stability of the grow bed with an ebb and flow system

[David Greenstein]

Hi,

I'm just setting up a system with a bell siphon and it works as expected but during the grow bed fill cycle, the light weight media rises and even overflows the sides of the grow tray and during the drain cycle, the height of the media collapses to about one half the maximum height. This variation of media depth causes the plants or seed starter cubes to drastically change position and even disappear under the surface of the media. It seems that the light weight of the media is the problem. I was expecting the media to become water logged but that does not seem to have happened. Does anyone have a solution to this problem?

Thanks

Dave G

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

If you are using Hydroton or some variant you should find that if you keep your water line 2 inches below the top of the media it will not move as much. The weight of the dry media should hold down what is underneath.

[David Greenstein]

That makes sense.

Thanks  Jonathan

Jonathan Kadish said:

If you are using Hydroton or some variant you should find that if you keep your water line 2 inches below the top of the media it will not move as much. The weight of the dry media should hold down what is underneath.

[RupertofOZ]

1 inch below the media...  is all that is required

[David Greenstein]

Thanks to you also Ruperto.