Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My thoughts are that provided the water enterring the bed is high in DO and you have the water leaving from a far away point to ensure recycling of water - it may be okay.

food for thought, thanks VB

I like bubbles, (granted, normally they are in a bottle), just like the thought of seeing bubbles in a grow bed

my only concern is water "tracking" from one end to the other, ie finding the path of least resistance and taking it. Even though it is flooded the "fresh water" may take a narrow path.

Proff will be in the pudding! I recokon this problem will become LESS as the plants grow and the roots fill the gaps.

If you get the bed as level as possible, have a way to clear solids every so often and have a grid pattern input, I think they should be okay. As for air whack in a venturi just before the grow bed. It would keep the bottom third pretty stirred up.

Tim - do you have the grid on top of the gravel?

Now you've got me thinking - an achievement of it's own.

My growbeds always have water in them, and I'm relying on pure luck to circulate fresh pond water through the beds. It seems to be working, supporting 2 healthy tomato plants, although I have no 'control plants' growing in other conditions with which to monitor the progress of these two.

This system has been running for a couple of months now, and has had no sub-surface blockage problems - the beds still drain out if the pump flow stops.

I was running continuous flow until very recently, when I started switching the pump on and off for 6-hour periods. This essentially became flood and drain. The plants seemed to deteriorate a little, and the pond water became murky very quickly, nutrient overload, I guess, so I've switched back to continuous flow.

Or should that be 'continuous flood' ??

VB - No I dont have a grid on top, my water is pumped down to the bottom of the growbed... I have used 5 tees to get a 'H' arangement to reduce risk of blockages...

Big Mick.... Continuous Flood, or Continuous Over-Flow (has a better ring to it)

What-ever -- it's working. Happy fish + happy plants = Happy Mick!

is your outflow at the top Tim?

Yes overflow is at the top VB. Basically water is moving up, so nothing settles on the bottom.

I found loose leaf lettuce was the best variety to grow hydroponically and would think it would be an excellent crop in aquaponics . Most lettuce tastes bitter if they don't get enough water so with the flooded grow beds it should be quite sweet and tender
Pete

Sweet and tender in all the different types of beds in aquaponics DD

mick, i'd say 6 hours off is far too long.

In a free draining cont. flow system i'd think the plants would wilt.

i like your new design, see if you can introduce the water at the opposite end and at the bottom, that way you have a bottom to top right to left flow pattern through the bed.

Steve

Mick, mine works exactly as Steve described above... I had it on 24/7. When I switched it off due to unexplained water loss in the pond, the lettuces were brown and wilted within a day. The gravel dried up really fast!!!