Hey Everyone, I decided to make my own aquaponics system for as cheap as possible and most of the stuff I had laying around in my basement so it cost me almost nothing to make except the goldfish.

Step 1: Find All the Parts Your Going to Need to Start a Simple Aquaponics System:

Storage Tote

Flood and Drain Table

Air pump

Water pump

6 Inch Net pots

Fish Tank Filter

Air lines/ Air Stones

Step 2: Deciding How/where Your Going to Build Your System!

I decided to make my aquaponics system a flood and drain style, but you could have many different styles. I decided to put mine in the basement. :)

Step 3: Throwing It All Together!

Building this system is really easy and cheap. I used a 30 Gallon Tote and filled it with water and added the airstones first to get out all the chlorine, Also added the heater to the tote to get the water warm enough for the fish to survive, it gets very cold in my basement (Low 60's) without the heater. I Cut the center out of the lid of the tote to give the fish light and so its easy to feed the fish and maintenance. I placed the flood and drain table on a small coffee table I had sitting down there.

Step 4: Cutting Out Holes for the Net Pots.

I used 3 trays that are for your muddy shoes, found them at the dollar store. there strong and fit quite perfectly for the system. I cut 6, 6 inch holes in each tray giving me a total of 18 plants in this set-up.

Step 5: Testing Your System!

So once i cut out all the holes for the net pots and filled them with some gravel and hydroton, i placed the trays on the table and set-up the light hanging on two hooks in the ceiling joust. Also i put a sink facet screen on the drain hole of the table to help collect the dirt and debris that it may collect. My system ran great, so i added 20 goldfish and to see how they would survive and so far so good! Ive started a bunch of herbs and veggies to plant in the pots and see how this system works to grow fresh herbs and lettuce etc.