Converting the Hydroponics Ebb and Flow Table to Aquaponics

Many of you may have read my rant about the cost of organic, hydroponic nutrient solution, and how I'm sick and tired of paying an exorbitant cost to grow my lettuces, peppers and basil. This year, we're converting the large table to aquaponics, to use the natural fish emulsion and waste to grow our indoor garden. Hopefully, we'll continue to make our own worm-casting tea, to use as a foliar feed, as long as it doesn't have a negative impact on the fish (we'll research before we use it).

To put the pressure on, we started our seeds. To support our local hydroponics shop, we purchased some of their microbe-rich, nutrient solution to help start our organic seeds in rockwool. Now, we assume we have about two-weeks to finish the project and get the young plants into larger rockwool cubs that will eventually go into pots with clay pellets.
We started our research and decided on converting our old overflow pipes to an Affnan's Bell Valve. I'm still working on understanding the physics, and collecting pieces, but that seems to be one of the early essential steps.


We need to locate a large, relatively good looking reservoir. Our facility demonstrates all of our garden experiments to kids, so we want the fish tanks to clean and sharp looking. We are perusing Craigslist and putting out our feelers for a 200-300 gallon tank, that seems to be the correct size for our 120 gallon ebb and flow table. The closest thing I've found, that is a reasonable value is one of those truck bed water tanks. It's actually $200 for a 425 gallon tank. It's quite a drive to pick up, but we'll keep you in the loop. I've found a 200 gallon claw foot bathtub, too. It's got a lot of character, and might work, too.
Check back and we'll keep you updated.