After doing a great deal of reading I decided to put my Koi to work.  My wife was tired of the fish smell from the fish tank in my office at home.  So, the two 50 gallon water troughs that weren’t in use in the barn became the new home for my 9 koi and 3 plecos.

This worked really well over a period of a few weeks. I had three other grow beds I had build a few years ago while doing some Square Foot Gardening, that were just sitting by the side of the house.  I emptied them  out and filled them with pea gravel.

The Koi and Plecos are in the tank you see in the foreground.  The second trough holds 50 gallons of water as a sumpt tank.  A single water pump pushes the water from the fish tank to the grow bed.  The bacteria in the gravel break down the fish byproducts and nitrates and feed the plants that filter the water.  I was amazed that the water was crystal clear within 72 hours. The plants are growing three to four times faster than in the standard gardens I have planted in the past.