Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

hi

i have some videos on you tube where people have connected their wicking beds to water coming out of fish tank and from there to afloating raft system. My question is is this strategy good as it will muddy the wayer and wicking beds dont need water that frequently. if you can connect a wicking bed instead he system where would be its appropriate place?

I have a few WBs in my large system, I empty water from a swirl filter into a sump, which is then circulated through the WBs for a few hours each day. The water does not return to the main water circulation, I wrote all about what happened when I did try that early on in the thread.

Thanks for the reply

this is https://youtu.be/8HBe5PLmAZg i was referring

You can have an external float box connected to the AP water via a T. By adjusting the height of the float you adjust the desired water level in the wicking beds. You'll want to change the levels depending on the seasonal dryness of the soil.
I don't understand how else the ComAP guys are feeding their WB then pushing the water up into the DWC without flooding the WB.
The benefit of doing this is that there is a constant supply and height of nutrient rich water the plants can get use to. Wicking beds will only wick well to a certain height depending on the soil make up, so forgetting to fill the bed to the appropriate height in the middle of summer will slow growth if not worse.

If I were to do this I would go for a media filled reservoir style wicking bed.
The often maligned rocks in bottom shade cloth/seperator and soil on top.

You will get some biofiltering benefit from the water passing through the rock media then.

Soil leaching issues are only really an issue if you water from the top.
A system like this would have to be bottom fed only.

So nutrients at surface would be light watering only and/or reliant on a good initial manure/compost mix.
Redone & turned over every planting cycle.

But your outflow must be adjustable since wicking beds need to be able to raise and lower the wicking level IMO.
That is the only way you can control soil moisture levels.