Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

From what I was reading here, growbed volume compare to tank volume is optimal at 2:1. If this is so how can a flood and drain be set up without draining the tank? Is it necessary to have several growbeds and make sure they are all draining at different times?

One of the limiting factors in a system design Plachon....

Remember though that 2:1 is an optimum for heavily stocked, mature systems... no a rigid necessity....

Also... only about 40% of the actual growbed volume is taken up by water at maximum flood... the rest of the growbed volume is occupied by the grow media....

So at worse, the growbed volume if all growbeds were full at exactly the same time would be about 80% of your tank....

Still, for reasons of management, flow and sufficient volume remaining in the tank for fish (and pump) survival....

It would be not only prudent, but IMO a necessity to incorporate a sump into the system design....

Very few systems running more then 1:1 run without a sump... it's almost standard practise....

Thanks Rupert,

So how do we determine the sump volume? Are there any links to systems where you can see the sump and tank clearly set up?