Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Not sure if I am asking to right question be here goes.
I saw a guy using PVC pipe to grow lettuce and tomatoes. How do you go about setting a up that type of system

Hi Moore,
The PVC is drilled, and little net pots are suspended in the holes. I'm not sure what you put in the net pots -- maybe gravel or rock wool. Water flows through the pipe continuously. I seem to recall that you can have problems if there is not enough air for the plant roots. Several people have systems of that style here, but I'm not one of them. Check the system threads for Caribbean Grower, and rblaster, I think. There are more than that, I know, but I can't think of who they are. Hopefully the guilty parties will speak up.

steve and anges courtyard system

steve's old mans system

As above Moore, but the best media are probably expanded clay, 75/25 mix of perlite/vermiculite or coco peat/rockwool

Media depends on how you intend to supply the nutrients....

If you drip feed (slow feed) into the top of the net pots you can use coc-peat or rockwool as they both retain water very well..... that in itself can be a problem if you're supplying the nutrients any faster that a slow drip.... the plants get "too" wet.....

Perlite basically doesn't retain water at all, it's mainattraction is its ability to aerate..... vermiculite has a greater water retention capacity... so a 75/25 mix is often used....

Expanded clay is an excellent all-round choice......

Perlite/vermiculite and expanded clay can be used in a flood and drain type supply of nutrient from the top via a free running spagetti tube and a timer controlled pump... with the pipe just used as a return line....

or the same media can be used in net pots if the pipes are being used to carry and supply the nutrients.... be that a high flow/high level DWC older hydroponic style or a "lower" flow, low level NFT style hydro....

If you using drippers, or (to a lesser extent) spagetti tubing then solids gumming up your supply lines becomes a problem.

If you're using DWC (Deep Water Culture) on continuous supply then maintaining the oxygen and temperature levels of the nutrient supply becomes a signifcant factor.

NFT can suffer from the same temperature problems...

For aquaponics using either method with a timer based "flood and drain" type cycle avoids most of these problems and the preferred media would be expaned clay or perlite/vermiculite.

You should filter your solids out by passing the AP water through another growbed first however, or as in DWC, you can run the risk of the solids becoming trapped in amongst the root ball... leading to channelling of the nutrient water and either root rot or dry/dead spots...

Hope this helps .... as Janet says there are several members doing this style of AP

Im hoping to add a ection of grow bed to my system, using 90mm stormwater pipe mounted on the wall behind my current gb's. I want to use the existing pump flood and drain, and T off to feed the new pipe. can i suspend the net pots in the pipe, and fill the pipe, then let it drain out?

Careful teeing water of flood and drain needs to be filtered first other wise will clog root system theres pictures in my system

Thats an awesome sight there F&F!!

Thats an old photo doesent look that good now thats where i lost all the strawberries [to much salt]

i'm not currently using and filtration at all, just using the GB media in my 1/2 blue barrel GB's. I cycle 30 min on/ 90min off, 24/7. Im using duck pond water not fsh pond waterso there is a lot of stuff suspended in the water. what do u think??

Ducka, thats what he was taling about, water exiting your grow bed can be considered filtered of solids more so the finer the media you use.

there is a balance point though, too small (sand) and it would clog easily too think (scoria) and it wont trap solids enoguh.

i preferr using both, when i did dads i used a layer of thick scoria say about 75L then a layer of 6mm blue metal gravel screening about another 75L then about another 50L of coarse scoria. crytal clear water

I made an "A" frame a few years back. It only took up 5 foot by 6 foot and held 90 plants. I used cheap solo cups for the grow cups and sand for the media. It grew lettuce, cherry tomatoes and strawberries just fine. I glued a 3/4 (.75) inch pipe in the bottom of each growing pipe this prevented overflow when the root mass grew large. It never gave me a problem. Some times heavy rains would cause sand to wash into the pipe so a settle filter was used to catch the looses sand (a wide bucket when water flow slowed down enough for the sand to fall to the bottom).

Hello all, I'm new to the aquaponics game....I have about 30 blue tilapia that I have raised from sack fry and they will be 2 years old in February. I broke off a couple of my least dead tomato plants from my garden last week and stuck them in 1 inch pvc well casing with a tee on the end. They have grown pretty nice roots and the leaves greened up quickly. Is there any reason they can't grow this way? I haven't seen anyone else do it this way.
Thanks,Matt