottom half of the bed and clay for the top half. I will most likely go back to all gravel on my expansion as I have no issue with building my structure strong enough to hold the weight. It depends on how you look at it.
If you keep the cost of media down the cost of structure usually goes up, unless you go with something like lava rock then your comfort level goes down with the weight. (It is painful to dig through lava rock)

Not as bad as blue stone.

Over engineering is always better than "just enough".. As Ron pointed out, if things fall on someone, that will be terrible..