I have been very busy researching aquaponics since I submitted the first article about raising catfish in a barrel.  That article was posted in it's original form from a 1973 magazine article.  This got me looking around on websites and you-tube for more information on how to raise fish on a small scale for our family.  This week, I stumbled on to a you-tube video made by a student in Canada.  She was using a system called barrel-ponics.  If you would like to search for this you-tube video, just go to you-tube and search for "barrel-ponics".

I was happy to find she had a link posted with the video to the source of the barrel-ponics manual.  It is at the following website. http://www.fastonline.org/content/view/15/29/ This is the link for the pdf. manual on how to build the barrel-ponic system.  I have priced, what I think is probably the most expensive part of the system, the barrels, at our local farm and feed store.  I have found that the blue plastic food grade barrels can be purchased for $17 each.

We have also managed to aquire some old trusses from a torn down shed.  We plan to salvage the wood in the trusses to make a solid base for a pvc greenhouse.  Also we will use the same wood to build the frames for the barrel-ponics system.  Once this greenhouse is built, we plan to build the barrel-ponics system and start our own fish farming adventure.  I believe that including all supplies for greenhouse and barrel-ponics system, we will not spend more than $300 to get started.  I'm really excited  about these upcoming projects.