Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

To include a completely anaerobic area for the desired bacteria not for a filter. Grow beds that drain and fill always have oxygen mixed in. I know when making methane letting oxygen in really slows the bacteria down a lot for some time. I would think if the anaerobic bacteria are the ones doing the work why not provide a place just for them. Fish poo and food in the grow bed is good is it not? So place the anaerobic area after the grow bed.

The aerobic bacteria are the dominant ones in AP. The experimenting going on is to reduce nitrates using a small volume of anaerobic bacteria.

Edit: And that is not required at all if you have enough planted beds. I myself am short of planted areas, and JP is also overstocked with fish relative to the plants.

Edit Edit: BTW, I am also thinking about what you are proposing DDM, having a slowly flooded tub filled 4" with sand somewhere in the loop, i.e. a deep sand bed as a nitrate reducer when the system is overstocked with fish.

Yup, Dave's got it!

How would a grow bed preform if it was 2 feet deep instead of 1?

The growing surface area would be cut in half.

I've got one bed at just under 2 foot deep, also have 6 vertical half blue drums. They seem to be going okay. The half drums are good for fruit trees.

Hi jaymie hows the lemon tree going is it flood and drain .My lemon died right back but its got new shoots now so we will see

the citrus are all setting fruit at the moment, hopefully they'll hang on to them and we'll get some to eat

one thing, they definitely get conditioned to the constant water supply. The tap got blocked and I didn't notice for a couple of days the leaves started to fall, fortunately I caught it in time

good info

I think it's good fun to play - but in the long run I don't see much point in growing Citrus in AP. Just grow in the ground and water with some AP nutrient rich water.

You've seen my place VB, there is not much soil and what is here is pretty crap. We also have too many termites to make citrus a viable option.
These are some of the reasons I got into AP in the first place.

mmm...good points, but adoption of some permaculture priciples would easilly get some patches of soil good for citrus in no time (like all that area you are growing your potatoes in). The termites I'm not so sure about - some sort of barier maybe??? Don't get me wrong - if you want to grow your citrus in AP that's cool and it may be the best/only way for you. But generaly, citrus doesn't meet many of the variables of a good AP plant.

Meant to say also - that if growing citrus in AP I'd look into the methods used by the citrus farm on the sunshine coast that grows citrus and eels. I think the citrus may be in pots in a raceway that is flooded however often with the nutrient rich water. Not real sure. Not sure whether these methods would convert to a smaller setup or be any more suitable than what you are doing. How often do you currently flood the citrus?

they flood a couple of times every two hours or so