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A New Media Approach...

After doing some research and while planning my aquaponic system, I saw that many people mix lava rock into the bottom of their media layer. I think this is good...

For my first 55 gallon aquarium, I build a sump tank, and placed a bed of lava rock in there for the bacteria cultures, and to help catch debris. Nitrifying bacteria are jsut as important in aquariums as they are for aquaponics.

Lava rock has a very high surface area, this allows a lot of space for nitrifying bacteria to propagate. The more surface area that you have, the quicker your system will be able to respond to changes in either harvesting fish/plants, or adding fish to your system.

So in my system, i added another container below my grow bed, where there is only a layer of lava rock. The siphoned water from the grow bed is then dumped onto the lava rock, and then it is allowed to flow into the fish tank.

I also have 2 small holes drilled from the grow bed container to allow for some constant flow of water (since my pump never stops) over the lava rocks to maintain the bacteria cultures.

I want to know what you guys think about this. Is it a waste of space? Is it a futile effort to make the system more resilient to change?

Attached are some pictures, and my videos are up.

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Permalink Reply by TCLynx on January 19, 2012 at 6:17pm

Well if your grow bed was able to be 12 inches deep, then the second container would probably be redundant but since that looks like a shallow storage container as a grow bed, the additional filtration might serve a purpose though not being able to grow plants in it means it won't help remove nitrates from the water unless you have some denitrification happening in anoxic areas in there.

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Permalink Reply by FormulaX on January 19, 2012 at 7:23pm

yea, i only now realize that my grow beds are a little shallow.

i have a relatively fast water flood and drain, so, the rock has almost a constant flow of water over it.

Im not gonna be able to prove if the lava rocks make the system more resilient to change, but i'll keep thinking that they do until I see some proof otherwise.