A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

55 gallon barrel system help?

Hello all!

I have several 55 gallon barrels that I can work with to get my garden started. I had ordered a aquaponic gardening book on Amazon, but it hasn't been shipped to me yet...

Does anyone have any suggestions or tips on using barrels?

I would really appreciate any and all feedback.

Thank you!

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Permalink Reply by emilylouise37 on March 12, 2012 at 9:46am

Thank you for the information! Yes, I just got her book in the mail and it's helping a lot! Yes, I was worried about the barrel for the fish- I'll be on the look out for another container! :)

Randall Wimbish said:

Hello and welcome.

With out knowing your space, I would suggest using the barrels cut in half for grow beds and using a larger tank for the fish tank. Lots of folks here are using rubbermade or tuff stuff cattle troughs from tractor supply for fish tanks. Surface area of a fish tank is more important than volume so a standing barrel is really not a good fish tank.

Did you buy Sylvia's book? I bought it on Kindle and am able to read it on my iphone and pc. There are a couple of more books there but Sylvia's is the most imformative . Gallon wise ,the suggested ratio is 1 to 1 fish tank to grow bed to start with.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Smith on March 12, 2012 at 10:19am

You should check out the Barrel-ponics PDF available for free on the net. I make a simpler version using a simple 15 minute timer instead of the toilet plunger and all the moving parts. Here is a link to some of my designs posted on this site.