Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Do you need water in the grow beds to be sitting at any time or do you want it to just keep flowing through? In other words is my drain point at the bottom of the grow bed or do I want it to sorta "fill up" and flow out higher up towards the top of the grow bed?

Not sure if my question makes sense.

I have always pictured the growbed as a living organism; taking deep, full breaths. So it should fill to near gravel surface, then drain nearly completely, then repeat. This keeps roots moist while also giving them lots of fresh air to reduce any problems with rot.

Interesting.. how the heck can I do that? Some sort of siphoning I'd guess to where it has to fill up to a point then the siphon sucks out all the water?

Nevermind. I found Janet's siphon system. Exactly what I need to do.

You can also use flood and drain: timer to pump the bed full faster than it drains, then drains out. There are also a few other clever ideas.....

Stand pipes, siphons ect. Thats how you fill and dump the grow beds. Stand pipes fill and overflow a pipe at the top level then via small holes leak down slowly. Siphons get the water out fast.