Before I go rambling.... erm... blogging about the day to day "what's going on in my garden" stuff, heres a bit of info about the construction of my first two systems. I built these systems out of a couple of these:

Just a side note about these sorts of totes. You should find out if you can exactly what they were used to haul before you bought them. These types of totes are often used to haul some pretty nasty stuff. This particular one was used to haul agave nectar.

Step 1: Cut the top off...

Step 2: Add a couple of fittings for a drain:

One of the great things about the IBC totes is they already have a nice plastic fitting in the middle that standard PVC parts available at your local hardware store will fit nicely into. For mine I put a short downspout with a couple of longer horizontal tubes with small holes drilled that will aerate the water for the fish as it trickles back down in the tank;

Note: For a constant flow system larger pipe works well. However, for a bell siphon (we'll talk about these in a future post) you will want a smaller pipe to create sufficient suction.

Here's how I plumed this particular tank:

Step 3: Make yourself a base to set the top on.

Basically this consists of a chunk of plywood with a hole cut in the appropriate spot.

Step 4: Put the tank on the top and hook the plumbing up underneath.

In our next episode... the magic of the bell siphon....