Barrleponics training system
Barrelponics
I was doing research on hydroponics a couple of years ago with the hope of growing lettuce and tomatoes over the winter months in our basement. I became very discouraged by all of the supplies and equipment that you need just to get started when I stumbled on a manual for “Barrelponics”. It is a small training design of a soiless method for growing fish and vegetables in a system called “aquaponics”. What excited me about aquaponics was that there is a symbiotic relationship between growing two types of food where the only input is fish food and the only waste is fertilizer for the garden. Also the barrelponics system could be built almost entirely from recycled materials. According to Travis Hughy, the designer of barrelponics, it can support up to 4 fish at 1/2 pound each while providing a 12 square feet of area in the growbeds for plants. I built it in my basement and for 9 months I learned how to operate the system while we enjoyed fresh lettuce, broccoli, basil, kale and swiss chard. In the small system we used small Comet Gold Fish to drive the system because they were readily available and cheap, but they provided all of the nutrients that our plants needed to thrive.
My Big System
Though there were setbacks and a learning curve to deal with, the desire to grow eatable fish drove me to the decision to build a much larger system. The design that I came up with utilizes much of the same materials and basic concepts that Travis’s system uses, but there are also some fundamental differences that made it easier to build and added more flexibility. My design also eliminated certain size limiting elements that I would have trouble trying to scale up. My goals were to design a system that would yield 110 pounds of fish and 1100 of vegetation annually. The main differences compared to Travis’s design deals with how the growbeds are filled and drained. My beds are constantly filled and when individually full uses an external autosyphon to drain down to 1″ or 2″ and then begins to refill. One reason I chose this method was that there were no moving parts and each growbed could be set to individual fill height and drain levels that would accommodate the particular type and growth stage of the plants in each bed. It consist of a 275 Gal. fish tank that is berried with 14 half barrel grow beds filled with pea gravel. The water is pumped from the fish tank to a settling tank where the solids are filtered out of the water. Then the water flows down to the grow beds and then back down to the fish tank. We grow channel catfish and tilapia (aurea/nilotica cross). Our first summer we harvested 21lbs. of fish that averaged 1/2 lbs each.
The Greenhouse
The Greenhouse
The greenhouse is a modified hoop construction that is 12′x20′ running east and west with the face pointing south. To maximize the use of space I constructed a timber back and side walls 6′ high with a 2′ front wall and then used 3/4″ PVC to build a slanted hoop house on top of the walls. This allows me to plant tomatoes or other tall plants in the back row. It is cover with a clear 6 mil. plastic covering. I have a planting bench that I built 12 years ago for our garage that I installed in one end of the greenhouse. A few levels of passive heating and cooling are utilized with a level of active heating and cooling for extreme weather conditions. The first layer of passive climate control is a Sub Terrainian Heating and Cooling system or STHC. It consist of 4″ perforated corrugated black plastic pipes layed out in a three tiered underground radiator. I call it poor mans geothermal. There are also windows at the top of the back wall and in the front at ground level. For really hot days I have two old attic fans that kick on at different temperatures and the cold nights are tempered by a portable propane heater. During the winter I drape a covering over the beds for an extra layer of protection.
