redoing my setup and want to get this correct

[Joe Bifano]

I have a 1000 gallon fish tank in the ground with a pump that moves nutrients up to a top media bed that used to be on a slope but just redid it becasue I was getting to many anaerobic pockets in it and was getting clogged with solids. That sloped trough then dumped into 2 4x4x18" media beds just being used as bio-filters. These then gravity feed DWC rafts. I had to choke the pump because it was to much for the setup to handle it.

Now I have the pump moving water up and a T with a Y to the 2 4x4's and then it goes to the top level media bed. The 4x4's have a 1-1/2" auto-siphon's and on the top media bed it has a 1" auto-siphon. I opened the pump full and ball valve the 2 4x4 beds to get the auto-siphons to work and then used a T at the top media bed to split the water coming into it and the excess water just flows back to the fish tank. I am getting most of the water to flow back and can add a ball valve on that so I can get more flow to the top media bed but if I add to much more flow I can't get the top media siphon to break.

The top media bed gravity feeds some new shelf's I made that hold 32 cell trays for starting seedlings. It is made so the lip of the trays are held up by the edge of the wood 3" high with a 1-1/4" PVC pipe in the middle so the tray does not sag down into the water. The 32 cell trays have a 3/8" hole in it that I enlarged to 1" so I can get more roots through to the water. I am using the trays like rafts but they are not floating just suspended with scoria rock in it that wicks up just enough to get what they need to grow. Chris Smith's seedling idea but with trays rather than foam rafts. The reason I have a 1" auto siphon is I thought that it would be better to go to the shelf's and I use another T so most of it goes back to the fish tank with a little flow going to the raft style shelf's.

My flow is from fish tank/sump-bio-filters-rafts+shelf's back to fish tank.

With my T at the top media bed I am just getting water from my fish tank to go to this bed and the majority back to the fish tank and I am thinking that it should get filtered through a swirl filter.

I did not glue the new plumbing so I need input on some new plumbing ideas.

I am thinking that I might want to pump from the low fish tank to an elevated swirl filter. Then gravity feed to my top media bed and then down to my 2 4x4 media/bio-filters then anything that is not used go back to my fish tank all filtered. If I ever add another media bed I can add that extra flow to it that is going back to the fish tank.

Also the fish tank is in the ground with the 2 4x4 bio-filters above it and the top media bed above them.

What are your thoughts on my ideas?  Is there a better way.

[Paul Smith]

Do You have an update on Your system?
How about pictures?