Far out, does this bring back memories. I have never had a setup myself, but many and I mean many a moons ago(if not more than 8 years) I was into aquaponics.
I was sucking up all this information about it from a website(which was setup by some West Australian outback family).
I lost my bookmark that this guy had for his blog and never found it again.
The guys had 4 of the IBCs that he got from some trucking company that used the IBCs to store water on their semis, so he knew that they were clean. Cost him $200 for each one. small price to pay. He used those 4 IBC's next to each other, to join them together and make one big fish tank.
He used the clay balls to grow the plants in. I wish I still had the bookmark as they guy had over 70 pages in his thread.
He even used the overflow water from his aircon to supply water to the fish tank.
I have been searching for this guys thread for ages and have never been able to find the damn thing.
This is an example of how cheap and IBC can be if you look in the right place.
http://aquaponics.net.au/forum/threads/looking-for-ibcs.6121/
Johnny, it seems like we might need to have a catch up to discuss.....