Aquaponic Gardening

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Do Cheap Blue Barrels really save you money?

Let us do some research into this topic, ok, my good intentions on this topic were to go back and see if I could find the research I did on it two years ago when I decided that barrels would not be cost effective for my planned big system.

Needless to say, I haven't managed to do that. What I do remember from my research was that I could get more grow bed volume and spend less money by building wooden grow beds and lining them with pond liner. These figures were affected greatly by the cost of building stands for the barrels cut the long way plus the extra plumbing involved in connecting lots of 25 gallon barrels compared to 150 gallon wood grow beds.

The above was all going on the assumption that 12 inch deep grow beds were the goal.

What I know now would affect my choices however. (Seeing as I've had trouble with lumber/liner beds being compromised by termites and that I've found deep grow beds to be wonderful.)


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Comment by TCLynx on July 5, 2010 at 11:50am
When I bought a bunch of mine they were $15 each. I think that is the line I would probably draw if you are building more than a simple barrel ponics system. If spending more than $15 each they definitely loose the cost effective factor for a big system with easy space arrangement.

Now if you are working with narrow spaces, I can see doing barrels cut around the middle so they need to extra support to keep from bowing then they can be squeezed into narrow spaces to use the space available when there is little other choice. Cut the long way they need the extra support which tends to take up space and also make siphons trickier.
Comment by Nate Storey on July 5, 2010 at 10:55am
That's true- the amount of space lost by having a round shape too is quite a bit. And they aren't as apporpriate as stock tanks or other tanks for many of the systems they're applied to. I think lots of the systems out there using barrels are based on being able to find barrels for $5 a pop, but nowadays they're impossible to find for less than $20 or $25.
Comment by TCLynx on July 5, 2010 at 10:36am
Well actually for the amount of filtration volume, the barrels loose out a bit on space.

Don't get me wrong, I actually think barrels are very appropriate for certain situations and I have a whole bunch of them myself. I've got a line of them along the property line growing bamboo as a screen and I think it's great.

I just want people to realize that if they are paying much for the blue barrels and trying to do a large system and building stands for barrels cut the long way, that using the barrels is probably not a cost savings compared to using some larger container that might cost a bit more. Like if some one is paying $30 for a blue barrel then the containers themselves cost almost as much as a 100 gallon stock tank and once you add in the extra plumbing and stands, for the same amount of filtration the stock tanks actually cost less. (Just pointing out a possible false economy. Like when people buy the cheap laundry soap cause it costs half the price of the good stuff but since you need to use twice as much of it per load it really just costs the same or even more.)

And I am no longer a big fan of pond liner unless you can simply place it on/in the ground since I've had termite problems with the lumber framing.
Comment by Nate Storey on July 5, 2010 at 10:10am
Hi Aleece, you should see the barrel system I"m putting together. . . it's going to knock your socks off. . . I think that for folks with a lot of area you're absolutely right. you can't beat the price of pond liners, but for folks with a balcony or a really small patio, barrels can be pretty space efficient. . . still not nearly as cost effective as a liner, but a little less permanent (sometimes) and a little less space consuming. . .

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