Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello all!

I don't currently have a system running, but at different times in the past have had 3, all various sizes of flood and drain. My latest system, last year, was a chift-pist IBC with 4 beds, running tilapia. I've never managed to construct a truly reliable bell siphon, so I used a variation of Mr. Hughey's toilet valve/bottle mechanism to drain the beds. I found that, as the system matured, it was a constant struggle to keep the bottle cap weep holes cleared.

I am currently in the design stages of a mechanical indexing system that will allow me to fill one grow-bed at a time, in rotation. I've got almost all the wrinkles ironed out (it's only taken me 2 years, lol) but thought I'd ask for opinions from the more experienced operators.

So... question:

Given a chift-pist system and directing the flow to one grow-bed at a time, would there be any advantage to delaying the draining of that bed? Should I build in the capability to leave the bed flooded until, say, the next bed in the rotation fills, then drain it? The mechanism is flexible enough that it could easily leave _all_ the beds filled, then drain the bed that's next in rotation while a bed is filling, but would there be any real advantage to it? Is draining the bed as soon as it floods the best way, or is it just that, currently, it's the only way?

I'm probably abusing the newbie intro thread posting this - I hope you'll forgive me my eagerness.

JB