Ultralord's system

Ultralord

I started here http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10030 first on accident. :naughty:

I will try to get this one up to speed over the next couple days.

mantis

Yeah I would replace all your gravel with lava rock of at least 3/4inch size. You can use the gravel you have got to make a path or something

TCLynx

Can you re-post some details about your system here and re-ask your questions so people will remember to answer them for you?

You asked about sump tank size but off the top of my head I don't remember how much grow bed you have.

IF you are doing flood and drain, you sump tank needs to be big enough to handle flooding all your grow beds at once (or at least all the grow beds you are going to flood and drain at one time) plus enough extra to keep the pump from sucking air and I would also recommend adding a top up float valve between the "full low water level" and the pump sucking air level so this would require a few extra inches of depth too.
To figure out how much water you need to flood your grow beds, I generaly say figure 50% of the total volume of the grow bed. Truth is it is really more like 40% but when figuring the sump sizing you want the extra volume so you are not having to top up water every day to keep the pump from sucking air. And if the sump is big but shallow you may want to go more like 60% of the growbed volume since the shallow sump will leave the pump sucking air sooner.

Lava rock (as long as it isn't industrial waste from filtering out toxic stuff from some industrial application) is great media but it takes quite a good washing to keep from filling your system with fine dust so you really need to swish the stuff well before putting it in the system. At least the lava rock is light weight and good filter material. I've often used larger lava rock in the bottoms and around drains in grow beds and then the river rock for the rest of the beds.

It is always a good idea to get a small sample of your intended media to test before buying a truckload. I've purchased the river gravel in bulk and found that about a ton per 100 gallons of grow bed will give you some leftover (this is for the river rock.) I'm not sure where to send you for gravel up there in the panhandle, down here in Central FL most of the gravel goes through Pebble Junction in Sanford.

Ultralord

You know TC i am suprised that there is no one in Florida sells Hydroton or expanded shale.

TCLynx

There are plenty of places in FL that sells it. Any Hydroponics shop will sell Hydroton or something similar. Heck I sell expanded shale, But it still has to be shipped from where it's made which really jacks up the price.

Ultralord

I have done scores of searchs to find it local or even with in 100 miles. The closest I have found was someplace in Texas and that was the shale. (well i did find one guy :joker:

in Panama City, but he wanted twice the price plus shipping, of someone in California)

Anyway I started a couple of months ago with 2 half barrels with pea gravel. (not my first choice but it was free :thumbright:

) then started on my new system about a month ago.
I am using 5 half barrels for my grow beds (4 of them are the limestone :pale:

and gravel mix the other is one of the pea gravel beds), the ft is a 1000L ibc. The st is 190L / 50 gal. (too small I know, now) I was doing ebb & flo, then switched to a timer 15/45, now I am doing constant flood. (until i get a bigger st)

I have moved my 4 goldfish, 2 koi, and 2 baby plecostomus to the ft today. It took about 4 hours to move them, gradually adding alittle water from the ft about every 15-20 mins, but they are so much happier, the pond ph was over 8.8 at least the ft I know is only 8.2. They are swimming around and very active, in the pond they barely moved at all.

Here is the thing, eventually I want to have 10 barrel halfs (just need some $$$ and time), so i want to make sure the st is large enough for growth. I estimate between 10 and 15 gallons per gb, so I would want at least a 200 gal /750L st... :think: