Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I saw a thread (several) on grow bed media....but what about options for the grow beds themselves? I have so far come up with the following , but I know there must be alot more things that could be used as great grow beds that I haven't thought about:

cut IBC's
cut blue barrels
concrete mixing tubs
Kiddie pools
rubber pond liner inside wood or CMU block frame
in-ground channels lined with pond liner


what haven't I thought of?

Bathtubs
Refrigerator shells
Ferro-cement in just about any shape you can conceive
TCLynx is experimenting with beds made from speed rail.

Concrete burial vaults - Heavy but cheap

old water softener tanks (cut in half lengthwise)
BIG drainage pipe (i seem to remember someone have 24"dia pipe)
truck beds
truck caps
canoes/boats
rain gutters
soda bottles
milk jugs
i saw one system that the growbeds looked like shoeboxes, but they were plastic (tupperware)
sinks
lockers
i could go on

That is an impressive list.

Earthbound (Joel) had a long thread about his in-ground channels with pond liner which did not work out very well so it isn't a very good option in many circumstances. You would have to mitigate the issues he experienced to get a good outcome.

Regards, Martin.

okay so I just did a search on Earthbound and he is a vary prolific thread starter. does anyone know which thread he talks about in-ground channels in?

I am very interested because I was thinking about in-ground channels for my outdoor system. We live on a great big hill and I have this vision of a pond at the top of the hill, planting bed channels zig-zagging down the hill to a sump tank with a pump that takes the water back up to the pond.

Francios did liner only channels in his first system, and I believe uses them again in his current system.

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=5209

It was a trial commercial system.

I think the point of failure was the amount of maintenance required with keeping out leaves from a surrounding gumtree, which has a chemical that slows down growth while they break down, and pulling out the seedlings from the gumtree. And its time consuming, more meant as a trial, not as a working system.


For beds, I'd think anything that can hold water & weight, and as personal preference, something that looks visually attractive. We've mostly got backyard systems, I don't want my system/backyard to look like something I scrounged from the tip.

Ah, so...That system is huge! wow. yeah.

I was thinking more like a man-made stream bed filled with gravel that meanders zig-zag down my hill. but actually now after reading about his trees, I think that I am actually happy about the intended site I've chosen because there are no walnut trees there. So no jugalone tolerance issues if leaves fall onto my system.

I would think that any outdoor system would have problems with keeping leaves and seeds out...not much to do with the type of media bed.

Some of Francios work seems pretty close to what I was thinking...but the diagram I saw of his shows multiple lines where I was thinking one long one. I am off to peruse his threads a bit more...

I was looking at this cattle bunk yesterday, while searching for fish tanks. Don't know the cost, but it looks like it might make a nice grow bed. They make other models, sized to match height with the animals they're serving, so you might be able to tier a couple or three together to make a cascading set of grow beds.

The zig zagging down the hill idea will work but its not very efficient in terms of electricity.

It doesn't take much if any electricity to move water horizontally especially through a channel but it does take a lot to move water up.

My Dad was thinking about buying land in Thailand (I think) where they have terraced rice paddies. He wanted me to investigate if they could be converted to AP. The answer was yes but it wasn't really feasible because setting up on flat ground would have lower operational costs.

TC is using the bunk feeders. I've seen them on sale for under $70.00, but normally around $120.00.

Concrete burial vaults - Heavy but cheap...any sources in Tampa bat area?

tampa bay..sorry, long day

Thanks for finding the link Col.

It wasn't just the leaves he also found that the ground level plants were far more susceptible to weather issues especially frost. So I think it also depends on your local weather patterns. The issue is not the channel but the "in-ground" part. If you don't have lots of organic matter and live in a mild weather system then I think it should be okay but if you have heavy winds or lots of trees or plenty cold snaps then I would not take that route.

You could always cover it as a greenhouse or hoophouse and eliminate many of the issues we're discussing.

DrLuke, you're right Francois does use channels but they are raised, not in-ground.

Spindog I think Virginia is quite a cold climate right? You might want to cover the channels to protect them, especially when it gets cold. The nice thing about having raised channels is that you can put them together and cover more affordably than channels that are spread out, it is also easier/cheaper to control the water flow.

Regards, Martin.

yeah, we have plenty of cold here in VA. and a hoop greenhouse would be a splendid option, but even with that I wouldn't probably be able to keep anything going year-round here unless I had supplemental heat. we have a real winter here. (heck, we STILL have a real winter here...it froze again last night!!!)

hmm...it didn't occur that I COULD do something year round. (which is why I started with a small basement system) do people do that in a zone 7 climate?