Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Is this pointed at me ?

Ehh...I don't remember.

Having checked absolutely not.

Although you may want to be careful suggesting that a wicking bed could be run that long without needing its resivoir spaces to be cleaned out. Certain people may question your integrity and/or motivation in suggesting that such a growing component could be maintained without the required maintenance of giving it a good clear out.

Not hard to clear these out. Just lift out the inner tub. And they do get cleaned out every two years

Oh dear serves me right for being snarky

So the reservoir does need to be cleaned out occasionally? Is this just a flush with the larger beds?

Built the right way they NEVER need cleaning out

Thanks FnF I feel better now.

Sorry for bringing old thread back up but I'm currently building a wicking bed out of sleepers and was going to use a pond liner then gravel with shade cloth on top for the reservoir.

F&F are you suggesting I should use something else. I note you use plastic crates with coconut coir, short of driving to Sunbury in the middle of the night and stealing yours, what would you suggest? I was looking at a reservoir depth of 20-30cm depending on how deep a hole I dig.

Bed would be 1.2 by 3m. Aiming for a reservoir depth of 20-30cm and a soil depth of 30cm.

Bread crate would be the right size but nit sure where I would find them, maybe a series of pvc pipes?

Where do you get the coconut coir from?

Thanks for your help

Sorry been in qld for 3 weeks
if you use plastic crates [to give an air void]
you can use just a good potting mix
Res and soil depth is ideal
My coir mix I get it from ex drug crop blokes
Bread crates any recycling centre

No wonder your wicking beds do so well - that coir is probably chok full of 'superbloom' etc

My replies in order:

I'm sorry too
I decided on 5 x 90mm pvc pipes the length of the growbed to give an air void, fingers crossed it should be enough
Won't be using sand or gravel, just a high compost soil after reading through Colin austin's waterright website
still going with 200mm reservoir and 300mm soil, just some of the soil will be in the reservoir, soil above the reservoir will be 300mm
no comment
maybe next time

Thanks for the critique

Not sure if this quite falls under wicking bed pitfalls, but it is related.

Upon starting building some IBC tote wicking beds, I was trying to explain to Mom what they are and how they work. Ended up sending a link to one of RobBob's youtube vids so she could see for herself.

Does anyone else's senior citizen Mom now have a crush on RobBob too?!