Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

and some more....

Excellent work.

Hmm,

I've been thinking about adding NFT in between FT and GB in the new system I'm building, but had dismissed the idea. These pics get me thinking otherwise. What are your white channels made of? Is that some standard plumbing, guttering, or cable ducting? Or did to get professional aquaponics channels?

Do you guys think it is absolutely important to have constant flow through NFT or will things perform okay based on periodic Flood overflow from FT in a timed Flood and Drain system?

the white gutter is HDPVC from the store and those one I've used have a flat bottom(prevent damming) then you just overlap another one on top(and can do cleaning maintanence easy) and on the top one you make the holes for the basket pot.
The orange pipes are rounded and not so good for NFT, but I've found them and tought they will be usefull if transformed in something else!
I personally consider easy to build and to mantainif it has just a simple stream of water constantly running trough the gutters, yes..that means another pump rated for a continuos running, in my case I've connected that pump to a swirl filter that I've built to add some filtration of solids from my FT and to justify the operational cost, continuous flow pump are not cheap and if I have to make it run continuosly better use the excess power for meccanical filtration of solids, all I do is clean the sponge scrubber of the biofilter every 3 months, the pump should be capable to handle solids up to 5 mm or it will get clogged over time.
There are system of NFT that operates on Ebb and FLow but they have more parts (stand pipe) and need more attention, while it might be good for hydroponic it's not necessary good in aquaponics, the solids are an issue sometimes.

That system, from what I've read... just doesn't perform over and above standard NFT... even in hydro...

KISS.... and yes, you need to pre-filter for your NFT...

In some ways....good because I can add my NFT to system later on without having to design its pipe work into the system.....not so good due to purchase and constant running of second pump (depending how you look at it).

I guess I could run it from my sump with less nutrient rich water, since I will probably put an additional el-cheapo pump in my sump to run a spare fluidised bed filter I have anyway. That water will be fairly free of solids after going through GBs so I dont need a bad arse bullet proof pump.

I don't think the water would be less nutrient rich from the sump. The plants absorb the nutrients slowly, so if you're circulating the volume of your FT once per hour, I would think the nitriates/minterals would be pretty evenly distributed throughout the water in the system. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Absolutely correct...

So I'm sure this is stated somewhere else on the forum, but google results were inconclusive.... So while we are on the topic. Is hdpvc "heavy duty" i.e conduit, or "high density" as in HDPE (food safe). I know some people shun dwc in favor of pressure pipe. If I'm going to avoid dwc then I will also be avoiding conduits. I imagine it would be difficult to find food safe stuff in those types of channels unless you go for $$$ stuff.

HDPVC as "high density" same as ABS or U-PVC, food grade and safer than conventional PVC, but more pricey!

Do you still have this system running Toni?

Or any updates at where your at?

Your recent post prompted me to go digging. Beautiful set up!

This system is no longher existing as I'm moved to countryside a month ago to start a bigger system based on my experience and the previos system, there is a lot of new updated photos I will post in the next few days for this system that will show a great success with my trial hence why I'm confident in a bigger system.
At the moment I'm in the burocratic swirl of inquisition and it's a painfull walk when the burocrats are not understanding the potential benefits of this famring methods.
whish me luck and soon as the building work begin I will post everything I'm going trough (time permitting)