Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well, how do you fill it automatically, but have it stop at a certain level, without having a bed large enough to use a float valve.
The reason it returns is so it can stay completely full at all times without human interaction, i just cant see a way to keep it completely full without continuous flow or a float valve.

Providing you don't care about slight fluctuations, a standpipe would be a good way to set the water depth- just like any growbed.

These could run any way that you run a normal growbed. The only difference is the water level (much lower) and the media size.

Any method that raises and lowers the water level repeatedly is probably going to build up a layer of salts and will have to eventually be flushed with water from above.

I was wondering what the "automatic" way was, i gathered they had a way to do it without overflowing to garden.

With a few minutes thought, you could use a float as you mentioned.

You could have a 2 stage overflow, where the lower overflow was to your wicking bed. That would require a bit of work getting the levels right. Wouldnt be hard though.

You could overflow to your garden as mentioned and have a float to top up your system. Some people do similar things now.

There are plenty of ways it could be done

Oh, by the way you said it, i thought you had a design, I was going to copy.

A float is no good, what if people dont want to make a bed thats massive?
I dont think automation on a wicking bed that is not inline is easy, much easier to just put it inline,

Why would it need to be a massive bed to have a float?

Personally i think that if the wicking bed is inline then you loose the most important advantage to a wicking bed over a standard growbed. You could not use normal sprays etc like on the dirt garden. You would have to be super careful about what was in the soil etc. You would have to treat it like all the other growbeds.

If you only want a small wicking bed for a few root vegies, then just chuck a pipe in off your pump and have a ball valve that you open once a week till its full. Or, in place of the valve buy one of those standalone automatic retic valves.

Sounds like an interesting plan. My only recommendation is to be cautious with your soil/compost choice for the wicking bed. Purchase really good quality stuff.

i am thinking of an inline wicking bed....

my intention is to run a pipe the length, perforations of the pipe will allow some of the water to discharge - the remainder of the water will keep going to the next (media bed). ...i will keep the leaching problem at bay thusly:
insertpvc pipe (drilled holes at 4" oc) in 2" coarse fill (lava rock), layer weedblock fabric, then the wicking medium. the pipe will leak water into the rock layer, but hopefully not flood.

reading this thread, i think it better that i have separate ball valves to adjust the flow in the media bed, and the wicking bed....but i still intend to discharge the piped water from wicking into the media, where worms can take care of any particulates that infiltrate the weedblock fabric.

i have been running side by side experiments
one tall wicking pot perforated at bottom set into dwc roughly 10" lava rock, and 6" potting soil above.

the other a stand alone pot, with sump water poured down a short pipe into the rock below.

a month in, the pot directly in the DWC stays cooler, has shown improved moisture content near surface, and has improved growth over the freestanding pots. (in Dallas TX, heat is a big issue. the DWC placement with flowthru water below the potting soil level seem to me best overcome the climate for root plants.

i did not use "wicks" in either pot, but allowed the water to climb up thru capillary action....the wicking bed will only be a foot deep. 2" rock + 8"-9" root zone soil.

I am also thinking about inline wicking after grow bed

Growbed collects the solids + worms process it
then when bell siphon triggers filtered Growbed water flushes out into the wicking bed surely this would be better than a constant trickle flow and would guarantee a nice fresh water exchange

I was possibly thinking about a trickling drain how ever with a full flow overflow set somewhere
ie) trickling drain setup to drain the bed from 90% - %10 capacity when Grow bed triggers it will refill from 10% to 90% , if it rains or the timing gets out of wack the overflow can purge excess water @ 100% mark
if a pump fails the beds still got 10%

main reason is I did not want to hear the sound of grow beds purging outside my bedroom window
and a wicking bed just made sense for silence

downside being just ordered 18x more IBC and I don't really need them if using wicking beds ... builders plastic and a wooden frame would have done the job

When is a wicking bed not a wicking bed
When it is connected in line to an aquaponics system
It just becomes another grow bed Yes with different media and maybe a watering system
The idea of a separate wicking bed is if the plants need spraying you can without killing the fish
Also if the fish need salting you can without killing the fish

no reason at all you couldnt white oil an inline wicking bed.

By all means try it but please report your findings good or bad so others don't make the same mistake

i dont know how heavily you spray, but you dont need to spray heavily at all and a little vegetable oil and surfactant should easily be proken down by bacteria in the soil, if proper soil is used on top.

Im just thinking out loud here but why does a person with an aquaponics system need a wicking bed? Is it because there is not enough nutrient to grow good root vegetables or is it because the media and the flooding doesnt grow good root veggies? If it is all about the media why use compost at all? Why not just use an inert soil and loop into the rest of the system?

There could be a number of reasons for adding a wicking bed.

1. To incorporate something new or different to an existing system.
2. Most AP media's don't grow root crops very well.
3. Soil/compost would host a vast more amounts of nutrients.
4. Having the wicking bed fed by AP water but off line gives the opportunity to spray/treat for pests.
5. Some plants just don't grow well in media.

Im sure there are more.