Back to aquaponics again.  Yep.  I've been working on my aquaponics setup over the last two weeks, trying to get it all put together before the growing season ends.  I got water in the fish tank, one hundred gallons of water.  At first, I tried using the water from the rain barrels.  Each rain barrel holds 55 gallons, so you would think that would give me more than enough.  Nope.  The problem is, that as you drain the water off, the pressure gets lower and lower until you can't get any more water out.  Then, the drain is not in the bottom of the barrel, it's about three inches from the bottom, so that when I draw water from the barrel I don't get the dirt and sand off the roof.  So, there's always some water left in the barrel.  Anyway, I was only able to fill the fish tank about half full from the rain barrels.  So, I filled it the rest of the way from the well water.  Oh, well.

Fish tank.  It has two aquarium heaters to keep it warm, and an aquarium air stone to add oxygen.

So, this is what a chest freezer looks like when it's filled with one hundred gallons of water.  Brenda says it looks like a baptistry.  Pretty close, I suppose, except for the lid.  The next step will be to add fish, I guess, but that will have to wait until I get the grow beds hooked up.

The new grow beds.

This is the new grow beds system.  On the right end is the flush tank.  The fish tank has a pump that pumps water from the fish tank inside the building through the wall next to the door on the left, over to the tank on the right.  When the tank on the top right fills, a mechanism in the tank trips, sending the fish water through the pipes on top of the grow beds to water the grow beds.  When the tank is empty, the mechanism closes the valve and the tank starts to fill again.  The grow beds fill with the fish water, which filters through the grow media (clay pellets and rocks) and then it empties by gravity through the white plastic pipes at the bottom back to the fish tank, now clean.  When I have this all finished and going, I will have the grow beds filled with those bags of clay pellets that are sitting there at the bottom, and they will be planted with vegetable plants.  The vegetable plants will help to filter out the goo from the fish tank, which, of course, feeds the plants.  You have to have the right combination of plants, bacteria, worms, and fish all going together in harmony in order for this to work properly.  And, of course, it helps to have warm temperatures and sunshine.  As soon as I have the outdoor system up and running, I plan to get started building the indoors system.  Hopefully, having done it all once, it will go a bit smoother the second time around.  Also, I will already have the fish tank part done, so only the grow beds will need to done.  Hopefully, I will be able to get the indoors part put together before the weather gets cold.