Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey again everyone,

Thot id get some response on this idea. Fairly new to the aquaponics thing but love it either way.

Anyways idea is to have a tier of 100mm pvc pipes with under half of the top section cut out. Similar to NFT systems but instead of just having the plants in circular holes in the water, having the w hole top half cut out to have a channel, filled with, say expanded clay.

Similar to Taz's 100ltr set up (viewtopic.php?f=18&t=5305&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=0)
and King edwards set up (http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... .php?t=477)

Kings edwards tier system with Taz's 2 growbeds on the tier system

i guess i just wanna see if any1 has any opinion that it just wun work or u think it will work just fine, or maybe something ive overlooked.

yes the onli way to find out is to do it but yeah..any opinions
Taz hasnt had problems with clogging while king edward did have some clogging with beans and some fine particles starting to be clogged up

Cheers!!

Quick answer is don't do it, roots will clog it! (Heck, I've had roots clog my 100 mm pipes that have no media in them, ala regular NFT)

If all you are trying to do is use up a little of the nitrates from say a 10 gallon aquarium, you might get away with gravel filled pipes but I strongly recommend you read Outbackozzie's system thread before you put much effort into gravel filled pipes.
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2218
They may work for a while but most people who try it, wind up changing things later.

If you really want to do gravel filled pipes for aquaponics, You probably want to go to much larger pipes, like this

Though such pipes are a bit more work to turn into grow beds.
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2976&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=75

my system is only temporary (so if & when it does block up I won't be too fussed), and was mainly set up from recycled parts or stuff I had laying around so I could start to grow a small amount of something/anything. Those 2 pieces of pipe cost me 5 bucks each so was worth a try in my book!

Also I "just had to build it" Something came over me

If your planning something a bit more permanent, use bigger GB's. Are you limited by space? Hence the cascading design?

PS, man I love those big half pipe GB's of Sman's!!

Yeah its not such a permanent design since the place i'm staying at won't be my final residence. Plan to move out within a year..keyword is plan hahaah

also just wanted to do it as well ie. experiementing with everything etc

so yeah didnt want it to be so permanent etc

wen i do find a place that's more permanent where i won't move from, my dream is to have a large system like a lot of members have!! ahaha but of course i gota convince the my other half thats its worth it! haha so hopefully these smaller systems pay off haha with great greens to keep her happy

Um, it's Erik actually

I think if you are going to use pipes then make it more like NFT but with a better pre-filter than I have (I'm changing mine when I get back home in Janurary, getting rid of the gravel and building a different type of filter)

lol my big apologies Erik. i quickly just had a look at the name wen i went to grab ur url and yeah edward mustve just come in to my mind haha
sorry!

so use a filter b4 going to the plants.

Cheers!

If you filter properly it will work, but dont do cascading. You can not get a lot of water flow through 125mm pipe, so you are going to need to supply the water to all the pipes at the same time, draining the other end into the tank. Going from pipe to pipe will not work, unless its a very small system.

+1 for TCL's post