How do I begin

[Dan ONeil]

I want to start up an ebb and flow system and I have a few basic questions, maybe someone could help me with.

 

Is pea gravel an acceptable media. It is plentiful and cheap around here and it would be the media of preference.

 

What is the goal of the ebb and flow design, to flood the growing bed and completely drain it, to fill it partially and drain it partially, is there some minnima and maxxima that we should be trying to achieve, and how frequently should we try to do this, once every hour?

cycling is an issue, everything talks about fishless cycling.  I am planning on using an existing pond that I have in my garage that has had Koi established for many years.  I am hoping that i can start this up without killing them, i am sure that they appreciate my concern.

 

the pond is in ground gravel bottom with a waterfall that i use for aeration, i have a line that goes into the greenhouse that I have used to grow aquatic plants for years so I am wondering if i add the additional growing beds if it will cause any major issues.

 

Comments would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Dan

 

 

[TCLynx]

Is pea gravel an acceptable media. It is plentiful and cheap around here and it would be the media of preference.

 

Pea gravel only describes the size/shape, What is even more important to aquaponics is, will the gravel affect pH or not.  Where I live, the cheap pea gravel is usually limestone which would cause an undesirably high pH.  Also, pea gravel is on the small side for aquaponics.  I've used 1/2" river rock but there are many people who will recommend going to 3/4" gravel.

 

What is the goal of the ebb and flow design, to flood the growing bed and completely drain it, to fill it partially and drain it partially, is there some minnima and maxxima that we should be trying to achieve, and how frequently should we try to do this, once every hour?

You want to flood to about an inch or maybe a bit more below the surface of the gravel (you want the surface of the gravel to stay pretty dry for the most part.)

 

Some people do the flood and drain once an hour using a pump on a timer and a grow bed with a stand pipe the height they want the water to flood to and that has small holes at the bottom so the bed will slowly drain when the pump is off.  Other people will use siphons so they can let the pump run constantly and the siphon will cause the bed to drain rapidly when the water reaches the flood height, this requires balancing siphon size with flow rate of the pump into the bed.

 

cycling is an issue, everything talks about fishless cycling.  I am planning on using an existing pond that I have in my garage that has had Koi established for many years.  I am hoping that i can start this up without killing them, i am sure that they appreciate my concern.

If you already have a bio-filter supporting those fish in the pond (perhaps you have a filter in a skimmer box or up in the waterfall tank?) then adding grow beds shouldn't hurt the fish as long as you make sure everything is clean and you choose a media that doesn't affect pH.  If that pond is already well balanced with water plants and you are not having to do water changes to control the nitrates, then you may find there isn't a whole lot of nutrients left over to feed your veggie grow beds but you may be able to up the feed for the fish or add more fish once your grow beds have cycled on the system for a while.  A nitrate test might tell you more.

 

the pond is in ground gravel bottom with a waterfall that i use for aeration, i have a line that goes into the greenhouse that I have used to grow aquatic plants for years so I am wondering if i add the additional growing beds if it will cause any major issues.

as already noted, if things are well balanced now then you might not have much nutrition left over for your veggies but perhaps you just grow less aquatic plants to get more juice for the veggie beds or up the feed or protein level or get more fish, you will just have to see where it all balances out.

[Dan ONeil]

Thank You, I am sure I will have more questions as I progress, I will keep you posted. This is just a wonderful site, everybody is into the same thing with enough variation to make it really interesting, thank you all.

TCLynx said:

Is pea gravel an acceptable media. It is plentiful and cheap around here and it would be the media of preference.

 

Pea gravel only describes the size/shape, What is even more important to aquaponics is, will the gravel affect pH or not.  Where I live, the cheap pea gravel is usually limestone which would cause an undesirably high pH.  Also, pea gravel is on the small side for aquaponics.  I've used 1/2" river rock but there are many people who will recommend going to 3/4" gravel.

 

What is the goal of the ebb and flow design, to flood the growing bed and completely drain it, to fill it partially and drain it partially, is there some minnima and maxxima that we should be trying to achieve, and how frequently should we try to do this, once every hour?

You want to flood to about an inch or maybe a bit more below the surface of the gravel (you want the surface of the gravel to stay pretty dry for the most part.)

 

Some people do the flood and drain once an hour using a pump on a timer and a grow bed with a stand pipe the height they want the water to flood to and that has small holes at the bottom so the bed will slowly drain when the pump is off.  Other people will use siphons so they can let the pump run constantly and the siphon will cause the bed to drain rapidly when the water reaches the flood height, this requires balancing siphon size with flow rate of the pump into the bed.

 

cycling is an issue, everything talks about fishless cycling.  I am planning on using an existing pond that I have in my garage that has had Koi established for many years.  I am hoping that i can start this up without killing them, i am sure that they appreciate my concern.

If you already have a bio-filter supporting those fish in the pond (perhaps you have a filter in a skimmer box or up in the waterfall tank?) then adding grow beds shouldn't hurt the fish as long as you make sure everything is clean and you choose a media that doesn't affect pH.  If that pond is already well balanced with water plants and you are not having to do water changes to control the nitrates, then you may find there isn't a whole lot of nutrients left over to feed your veggie grow beds but you may be able to up the feed for the fish or add more fish once your grow beds have cycled on the system for a while.  A nitrate test might tell you more.

 

the pond is in ground gravel bottom with a waterfall that i use for aeration, i have a line that goes into the greenhouse that I have used to grow aquatic plants for years so I am wondering if i add the additional growing beds if it will cause any major issues.

as already noted, if things are well balanced now then you might not have much nutrition left over for your veggies but perhaps you just grow less aquatic plants to get more juice for the veggie beds or up the feed or protein level or get more fish, you will just have to see where it all balances out.