Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Iv been looking for this and haven't seen anyone do it'

the earthan stuff seem great but a lil hard on the underground pluming

Im doing an example please correct me if im wrong but I looked some videos of earth box




I would love to incorporate my constant flow system with out any leveling science and keep it simple to move my rich in nutrients water from my CF aquaponic system to the barrels then return the overflowed water to my fish tank

maybe incorporate a sediment bucket filter between my fish tank and barrels to avoid murky water


prolly Ill use the same type of gravel beds that I'm using but I want to try it first with some spare 200 lts barrels that I have from my useless chop 2 system


let me know what you think about it:

Hello juit:
Solids will build up in the bottom of the buckets and potentially get nasty depending on how much flow is going through them, IMO the buckets should be after the gravel beds. Also the brown part of the bucket must somehow touch the water level for wicking action.

`the guy on the video tells that it dosent need to something touch the water it all goes by moisture, in the video on the tomato plant had a nice moisture on the dirt after 1 inch deep, he even claims to get rid of the cloth, but I like the idea of lowering the bucket a lil bit


or do a gravel bucket:





also sediments in the bottom wont hurt with a foot of gravel in the bottom to help nitrification bacteria

thanks for the reply

aquaponic constant flow wicking barrel on a constant flow aquaponic system

well it works guys just letting you know

1 month old tomato plant with my hybrid system

I doubt you need all the extra holes in the bottom of the barrel Juit. What you've got there is very much like the Self Watering Gutter garden but without the gutter. Probably just drill a few holes around 2 and 7/8" inches then put 3 inch net pots in before filling and not so much drilling this way. Still have to support the inner watering setup but might be easier for you.

Watch from about 11:30 and you'll get the idea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qC4JFu-Oyw

I built 4 of these bucket garden channels along with my wicking beds. They aren't flow through but it would be easy to convert them to work this way just have to watch the flow rate so you don't wash soil into the channel -
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=13622&p=348492&hilit=bucket#p348492

I forgot to mention that one of the advantages of not having these be flow through is there is less thermal mass to warm in the Spring which is important in my climate. So far they are working better than the regular wicking beds for warm season crops and are easier to care for (less weeding) and easier to setup.

self watering gutter garden without the gutter would be a self watering garden by this aquaponic systen should fall under the same name? self watering gardeng using fish wasts with water? or in that case the gutter system is an earthbox irrigated by gutter?

diferent from that system in the video is that the water is receiving is from aquaponic water getting all the beneffits from an aged aquaponic system instead of just getting water from the hose or rain tank

dont get me wrong I alredy look at thoose video a while ago but I think they waste water due evaporation but less than normal irrigation,

this system has been working awsome I dont have the washed earth problems till now and the plant seems to love the enriched water from the fishes

I do like the fact that the basket in the center of yours has smaller holes than the net pots so it's less likely to have media wash out. My main purpose was to mention the net pot option since it looks simpler than weaving the center portion in or drilling the holes - not so much for this barrel as for future ones that you build. From looking at your other post, I see that you have screened the roots from getting to the reservoir which is good and probably the bucket garden I have could benefit from this, although, it hasn't been an issue yet.

The other post about temperatures doesn't really apply in your case but is mainly there for someone who might be in a cooler climate with water temperature concerns. I'm not sure it will be an issue anyway but it's something for them to think about.

I haven't noticed any significant evaporation from the bucket garden and the trough could be covered with plastic against this and algae if desired. Your climate is quite a bit different than mine so it may work better here. There are a couple of other things I like about the gutter system -
1. No fittings are needed for the individual buckets, just the net pots.
2. You can move a bucket to a new position if needed without disconnecting anything.

To me the use of AP water isn't that different because I could set mine up to do that as well. I've actually been considering doing this with strawberries because if I had to add salt into the AP setup (which strawberries don't like very much) I could disconnect them from the system and use barrel water.

Cheers

well see the results 27 days after the last pic & over 40 tomatoes

Ive never seen a tomato plant that big

the guys who grow tomato plants in hydroponics here in my town cant believe the results

Yep it sure works alright

Nice system - I'm looking for something like that do work on my pear and apple trees

Biggest tommy tree I've seen, I'm definitely going to incorporate this method in my system. I am however curious as to how much filtration the water is getting before returning to the ft.

WOW, that is awesome Juit,
how big is your Fish Tank and do you have some gravel grow beds as well

I think its 3000 lts I used to halves as grabel beds, heres the link of the full system:

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=12029