Newbe

TJC

Hi to you all!
I like this they have a smilie for me :bigsmurf:

nickname around here is "Papa Smurf"
OK My story, I had a fish tank with about 9 Goldfish in it for about 3 years so they got to about 6in long had a very big filter twin stage and an air pump, never a problem then about 6 Mths ago I decided to change the water not all just 4/5's as per normal and every one of them was dead in 10 min so I found out about Oxy for fish in a big way.
Now from 1991 to 1996 I had a farm and a few cows and had a NFT system run to waste, watered paddocks with it.
Also tried for a while airoponics running misters in 20lt sealed buckets worked well, but forever blocked jets so gave up.
Back to the Dead fish.
I decided to give up on Gold fish and the tank so turned it into a mini greenhouse for moss and other junk.
In the meantime we went to Bali and when we got back I built a Bathtub Bali style pond at the back of the house hooked up the filter and away we went till I went looking for some answers as to why there was so much growth of muck in the tub (pond) and an easy way to keep it clean so here I am and last week I built a grow bed (another bathtub) about 6in's higher than the pond out in the Sunlight.
Spent a full day working out why the auto syphon would not work ??? outer pipe was to small so flow was not fast enough to break the seal ,so changed to a larger pipe and I run about a 25 min cycle the filter(PUMP) has 2 inlets and outlets so 1 runs the pond and the other fills the growbed.
Dam I dumped the photos (will catch up tomorrow)
Now I am using 20mm gravel with 4in of cover above the water level and yesterday I robbed some of the gardens Tommy seedlings as a run compare and had to dig down 4in to get there feet wet now this is not a problem for tom's as a deeper (in the garden) planting pemotes better roots up the stem, But lettuce will have to be in holes just to see water and may not see the sun at that depth, now some say 4in over water level and others say 2in over I will have to go to 2in over (and I hand washed every one of them gravel bits) and remove 1/2 ton (well at least 50kg)
I am in Cooroibah at the north end of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland and punching 59 this November and may look for some expanded clay if this work for me (not as heavy)
:wave: