Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Good points. The thought of using buckets is both an economical issue and a space issue. Putting together large grow beds is what I would like to get to but currently finances dont permit me to do it all at once. Furthermore the friend that i am helping has a number of issues of space. His yard is very small and the growable area even smaller.

I have begun to wonder if I am overcomplicating. I dont know about the wicking beds, how do they return water to the fish? or is that just a water is wasted sort of thing like a run to waste hydro system? I have much more experience in Hydro than Aqua.

Another issue about buckets is that they would allow me to space out my needs in the system so that I am not wasting a ton of growbed and media between plants that spread out a lot like cabbages, cucumbers and tomatos. I liek the setup of https://www.youtube.com/user/mhpgardener and he seems to have a lot of success with recirculating hydro. So I figured why not try it with aquaponics.

Also the larger the growbed the heavier and that makes things problematic since I cant afford the cost of filling that much hydroton (even if I could find that much for sale anymore). Using gravel if I have a 4' x 8' bed I am looking at some 3 tons of rock in the bed. That requires a hell of a lot of structure to support.

Anyway all feedback is appreciated.

Hi Kraythe, thanks for the info. If those are your constraints then that's what you got to work with. I would say then that loop siphons with buckets is your way forward. It might even be worth trying different ideas before settling on what works best for you.

Regards, Martin.

cross posting this from my ferro thread because it seems relevant. Nothing fancy just 1" pvc+two 1" elbows and some 3/4" pvc+ 1 elbow at the exit.

a siphon easily starts and the input water range is a lot more forgiving than a bell siphon.

dont let the pump in the grow bed fool you, it is a zero sum game just trying to increase water flow through the system.. there is another pump in the sump responsible for filling/draining the grow bed.

it may be a false economy using the buckets. the plumbing costs may outweigh the GB cost.

A single large bed is much easier to plumb and manage.