Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

yeah I do know that!
It will only have to pump about 50cm and the pump does 130l/hour at that height and 20l/hour at 75cm. The tank is about 50l and some of tht is displaced by a plant that's already in there and the pump itself so it will be turning over at a fair old rate ... until the sun goes in!

Visited the local garden supply place today ... is 10mm quartz screenings the thing to have for the grow bed?

Now I have some questions about auto syphons ...
I've seen steves loopy thing ... is that connected on the inside to a normal sort of stand pipe? Or something shorter?

Hi slane, couple things:
if ur putting ur ft on the shelf under the gb just put a hole in the base of ur gb the thickness of ur intended standpipe and silicone the standpipe in the hole. One small hole in the base of ur inner standpipe and lots in the outer. Put a v in ur inner pipe at the top, the low point of the v sets ur max gb flood height.

It will be tricky getting ur flood and drain right. You need it to drain faster than it fills but not so fast that it will never fill ur gb to the desired max flood level. With a small pump, u prolly have a fairly small margin to get it right. Good luck.

If u chose to go the loop siphon, (I have used them, they're good,) ur slow fill rate may not adequately kick the siphon off. U might just get a persistent dribble instead of a proper flood and drain. Gunna be trial and error.

On ur pump, my 11 yo has a small setup with a 1500lt p/hr pump and it is forever clogging with leaves etc. We just use a nail brush to clear the inflow area every few days.
Good luck.

thanks twintragics ... I think I'll start with continuous flow then.

I've been reading the sticky on grow media and it looks like 10mm quartz is OK.

Slowly slowly!

really, whatever is at hand. 10mm will give u good aeration around the plant root zone. I use 5mm blue metal bc it is available and cheap. (Easy to plant into too!) In my original system I had 20mm blue metal, much harder on hands.
I don't know anything about the pH effect (if any) of quartz, so take one for the team! Being smooth it should be easier on ur hands.
Continuous flow will be good. With ur fishtank, I too am worried about the copper effect. You can buy sikaflex I think at ur hardware store. It is a fishsafe black paint. Give the inside of ur tank a couple coats and let it gas off for a week if u can. No more copper excess in ur food.

Most of all, keep at it and stay in touch.

Thanks TT.

I'll speak to DH about the sikaflex ... he's some sentimental relationship with the coppe.
Might have to get some other sort of tank.