Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am building a new system. I was wondering if the grow beds need to be drained from the bottom or if it is okay to drain them a little higher up, such as a waterfall drain.

Also how many times should the water in the system cycle through the system. Once per hour? More or Less?

Hi jrobe010, volume of system cycled every hour is a good bench mark, as for drain, if you go bottom you have the choice of flood and drain or constant flood, if you go side then you really only get the option of constant flood. I always prefer to keep my option open so would suggest drain in the bottom.

You could do a dual drain, where a small drain sits on the bottom and your waterfall drain is on the side. then run your pump on a timer so you still have flood and drain. Granted you will also have a stop-start waterfall