Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Guys,.

wanna ask if which is better to use in AP in terms in the performance of the plants as well as the performance of the fishes,. is it the growth bed or a growth pipe,.

dexter

Grow beds

Media filled flood and drain grow beds serve several functions all on their own.

1- they provide space to grow plants and the support for those plants
2- they provide solids filtration for the system
3- they provide bio-filtration for the system
4- they don't require supplemental aeration in order to function.

If you were to use pipes, you then need to provide some form of outside solids filtration or removal as well as bio-filtration (these other filtration methods often require supplemental aeration and maintenance.) Often the plants need additional support to keep from tipping over.

If the power goes out NFT pipes often dry out quickly and plants die. Many types of plants grow huge root masses that tend to block even rather large pipes (I've had even basil block 4 inch pipes.)

Pipes are a handy way to squeeze more plants into tight spaces (like adding the pipes to a system that already has grow beds but wants more plants up on the fence or something like that) or where weight is an issue but the added maintenance of external bio-filters is reasonable.

oh,. i see,. i'm thinking of making new design of AP using growth,. i'm currently using growth bed barrels with a loop siphon,. I'm thinking of the growth pipe its because of the space issue especially for lettuce..You will also need lesser gravels with growth pipes,.however,. there are really disadvantages of it,. One thing also came into my mind to use growth pipe is when you go into commercial scale,.i guess it is much cheaper to use growth pipes than using growth beds,.however,. there are really drawbacks of it,.

ah,. nice idea tlclynx,. maybe i will come to make a system which has growth bed for plants with larger roots and then add growth pipe after it,. will it be ok that the water draining from the growth bed will be distributed to growth pipes?

Yep... and not just a good idea... but a necessity... to pre-filter, otherwise the pipes become clogged if they have any media in them... or the roots end up with solids clinging to them, in NFT...

Yup, you simply can not use 'growpipes' alone. Badness results.

Grow pipes seem ok to me as an addition after grow beds. (I don't recommend putting gravel in the pipes themselves, only in the cups to hold the plants.) I have installed some myself, but I'm not overly impressed by their usefulness. If you are growing herbs or lettuce for sale it might be worth while but floating rafts might be more cost effective. I've found that 25 feet of basil pipe is just too much for my household to use and I have not yet found other good hot weather plants for the pipes. In winter I plan to grow lettuce in the pipes but this time of year I can't get lettuce to even germinate outdoors.

Keep in mind you can still only stock as many fish as you have filtration for. So if you are planning a system with lots of pipes but only a small growbed, you may need to add additional filtration in order to stock enough fish to feed so many more plants.

oh,. i see,. thanks a lot guys,. that would be very good advice,. i'm so lucky i found this site,. thanks again,.