Putting my system together.

I just got the system up and running today. It's not totally finished. I would like to have some more water in the fish tank and more gravel in the bed. We're expecting rain over the next few days so I'll have more water available then. I'm using collected rainwater from rain gutters to house the little guys.

I should have pictures of the system tomorrow. I built the system out of recycled materials that I had available. The tank is really a water bin we used to use to water cattle during a drought. At the moment I have 50 gallons of water in it. The grow beds are a couple of 50 gallon drums cut in half. I set the grow beds in a water trough holder. Then built a stand for the holder to sit on using railroad ties for legs.

 The pump is external. If I had to do it over again I would use a sump pump. I have a float attached for automation. When the fish tank is full it pumps water into the grow beds until the float tells it to turn off. I'm still not happy with the settings yet but I'll adjust it tomorrow when it's daylight. I have 3 1/4" hoses attached to the bottom of the grow beds. All that I do is pump water in faster than it drains out. I have no mechanics to drain the water. It starts draining right away as soon as water is pumped in. The three hoses drain straight back into the tank.

Originally I was going to use the 3 refill hoses to be the aeration mechanism but have decided that it's not enough. Tomorrow I will install an aquarium air pump. The health of my fish is very important. I still don't have my water test kit, but it should be here soon.

Rangers are playing the Yankees now, so I'll wrap this up. Tomorrow I will start talking about all the mistakes I made and what I learned putting this thing together.