greetings, my name is Joe and I am new to aquaponics...

[joe apicella]

I suppose now would be a good time to ask my first question from the gurus. 

I have a 1,000 gallon koi pond that will be the source of water for my garden. My current plan is to have a  ball valve that is on my return side from my sand filter for the pond. Will the fact that the water from the koi pond will be running through the sand filter first before it gets to my plants/garden be okay?

Thanks in advance for your assistance!

[TCLynx]

Yep Joe, all you need to do is add a plant growing method of some sort.

Now I know many koi ponds out there that don't require water changes and might not have much in the way of excess nutrients available to grow veggies, if this is the case in your system, you may need to add more fish or feed them more/higher protein feed and perhaps add more aeration to keep things in balance as you do this.

[joe apicella]

Thanks, TCLynx. I was was afraid that the biological aspect of the sand filter might "clean" the water too much before it got to the garden...I have no problem overstocking the pond. Gives me an excuse to spend a little coin on some pretty fish, lol. I have a barrel filter on the pond that runs 24/7. It is partially mechanical but mostly biological. I could always cut that out of the system if I need "dirtier" water to get to the plants....I'm outside working on it right now and I am taking a break because of a downpour...

[TCLynx]

Having the bio-filters already on the system simply means you can do raft beds without the need for additional filtration or you can simply do media beds because they are easy and all they do is add more filtration though you don't need it so perhaps once the plant beds are online you could remove the other filter though I don't see that there is a need to unless one of your filters is causing denitrification (has an anoxic zone to convert excess nitrate back to nitrite and then uses a degassing element to blow the excess nitrogen off into the air) which would then be robbing your plants of nitrates.

I would say hook it up and see what happens.  A raft bed will need excess aeration but a media bed (especially if you can do flood and drain somehow) usually doesn't require extra aeration and is more like planting in a garden bed.

[joe apicella]

I do plan on doing a flood and drain system. I am currently considering what type of material to use. The system will be based upon four 4x4 posts and a framework of pcp pipes and hanging buckets, however, I am always open to suggestions and I am constantly looking at different set ups on youtube.  

I would like the drain system to be gravity fed and my pond is block and mortar and it sits around 2.5' off of the ground. Considering all my options to utilize the limited space I have (roughly 10'x10').

[TCLynx]

Are you more into easy low maint (read lazy) type gardening or are you into tinkering and intensive gardening?

[joe apicella]

TCLynx said:

Are you more into easy low maint (read lazy) type gardening or are you into tinkering and intensive gardening?

Well, lets just say somewhere in-between. I have a wife who will be helping and five children (three of which are ready to pitch in).  I just finished the sand filter and I have one or two half inch supply lines ready to go. Now I need to start planning the structure of the garden. I may turn it into a green house of sorts. I'd like to have climbing strawberries in there...

[TCLynx]

Media beds tend to be easy/lazy garden beds.  When you start talking about vertical and hanging gardens and NFT you have to check the flows daily and make sure things are not clogging and most of that also needs separate seed starting and then you transplant into the verticals and NFT once the seedlings are big enough.

It all works, you just need to figure out what will work best for you.

Strawberries like lower pH (what is the pH of your koi pond and top up water?)  Strawberries are also not usually climbing plants but people might put them in hanging baskets or towers of NFT where they will hang down rather than climbing.

[joe apicella]

I haven't checked the ph in a while as the system is pretty constant but I recall it always being neutral. 

My wife enjoys seedlings. Right now she has a few dozen going in the yard. Many different lettuce and berries. 

I think ideally I would like something raised just high enough above the pond water level to allow gravity return. I think this would be a good start. I will start putting some plans on paper. Thanks for all your replies. I'll check back in the morning. Good night.