Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thinking about grow media, especially for towers, when the courier made his delivery.

Humm ... always end up with lots of that white foam shell packing material.

Does anyone know what's made of and whether or not it's inert.

I know the "brownish" squashed pipe like material is a wheat based substance that will actually dissolve and is believe it or not edible...

I actually use that in my compost heap to suck up excess water and the worms eat it.

Was thinking maybe could be used in tower system to cut down on weight

Or even in a grow bed underneath a layer of gravel or hydroton, otherwise wind would blow it away

Anybody any idea??

people have mentioned using bean-bag beans, not sure on the result

I know Minnamurra were using them in their biofilters, but they were going to replace them with something else. I think they were going to use bioballs. Maybe the bean bag balls break down with the constant flow of water. Also, being light, you need to put something over the top as you said.

Thinking about it some more and if I'm not mistaken lots of people use polystyrene lids/slabs to float on their tanks or in hydro setups...

So I guess the seashell/peanut type packing material must be pretty safe.

Other than having to layer it with some other media above to stop it blowing away it would seem maybe worth trying, especially in tower systems.

Figure the "peanut" style stuff would certainly provide a good surface area for bacteria, thing is would they actually grow on it or at least inhabit between the "shells"

Hummm?,

Coco peat is very good, I have a grow bed of it 600 ltrs and it is now 3 months old, initally it discoloured the water just like a very, very strong cup of tea,. It has now settled down (the colour) As a medium it is excellent, easy to work with, retains moisture really well but drains easilyMuzza

Muzza, is there a difference between coco peat and coco coir??

Also I've heard that coco buffers pH to between 5.5 to 7.0

Is this true and how have you dealt with it