Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I dismantled my old system some months ago and have decided to go with a new test system. This will be run as a vortex fed GB, timed flood and drain. And since I have never tried it a wicking bed.
This is nothing particularly new however the media will be bottle caps (I hope).
I have the new GB so it will be approx 700 to 750 litres of bottle caps a layer of gutter guard or shadecloth and about 2" of pea gravel.
Since I have never made a wicking bed, my idea was to use a bathtub, three 100mm slotted drain pipes with a soakwell cover as a reservoir and plumb the fill tube/overflow tube from the bottom and having it external to the bed. If anyone can see any flaws in this I would appreciate their input.

So FT -> Vortex -> Wicking bed -> FT ? On flood and drain.

Usually wicking beds are a combination of sand and dirt to obtain that wicking action, am I missing something sleepe.

I think you'll find that the bottle tops and pea gravel will inter-mix rapidly with the flood & drain action...

And subsequently... the bottle tops will just float.... don't think it's likely to be very practical...

The other query I have is what/why... use a "vortex" to fed the grow bed????

Sometimes I am a little short on detail when I am still in the sort it out stage Charlie

I have a pond with goldfish and gilgies in it. I now have what appears to be an hdpe spa ( which could probably make a decent FT) and something which I think can be modded to a vortex filter. I intend to pump to the vortex filter then to the spa and drain back to the pond. The collection from the vortex will be diluted and fed to the wicking bed( bath tub) and the vege garden.

Mainly I am trying to see whether bottle caps can be used on a larger scale to grow vege's successfully, they have a reasonably large surface area for packing volume and are light, and I had not heard about wicking beds so I'll give it a try.

Edit
Rupert they will be separated by gutter guard or shade cloth. When you say float although they have a positive buoyancy it is very little and becomes less with bio slime. Flood and drain timed will cut my power costs and reduce possible anaerobic area's. The reason for the vortex filter is twofold, I have a dirty pond (although the fish are healthy) and I have something to play with.
Its a test Rupert

Aha! now it all makes sense

I like experiments.

Wish I had of put a vortex filter in the loop when I hooked up a growbed to my fish pond. 6 months later I had to clean out the growbed as it was full of gunk. Its amazing how much crap builds up on fish pond floors

"Dirty fish pond" .... gotcha.... just read FT.... and was wondering why you just didn't filter via grow beds...

But understood... and Mantis confirms that a "dirty pond"... can be a problem...

Finally cleared a bit of space so I could see the various heights.
pics of spa (with seedling planter for scale) and to be vortex filter (upside down in its stand) If anyone has any idea what that used to be I would like to know, its a bit of a mystery. The trashed lattice is as a result of an overly large tomato plant in the old system

I still keep thinking FT when I look at the spa

Dude, that is soooo a fish tank

stuff knows what that black container used to be... its a strange design (wish I had one).... but sweet swirl filter! Where did you source it?

I know Charlie But if I go FT using the pond as a sump I am increasing the fish bio load and not going to get the area of bio filter etc I need for pond and the FT out of one or two bathtubs as growbeds.
Got the, to be, vortex filter, and spa from the local tip shop in Armadale, they had been there a while. I think most people don't look at things from an aquaponics perspective

Mantis is dead right about ponds, especially long established ones, I had a large Oase koi pond filter and my uplift biofilter on the last system and they still get iffed if you do not regularly maintain them.

So the spa will be a wicking bed?

Its already got a reservoir in the middle

Sorry I didn't get back earlier Charlie but the spa will be a GB.

Things are progressing at a snails pace All I have done so far is sorted the lid for the vortex filter and made the swirl arresters, plumbing it will have to wait until I derust the frame and paint it).
Timed F and D is giving me a bit of a hassle as I am going to have to let 2/3 of the vortex filter drain back through the pump. There are ways round it but it gets complicated. If it wasn't for the energy saving I would have gone continuous flow and wouldn't even have to cut a hole in the bottom of the spa

With the wicking beds I plan to daisy chain two bathtubs together with the overflow between them. I am planning to use part of one of the wicking bed as a worm farm and dump the detrius from the vortex filter in that along with vege scraps.
Last worm farm I had got killed in a really bad summer and I'm hoping this will give them a better chance, it should be cooler.

Well finally got to do a little more work today. I had two bathtubs but they were different colours and different sized outlets, now have two the same colour and same sized outlet. Was going to do an external resevoir but trying to plumb DWV, stormwater and high pressure together defeated me.
Moved all the plants and repaved where the old ? FT was, now I have to shift the plumbing and am hoping I can get a 3/4" pipe through the small wall where I jack hammered the old return line through.
I decided not to put a hole in the bottom of the spa (as I may have future plans for it) so will go timed CF with an airlift providing aeration during the off cycle (well that's the plan at the moment)

Had to take up most of the pavers, but managed to get the plumbing through the same hole
The joining of the wicking beds is not going to happen as they are now up on frames (and milkcrates); there is a height differential of 2" (you would have thought bath manufacturers would be more considerate).
So its two external fill points with possibly the overflow of one going to the other.
Looking at this if I can get an external reserve tank, openable but airtight and a valve, an external reservoir may be possible.

Gave up on the joining the bathtubs, difficult and am running out of time. Put an overflow through the end of the baths and am busy making potting mix, 1 bed filled so far.
Pics (not very good) of setup this morning.