Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks all for your efforts and replies.
I believe there are differences, but no real disadvantages to cascading.
So I will be cascading my beds.

I'm still trying to get the nitty gritty of it KP. Are you going to use syphons, planning to trigger one syphon after the other down the row of beds? Where does the float valve come into things?

I think you might run into some issues with different water volumes in different beds. might work perfectly in theory and with empty beds, but as beds fill with plants, some beds can have a LOT of root matter in the bed, this takes up quite a percentage of your air space in the gravel. Depending on what plants you have in what beds this is going to vary, and I think that it might have trouble kicking in siphons as DT suggested..

University of virgin islands tested the water on ther floating raft system which are QUITE some length and found inconsequential differences between start and end of run

Freaky stuff......

That's exactly right.

float valves come standard on growbed, and ensure it wont overflow.
If I fill GB1 siphon starts, if I continue to fill, as it siphons, float valve lets more in.

That way if subsequent beds need more water, it's catered for, and if they require less, it is also catered for.
Sort of an On demand system.

Will cascading mean that all the GBs will be full at the same time - I'm thinking of the amount of water that will be in the GBs compared to the amount left in the fish pond/tank.

"Full at the same time" - meaning top one fills then empties into next GB and top GB start filling again and so it goes down the line - is this what you mean by cascading???

I got the sense that everything was designed to be continuous ELK.... from waht I gather that's the sole purpose of the header tanks, to maintain flow while the timer turns the pump off....

But then I'm confused a bit as well because I thought that the pump was running continually to supply the pond .... humm

I'm still confused... But that might just be my fried brain...

I have deja-vu... haven't we discussed this before...

All barring the grow beds, but yes, we're going a touch OT onto stuff discussed in my system thread.

That said...

pond and tank aeration is continuous.
Growbed flooding is cyclic.

Cascading means fill top, auto siphon into second, auto siphon into third etc.

individual means switching between each GB and autosiphoning directly into the sump.

my pump runs cyclically. it will run off a pair of sump float switches.

Sorry KP, but that's just confused me even more......

How do you run your pump continuously for the pond and tank but not pump to the header tanks?

Ok, let me see if I've got this one right...



You are pumping to both header tanks continuously as well as the pond and fish tank. (Can't grasp how you could be using a timer and still pumping to the pond???)

Each header tank supplies a row of growbeds by first filling the first growbed of each row (plumbed through the float valve inlet in the growbed) until the siphon kicks in OR the float valve cuts the flow from the header tank(s).....

Similarly, the next growbed (plumbed through the float valve inlet in the growbed) fills until siphon kicks in OR the float valve cuts the flow from the previous growbed and so on down the line .....

Last growbed siphons back to sump....

Correct???

I think cascading would be neat, but I wouldn't try more than a couple in series, especially involving siphons. It would be a pain in the neck if one dodgy siphon screwed up the cycling for all the beds. Like Ell I would wonder about having enough water to keep potentially all seven beds full (it might could happen if they are not using a timer just siphons). For the siphons to be more reliable lower in the series maybe the lower beds could be a little smaller than the upper ones.

Rup maybe the aeration loop is a separate pump?

I came onto this thread thinking I knew what it was about. Silly me!

OK ppl, this is OT, continue discussion about My system and I I run my pump, in my thread KP's System

I really only want to know about cascading or individual.

As it stands, I cannot overflow a bed - it is impossible. Due to float valves.
I will be using a timed solenoid or actuated gate valve to regulate the flooding of my beds.

due to me having 14 beds (soon) I want to know can I cascade them?
If I don't I will need 14 solenoids or actuated gate valves.

Is there positive reasons (I have heard some already earlier in the thread) and are there negative reasons.

I plan of filling bed, and have each consequetive bed fill as the last empties.

I will NOT be filling all beds at the same time.
I may start two waves, so that any two GBs may be full if I need better circulation