Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

the pump we have acquired will cycle the fish tank about 9 times per hour (in case we decide to expand later) and the cycle in the grow bed is 6 minutes to fill and 1 1/2 to drain.
will this be a problem, is it too fast

Can you provide sizes for FT, GB and pump? I'm presuming here you have the pump in the FT and are pumping oup to the GB which drains back into the FT?

What you can do is add a T-piece to the line from pump to GB and run a pipe back into the FT. You can add a length of PVC to that with holes in it to spray the water back into the FT, greatly increasing the aeration.

the tank is 34 galloons and 2grow beds of 17 gallons (before gravel)
we have put a t on the pump hose so that it fills both beds separately
one is bell siphon and the other continuous flood/drain
on each pipe that drains back into the fish tank we have cut slits into the pvc pipe so that they spray back into the tank.

the pump can be set for 200 - 300 gallons per hour

The water turnover in a system has a minimum, normally seen as at least once per hour. I haven't seen anything about maximums, but logic says if your water is flowing through the GB's too fast you wash the nutrients back into the FT.

I think you need to slow it down, at least until you are fully cycled. 6 x the normal seems maybe too much for your bacteria to colonise, like trying to build a house in a river.

Once cycled it might be fine, but to be honest, I don't know how much is too much.

Less about washing nutrients i think and more about washing sludge/particles back in.
Running a T back into your FT is just like hallams ever hated CHOP2 system, you are going to send fichpoo back to the tank instead of to the bed, this fishpoo has now been smashed to little bits and will be harder to filter out next time round, etc.

6 minute fill time doesnt sound too fast to me, 1 1/2 minutes to drain sounds like a long time though, especially for 51 litres.

thank you for the insight, adding another t to divert water into the tank.
which brings me to another thought , from that pipe if went into a gravel filter box within the fish tank, would one be able to clean it out , by rinsing it into the grow bed later, would this grind up the fish poo too much

I keep reading about the sludge, can it be repurposed or does one add it to a compost bin

i was debating if I should use the second bed as a raft system or gravel , sounds like I need gravel for filtering.
the grow stones I purchased , were the smaller size (the description of the larger stones seemed too big, however the small ones are very small.
the question is plastic canvas fish safe
and if would this be a functional media guard
I pulled the pipe out for drainage while working on it

You can water it down and use it on your regular plants and vegies, or add it to a wicking bed.. just a few ideas

we are ready to start cycling
and planting soon