Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I believe I've listed some in my main system thread.

You might also go search for Creative 1 as I believe he has run constant flood systems long term.

C1 did, for quite some time.... but I believe he has since converted back to "flood & drain"...

Would be interesting to get his perspective of one against the other...

They are good starts BUT a thread dedicated to this topic would be a better resource and could sit with this thread as a sticky IMO.

I am not going to start it because I don't have the experience so it would be meaningless but if people who have done it kick it off it would be great.

This link was posted further up the page but it is already in existence if not sticky.

http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9032

I had my system (which has auto-siphons) set up as CF for a couple of months. I was having problems when all 4 beds would dump at the same time so I pulled off the bells. I fixed the problem then switched the beds back to auto-siphon (siphon times: 15-20mins to fill, 3 to drain). Within 2-3 days of switching almost all of my plants showed drought stress. The tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and lettuce all wilted really bad. One of the eggplants kicked the bucket. I switched the beds back to CF immediately. When they recovered I did a staged switch over to auto-siphon, 1 day siphon, 1 day CF, etc. After a couple weeks went fully to auto-siphons and the plants didn't show any drought stress.

Anyhow, if you are going to do CF for cycling then switch to timed F&D I would recommend turning the timer from fully on, to 45 on 15 off, then 30/30, then 15 on 45 off. Do this over the course of a couple weeks, would be less stressful on the plants. Just a thought...

Actually that too would make a nice trial. 45/15 vs 30/30 vs 15/45. Maybe even a 15/60? One day perhaps...

Another thing to note on CF; I hadn't washed my gravel (I know, shame shame) so my water was pretty murky. When I switched to CF the water went crystal clear in just a day or two. I figured the CF acts like a settling tank and helps the solids drop out.

Oh and BTW love the thread. Thanks heaps!

Which is exactly the course of action we recommend in that situation... or indeed whenever any water quality issues arise...

And the suggestion of staggering the timer intervals when changing from one method to another is good common sense...

Indeed, I modify the timer settings depending on season, weather etc...

It seems that some would think this whole trial is nothing but a manipulated farce. I thought I'd made my motives quite clear in the thread, a few times.

i have been running one of these for about a year, weed still manage to grow.................

Murray made a point on the ning community about how hydroton and Canna seemed to work well with constant flood... but that gravel didn't give the same results...

Perhaps a further trial with different media might be appropriate....

PS... everyone seems to be a little touchy lately....

And yep Steve.... I left one of my systems drained and unpumped for most of the winter.... and the cabbages survived and grew just perfectly well....

Think it was a combination of rain... and all that good stuff in the beds that the worms kept chewing on...

Why do people have these opinions? In Chinese there is a saying that basically means "using the heart of a little man to explain the actions of the gentlemen"

Ofcourse, some people say they are taking a break and ask for all their posts to be deleted yet log on with a new username

I personally think that while having three seperate fish tanks introduced more variables those variables are inextricably linked with the type of setup.

I'm sure you have been in business long enough to realise that many will draw their own conclusions on peoples motives.

As long as you remain true to what your intentions were, who really cares about these types of comments, only words after all...

On a separate note, last winter I had several different configurations for my trout, and I know this thread has been really about plant growth, but maybe you want to look at fish growth this winter?

I had two similar setups running over winter, one with the pump constantly running with a back-flow to the FT and siphons, the other on a timer, and no-back flush to FT.

I found the trout in the FT with the back-flush grew approx 10% larger than the other system (stocked at same density). This year I have setup both to have a back-flush, and will see if I get the same results over winter. Many of the plants in the timed system did better BTW.

As I'm sure you are aware, salmonoid fish like a current to swim against, and that's where I started my thoughts from (thus likely no point for SP and alike)...

I had a few more variables different between the systems I ran, than this trial, but food for thought for your next trial maybe.

It's not all about the plants.

Chin up...

Need I guess who was making those disparaging remarks. It wouldn't be my old mean spirited mate would it. You are a calmer man than I Joel. My blood would boil.

Rupe, it is interesting to note that what Murray tested as Constant Flow was not constant flood/flow He said the beds in his constant flow had a very shot stand pipe so there was only an inch or so of water in the beds and they never did flood. So you would have to make sure the media was wicking in order for smaller plants to even establish. So what Murray was doing is what I would call Modified NFT when I used to do Hydroponics.

What we are looking at here is Constant Flood/Flow in system two right, bed flooded to to around 2-4 cm from the surface right?

I would define constant flow as something different to constant flood. Consstant flow is where you have a more extensive inflow piping network so as to make sure media gets some decent water. Water then just flows through media and out drain at bottom. With the system where Muzz was using the short standpipe - do you know how much pipework he had. I know that unlike my system where I just dump in one place (since I use F&D), Muzz used to always have at least pipes going around the outside and maybe one through the centre.