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Can anyone tell me how many feet of 4 " pvc I can grow in with a 55 gal. fish tank and can I use plain ole minnows?

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Uh, what sort of seeds do you use to grow 4" PVC?

Sorry seriously, you need filtration, aquaponics, contrary to popular descriptions, is not just fish and plants.  Far more important is the Bacteria and filtration.  See a bio-ponic system can run without fish or without plants for a time but it will not work without filtration to support the nitrogen cycle and keeping the solid gunk off your plant roots.

If you simply pump water from a fish tank into a 4" pvc pipe with plants growing in net pots in the holes, you will soon have a stinky mess and stunted plants and probably dieing fish.

So, I won't tell you how much 4" pvc NFT pipe a 55 gallon fish tank can support since without some good bio-filter, it won't work at all.  A tub of gravel would be a better choice before you add any 4" pvc pipes to anything.

There is a rules of thumb link from the home page that might have some useful info you need or

here is a media system design blog post I did.

I saw an article from perdue university where they were using a clairifier and a biofilter ... Thought I would go that route then run through pvc , think that's ok?

Perhaps.  I've found that most my plants seem to do better in media rather than the NFT or Rafts though so I'm probably not a good one to ask.  The simplicity of having my solids handling, bio-filter and plant growing all in one component (media bed) makes life easy.  If you are removing the solids then you actually need more fish and aeration to support the same amount of plants so for a small backyard system where fish are not your primary goal, it would seem better to simply do media beds instead of needing to do the extra work of cleaning out the clairifier every few days.

I have been researching on a purdue university site and saw they were using a clairifier and a biofilter. Thought I would try that then run thru pvc. Do you think that would be ok or you still think a bed would be better. O  by the way thanks for helping
 
TCLynx said:

Uh, what sort of seeds do you use to grow 4" PVC?

Sorry seriously, you need filtration, aquaponics, contrary to popular descriptions, is not just fish and plants.  Far more important is the Bacteria and filtration.  See a bio-ponic system can run without fish or without plants for a time but it will not work without filtration to support the nitrogen cycle and keeping the solid gunk off your plant roots.

If you simply pump water from a fish tank into a 4" pvc pipe with plants growing in net pots in the holes, you will soon have a stinky mess and stunted plants and probably dieing fish.

So, I won't tell you how much 4" pvc NFT pipe a 55 gallon fish tank can support since without some good bio-filter, it won't work at all.  A tub of gravel would be a better choice before you add any 4" pvc pipes to anything.

There is a rules of thumb link from the home page that might have some useful info you need or

here is a media system design blog post I did.

I don't really know the research you have been reading about.  If it is working for them then I guess it works but I don't really know much about it nor how you would be modifying it to your own purposes and how that would change the function.

I'm going to run a constant flow thru the pvc and I don't know how to figure the area like you would in a grow bed
 
TCLynx said:

I don't really know the research you have been reading about.  If it is working for them then I guess it works but I don't really know much about it nor how you would be modifying it to your own purposes and how that would change the function.

Don't count the area the way you would for say media bed filtration capacity, an NFT pipe's filtration capacity is so minimal that you shouldn't count it for that.  So you are better off trying to figure out how the pipe would compare to say a raft system as far as how many plants you would be growing to try to guess how much nitrate the plants will use up.  This will vary based on type of plants and beware that most larger plants can clog a 4" pipe with roots and cause overflows so the 4" pipes are not recommended for much in the way of big plants even if you are providing overhead support for them.  Even basil can clog a 4" pipe.

My best guess would be to start with say a couple of 5' sections and add on more later if your plants are not using up the nitrates fast enough to keep up with the fish.  Beware that long sections of pip will heat and chill the water depending on time of day/season so I wouldn't run more than say 10' runs with such a small system.  Even so, outdoors that small system will have trouble with temperature stability.

This is a 55 gallon tank with 7 gold fish, 2 ghost shrimp and 1 plecostumus.


 
TCLynx said:

Uh, what sort of seeds do you use to grow 4" PVC?

Sorry seriously, you need filtration, aquaponics, contrary to popular descriptions, is not just fish and plants.  Far more important is the Bacteria and filtration.  See a bio-ponic system can run without fish or without plants for a time but it will not work without filtration to support the nitrogen cycle and keeping the solid gunk off your plant roots.

If you simply pump water from a fish tank into a 4" pvc pipe with plants growing in net pots in the holes, you will soon have a stinky mess and stunted plants and probably dieing fish.

So, I won't tell you how much 4" pvc NFT pipe a 55 gallon fish tank can support since without some good bio-filter, it won't work at all.  A tub of gravel would be a better choice before you add any 4" pvc pipes to anything.

There is a rules of thumb link from the home page that might have some useful info you need or

here is a media system design blog post I did.

I had the same thought. I am going to give the 4" pvc a shot, but do it vertically. What are your thoughts on a vertical, hydrton filled, nft? Still the stinky gunk issue?

The vertical PVC towers with hydrton or gravel still have gunking issues so you probably need the water fairly well filtered to keep from sliming the top and having a problem with the water running down the outside of the tower.

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