Chopping and Flipping

After a $100 trip to Home Depot, we made a good deal of progress on the barrel conversion Saturday.  Following Rob Bob's plans and adjusting a tad for the larger barrel size, we cut the top off by drilling a pilot hole with the drill and using a jigsaw.

I picked up a deburring tool for about $8, and the thing works amazingly well (as seen above).  The edges are all smooth now rather than being sharp and jagged.  With the exception of some tubes and fittings that we will have to get from an aquarium store and a different drill bit, we should have everything needed to compete the system.

Using the hole saw bit and bulkhead from the previous system, we added the siphon hole for the grow bed, mounting holes to attached the bed to the tank, and viewports (not shown) to access the fish and plug in the pump.

The barrel was remarkably clean inside.  We washed it out with some Simple Green, and the soy seems to be gone.  We'll rinse it out a couple of more times before introducing fish/plants, hopefully removing any residue from the cleaner.  More to come!