Cory's Cinderblock Aquarium Stands...In The Garden???

[Alesha]

Doug and I both have bad backs, from hauling our kiddo around all these years. (Isaac's 21 years old, non-mobile and weighs in around 100 pounds. I quit lifting him about 30 pounds ago, but Doug still lifts him daily. 🏋️‍♂️🏆) When we talked about trying a garden this year, Doug mentioned Cory's aquarium stands. I thought it was brilliant!

We are doing 5-gallon bucket gardening, as well as some crates and various pots, and we're placing them on the stands. We did decide on just 2 2x4s since our bucket of soil are not nearly as heavy as a filled tank and that saved us a bit of money. 

They are very sturdy, even here in our sandy, grassy yard and they bring the buckets up high enough that harvesting is going to be a breeze.

(Please notice, if you will, the drip irrigation lines. I've never done anything like this, but treated it all like a big puzzle of t-barbs, elbows, emitters and tubing, and put it all together. I was SO STINKING PROUD when we connected it to the spigot and EVERY nozzle had water and there were NO leaks or popped lines. It was incredibly satisfying, let me tell you!!!)☺️

So, thanks for the idea, @Cory!  Our tired backs are grateful for your creative solutions that work inside the fish room and OUTside too!

Alesha

[Cory]

Looking good, essentially it's a small scale fish room with auto water change 😛

[Alesha]

Just now, Cory

Looking good, essentially it's a small scale fish room with auto water change 😛

I though of that... just glad I didn't have to drill tanks! 😆

[Emika_B]

Alesha - Your garden looks great!  I had done something similar in my old aquaponic setup.  Aren't those buckets wonderful?  And congrats on the plumbing working right the first time!  It really does feel good when something with that many moving parts (or holes in this case) works the way you want it to.

[Alesha]

22 hours ago, Emika_B said:

Alesha - Your garden looks great!  I had done something similar in my old aquaponic setup.  Aren't those buckets wonderful?  And congrats on the plumbing working right the first time!  It really does feel good when something with that many moving parts (or holes in this case) works the way you want it to.

Thanks, @Emika_B! Yep, we love the buckets...they are SO handy! This is probably about 1/3 of what we hope to eventually have going. Waiting on some seedlings to grow big enough to transplant and for some seeds to arrive. Believe it or not, there are so many people buying seeds right now that the company I use has a backlog. We put in some bare root strawberries yesterday! Can't wait to see how they do. 

[Cmike15]

Nice to see, I’m about to start some seeds. My Home Depot was bare of seeds for a while but now they are all stocked up. 
 

Was there a kit for the drip lines or did you buy it piece by piece? 

[Alesha]

52 minutes ago, Cmike15 said:

Nice to see, I’m about to start some seeds. My Home Depot was bare of seeds for a while but now they are all stocked up. 
 

Was there a kit for the drip lines or did you buy it piece by piece? 

Our kit was actually a hand-me-down from a friend. I ordered some extra pieces from Amazon. His was called a drip irrigation kit. Hope that helps. 

[Cmike15]

I made something like one in a class years ago so I need to relearn it. Thanks for the pointer, i love learning new things all the time.

[Tedrock]

I use drip irrigation for my garden and flowers now I need to engineer fish waste water into rain barrels then into the drip system.  Too many layers but I am determined to make it work.  I have an RODI system too and will not loose do the that water down the drain either.  NERM ahoy!!

[Alesha]

1 hour ago, Tedrock said:

I use drip irrigation for my garden and flowers now I need to engineer fish waste water into rain barrels then into the drip system.  Too many layers but I am determined to make it work.  I have an RODI system too and will not loose do the that water down the drain either.  NERM ahoy!!

Best of luck on that project! 

NERM ahoy, indeed!!! 🐟🐠🐌