Grow beds Not Draining Enough, Please Help!

[Gregory J. Showalter]

Can anyone tell me whats going on? I'm in my 2nd year of aquaponics. Last year was a disaster but learned a lot. I have a flood and drain system with bell valve auto syphons. No fish yet (5/6/13). still cycling the 3,000 gal. pond. I discovering that the bell valves seem to have a mind of their own. they will work great for days then start acting up. i'll adjust water flow or add an elbow to the drain or lengthen or shorten the pvc discharge and its back to normal, or so i thought. while adding plants to one of my grow beds i notice the the flood and drain will work (turn on and off) but the grow bed is not draining fully into zone 3. I have a dry top 2 inches but the water lever only goes down maybe another 3-5 inches before the syphonb shuts off.  I have 11.5 inch deep grow beds. Thanks for any advice!

[Keith Rowan]

you might need to add more slots/holes in your standpipe guard.. sounds like the siphon is breaking too soon

[Gregory J. Showalter]

Thank you for the reply Mr. Rowan, gonna run out and try the adjustment right now! Thank You!!

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Gregory,

What size is your standpipe, bell, discharge line etc.? What is the flowrate of the pump? And could you describe your AP configuration?

[Gregory J. Showalter]

Hello Mr. Sukhbir, thank you for responding! My standpipe is 1 1/2 inch PVC around 10 inches tall. Discharge is the same, 1 1/2 inch pvc. I don't make things easy for myself but, I have what I call a hybrid type system. My pond is 10 feet wide by 17 feet long by 4 feet deep (ruff). if my math is right (horrible at math) I have around 3,000 gal. I live in western NY outside of buffalo. covered the whole thing with a green house roof (clear corrugated roofing weather side, 6" airspace with clear plastic on the inside, non weather side. surrounding the pond and green house-roof is conventional garden. I was hoping to get about 25 catfish. I have two grow beds 4'x8'x 11.5"deep over my pond. my media is hydrocorn (clay media). my pump that feeds the grow beds is a small to medium pool pump. the water fills my grow beds thru the pool vacume that stays in the pond on the bottom. the sand pool filter is on circulation (not filtration). connected to my pool filter discharge is two 1 1/4" discharge lines that go to my conventional garden. I think conventional Aquaponics says i should have about 12-13 grow beds of the size I have with about 600 lb fish! I can't put any more grow beds in or above the pond. My hope was to try the 25 catfish and monitor my water. if nitrates rose to a level too high for my two grow beds I would discharge  water into my conventional garden and eat a fish or two. if my plants were not getting enough food from the 25 catfish....I was going to add fish slowly to try and make things work. Am I totally insane or what?

Harold Sukhbir said:

Hi Gregory,

What size is your standpipe, bell, discharge line etc.? What is the flowrate of the pump? And could you describe your AP configuration?

[Gregory J. Showalter]

Worked like a charm Mr. Rowan!! Thank you Sir!

Gregory J. Showalter said:

Thank you for the reply Mr. Rowan, gonna run out and try the adjustment right now! Thank You!!

[Gregory J. Showalter]

The thought behind the pool vacuum was the ability to not only fill my grow beds but clean out excess waste into my conventional garden.

Gregory J. Showalter said:

Hello Mr. Sukhbir, thank you for responding! My standpipe is 1 1/2 inch PVC around 10 inches tall. Discharge is the same, 1 1/2 inch pvc. I don't make things easy for myself but, I have what I call a hybrid type system. My pond is 10 feet wide by 17 feet long by 4 feet deep (ruff). if my math is right (horrible at math) I have around 3,000 gal. I live in western NY outside of buffalo. covered the whole thing with a green house roof (clear corrugated roofing weather side, 6" airspace with clear plastic on the inside, non weather side. surrounding the pond and green house-roof is conventional garden. I was hoping to get about 25 catfish. I have two grow beds 4'x8'x 11.5"deep over my pond. my media is hydrocorn (clay media). my pump that feeds the grow beds is a small to medium pool pump. the water fills my grow beds thru the pool vacume that stays in the pond on the bottom. the sand pool filter is on circulation (not filtration). connected to my pool filter discharge is two 1 1/4" discharge lines that go to my conventional garden. I think conventional Aquaponics says i should have about 12-13 grow beds of the size I have with about 600 lb fish! I can't put any more grow beds in or above the pond. My hope was to try the 25 catfish and monitor my water. if nitrates rose to a level too high for my two grow beds I would discharge  water into my conventional garden and eat a fish or two. if my plants were not getting enough food from the 25 catfish....I was going to add fish slowly to try and make things work. Am I totally insane or what?

Harold Sukhbir said:

Hi Gregory,

What size is your standpipe, bell, discharge line etc.? What is the flowrate of the pump? And could you describe your AP configuration?

[Gregory J. Showalter]

My pool pump flow rate is 2,375 GPH and I'm in the process of plumbing in a back up 850 GPH submersible pump to the grow beds.

[Gregory J. Showalter]

Some photos 

[Gregory J. Showalter]

couple more.

[Gregory J. Showalter]

Me in the hole. hand dug last year.

Gregory J. Showalter said:

couple more.

[Keith Rowan]

glad that worked!

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Gregory,

Well, I was not expecting this! What an amazing.....elaborate AP setup! My goodness so much effort........its really very beautiful though. I see you're growing fruiting plants, but your pond is limited by these smaller GB's. I think about 20 fish should work well in your system