Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

If you have a power failure and your grow beds are flooded, for how long will the plants be ok standing in the water?

I just drilled some small holes in the bottom of my stand pipe and the water drains out. It does not effect the siphon in any way. My pump turns off every night for about 10 hours.

Depends on the plants but usually your plants will be ok for at least a day. Temperature and other things factor in as well. With CF no holes in the standpipes unless you sized your sump to handle the extra water . Holes are good with siphon systems or timed flood and drain.

You can use holes for constant flood also, as long as your pump pumps more than the holes can flow.

umm no, not if you have a power failure.

see above.

I would want the water to drain out during a power failure. That is the entire purpose of the holes in the standpipe. So yes it will do exactly what it is there for.

Ok so you would rather lose your water?

sure hope these power failures dont come during a heat wave for your plants sake.

LMAO, where am I loosing the water. It is just going back to the fish tank. Plants will be fine for a long time without water flow. Heck I had a grow bed that I disconnected for a few days and the plants where fine. The inside was still moist. You do know that plants that are not in AP get dry roots without dying right? I would much rather the plants be in moist rocks that have oxygen than standing water that does not. We get over 110 F where I live, and as long as they have some type of cover (like shade cloth) they do just fine. Do you really think the rocks 5 inches down dry out in just a few days?

you obviously ignored what was highlighted.....

the original comment was about a sump..... you never specified you dont use a sump.......

also, no the roots dont "dry out" like they will in a waterless bed on a 40c day in full sun...... because even if the roots dont die, the tops already have by the end of the day......

Unless you have the moon and stars line up, i wouldnt suggest to people to put a hole in thier standpipe with no information about thier system like you did......

What????? Go back and read. The original question did not mention a thing about a sump. I have had my plants with no pump in the middle of summer under shade do just fine with no water flow for more than a day. How do you think the plants in dirt make it???????????

Then don't suggest it, but also don't tell me what to suggest. Been doing this long enough to know what works for me. I would be more worried about the fish with no pump than the plants on a 110 F day. The plants will do just fine.

He was assuming the original poster had a sump that could not handle the water. Many systems can handle all the water, mine is one of them.

Just because a system is constant flood does not mean it has a sump.

Anyways have fun, I am done. The op has the info.

No, no, no what you said was in responce to scotty saying not to drill holes unless your sump is large enough, which i was reitterating.
lets also not assume everyone here is a retiree like you, if the power goes out on a 40c day, most people will be at work and plants wont be under shade....

Retiree? Really??? I am 40 and work away from home 7 days at a time, 200 miles away. Try not to guess about people.

I am going to respond one more time, maybe you will get it. Whether or not it is constant flood has nothing in the world to do with a sump. No matter what type of system he is running he can run a sump or not. Nothing in the op had anything to do with a sump. Yes if your sump is too small then you are screwed should have designed your system differently. I can run my system constant flood or flood and drain. It does not matter. The op did not ask about a sump, he only asked about the water standing in the grow beds. I drain mine off into my fish tank.

AGAIN, a sump has nothing to do with constant flood. A sump is only about pump location, any system can run a sump, or not run a sump. The delivery of the water has nothing to do with that. Scotty said that he has to have his sump big enough if he has constant flood. This is not necessarily true. Constant flood does not need to have a sump. If you have 40C days and you don't cover your plants than that is another design issue, that you should fix.

no i know a sump has nothing to do with constant flood, but its all about having a sump (ft, whatever, stop with the semantics) the right size.... and thats all i reitterated, that unless a sump is large enough, dont go drilling holes.
it really is that simple and what i highlighted and agreed with was that simple.

it wasnt meant to turn into an argument, i wasnt attacking you by saying no, i was reminding you that scotty was talking about sump sizes, which you ignored - the OP was likely to get confused by what you said because it contradicted what scotty said, but didnt adress the "do you have enough capacity" issue, which is a very important part..... the most important part.

Yavimaya was correct, I was talking about capacity. Doesn't matter where the water drains. If you don't have the tank capacity then don't drill the holes. That was my point. I failed to cover the bases by mentioning the Fish Tank which is how you two got onto the sump tangent. I also wanted to make the point that putting holes in the standpipe is not a one size fits all solution.

I never said or implied, that you couldn't use holes in CF Helo. Only said not to use them if your sump was too small (should have added about the fish tanks as well). Which means you can use them if your sump isn't too small or for that matter if your fish tank isn't too small.