Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Sounds good I shall just get planting:) Might start some of the seeds in rockwool cubes and compare how they go against the regular gravel/pebble

A quick question with those flood and drain systems, do most people have there's running 24 hours a day or should I give it a rest at night as it will have a hard drying out

I have mine running continuously 24/7...some have switched the pumps off at night to minimise on water temp loss through the GBs but you then need to have some sort of aeration going on for the fish in lieu (or they die )

...there is also likely to be an ammonia buildup overnight if the water is not flushed through the GBs

Very small ammonia build up if not highly stocked

My continuous flow system runs .... continuously.
My siphon F + D system runs on a timer, depending upon the season. But in more temperate times, it runs continuously as well.

Both ways. It also depends on the pumps you use. If you have a continuous duty pump, letting it run most of the time may be easier on the pump if you are using siphons to implement the flood and drain. Other pumps are designed to last longer if they only run for short periods and then get to be off for a while. Those will do better as timer or float controlled pumps.

My big system generally runs 24/7 so far, as does my pee ponic barrel ponic system. I have installed a timer on my indoor system since the pump was getting gunked up and turning the pump off then back on seems to clear it.

sounds good I might try and run mine 24/7 too just started my system up today, was timing the flood and drain cycle, had it running at 1 hour flood and about 1 and 1/2 to drain ,

I went in to check it after 20 minutes and it had totally flooded to the top about to overflow , looks like i will have to time it again hehe or atleast add an overflow pipe
just incase it happens again not sure what happened maybe a bit of gravel clogged the thing

Oh and another thing where abouts should I be flooding it up to, to the top of the gravel or 5mm or so before the top of the gravel

Around 20-25mm would seem to be the concensus BT

all above + if you've just started your system prolly best to run it 24/7 while it finds its feet, say for the first month

Definitely should always have an overflow plumbed in so that you don't have to worry about the timer malfunctioning. (Cheaper timers will often lose time eventually so if it takes 30 minutes to flood the beds but the timer is lagging and actually stays on for 45 minutes or something, you really want to have an overflow to keep from drowning your plants or worse yet, loosing water over the edges of the beds.)

Generally people try to flood to about an inch or 20-25 mm below the gravel. Keeping the top of the gravel dry is usually a good idea. Areas where the top of the gravel gets wet all the time will grow some algae, algae on the rocks isn't that big a deal (just looks yucky), but if the top of the gravel is always wet, some plants will suffer.

everything is now setup and running well have had the system
running for 2 days with no problems but the goldfish tried to eat my pinky this morning

now all that is left to do is wait for germination, I cranked up the water temp to around 21 degrees as I hear this helps germinations, just wondering how long does germination usually take for example for cherry tomatoes compared to a lettuce, dont have a clue about germination pretty much new to gardening and AP'ing

About a week for the leaves to show at that sort of temp

I haven't managed to convince many but I have found the moon phases
have an impact on germination.
Have a look at the thread called Lunar phase.

I thought it was hog wash - but after sowing a packet of seed with nothing germinating, then doing the same with the same seed again 2 weeks later, in the same GB, and having most seeds germinating I started to wonder about your phases of the moon story/idea...
So not quite convinced, but you do have my attention

We've had some bright full moons the last few nights, I thought - C1 would like this!